It all depends on what you are going to do with the song. Take a look:
Rights Type Explanation
Publishing Rights The owner of a song's Publishing owns the rights to the Composition. These rights need to be cleared in almost all instances.
Master Rights
(a.k.a. Recording Rights) The owner of a song's Master Rights owns the song's sound recording. That means that if you want to use the song as you know it by the original artist, you must clear the Master Rights. Clearing the Master Rights does not include Publishing Rights. Master Rights are useless to the requestor without the Publishing Rights.
