There are many misconceptions circulating about royalty-free music. In this article, we will try to explain exactly what royalty-free music is. Briefly, Royalty-Free Music is a type of music license that allows the buyer to pay for the music license only once and use the music as much as they want, for as long as they want. For example, you can acquire legal music services from our website, vivamedya.com
Most importantly, what royalty-free music does not mean:
Royalty-Free Music is not “License-Free” or free of charge. Just like a “tax-free” product isn’t free, it’s just exempt from tax. And yes, some people might offer their music for free. For example, a composer might offer you their music for free for your student film to get a reputable credit on their list of works.
Royalty-Free Music is not necessarily Stock Music. While many royalty-free music tracks come from music libraries like vivamedya.com, they are not synonymous. A music library is one that offers music that is already in stock – already made and ready to be licensed and used. Although some people negatively view stock music as cheap “canned music,” this is not necessarily the case at all. They feature a full range of music quality, from very amateur, poorly mixed music to highly professional music titles. Stock music simply means it’s not “custom” music created specifically for a particular product – film, commercial, TV show… Many stock music libraries offer their music royalty-free, but other libraries offer their music on a rights-managed or “per-use” basis, depending on the frequency of use and the scope of the project.
Music without copyright does not always mean royalty-free music. We are not sure if there is such a thing as “copyright-free” music, only music whose copyright holder makes it available for free use. Because under international copyright law, anyone who creates a piece of music automatically owns the copyright to that music. The creator might not care and may state that anyone can use their music for any purpose, essentially releasing it for free use if they wish. However, this does not make it copyright-free. A copyright-holding composer may still wish to collect royalties for the public performance of their music via Performing Rights Organizations (PROs). Even sound recordings of music in the public domain are not necessarily free from copyright. The composition might be out of copyright (in the public domain), but the sound recording itself (also known as the master) might still be protected.
Royalty-free music is not a specific genre of music – it can be any genre, from classical to rock. Instead, it refers to a type of “music licensing” for commercial use. Commercial use here means the music is not just for personal use (at home, in the car, on an iPod). Personal use is the right you typically get when you buy a music CD or pay for and download music from platforms like iTunes. This does not grant you broader rights for commercial applications (like your website, videos, slideshows, TV shows, etc.).
Royalty-free music is not low-quality music.
All music can be licensed as royalty-free music. The good, the bad, and the ugly. This choice of music license has nothing to do with the quality of the music itself. Quality varies greatly from library to library. The quality of library music has more to do with the management policies – whether the music is hand-picked or not, whether the composers are selected or not.
Royalty-Free Music is not necessarily cheap music. Royalty-free music can be licensed at any price. It is not a pricing structure, just a licensing model. However, music licensed under the royalty-free model is often affordable and accessible to many.
