In copyright law, a mechanical license is a license from the holder of a copyright of a composition or musical work, to another party to create a "cover song", reproduce, or sample a portion of the original composition. It applies to copyrighted work that is neither a free/open source item nor in the public domain. Concept Most modern music consists of two distinct copyright elements. One is the composition itself, which consists of both the musical composition and the lyrics, each which may have separate copyrights. The second is the sound recording, which covers both tangible copies ("phonorecord") of the performance of the work (such as vinyl albums, cassette tapes, CDs, and digital formats like MP3s) and public performances of the recording (such as over the radio). The copyright between the composition and the sound recording is frequently held by different parties. A mechanical license is a license provided by the holder of the copyright of the composition or musical work to another party to cover, reproduce, or sample specific parts of the original composition. Within copyright law within the United states, such mechanical licenses are compulsory; any party may obtain a license without permission of the license holder by paying a set license fee, that as of 2018, was set at 9.1 cents per composition or 1.75 cents per minute of composition, whichever is more, which are to go to the composition copyright holder. These fees are paid to agencies like the Harry Fox Agency, who either already represent the composition copyright holders, or are able to direct the funds to the right party. Mechanical licenses do not apply the sound recording portion of the composition, and instead a separate non-mechanical license must be sought from the copyright holder of the sound recording (typically, the musical performer or their agency representing them). For example: Puff Daddy wants to sample the opening riff from “Every Breath You Take” by The Police. He contacts the copyright holder of the underlying musical work and gets a mechanical license to use all or part of The Police’s song in his composition. He now has the right to reproduce all or part of “Every Breath You Take” in his new song. He cannot, however, purchase The Police’s Greatest Hits, take the CD (or MP3 from iTunes) into the studio, pull the track off of the phonorecord, and sample the riff into his new song.