What Is Royalty-Free Music

What is royalty-free music? Is it free to use or not?! Don’t worry, you’ll find all the answers here. Copyright problems are no joke, so make sure you read the whole article. Let’s go!

In this article you’ll find:

What is royalty free music
How to properly license music for your video
What happens if you use music without license
How to show YouTube you own the music license
Where to find royalty free music
Using royalty free music on TV, radio or public event
What Is Royalty Free Music : FAQ

So, what is royalty free music?

Royalty-free music means you pay for it only once, and it can stay in your project forever. Doesn’t matter if your video gets 5 or 5 million views, you will have no additional costs. Before royalty-free music existed, you had to negotiate the terms with the composer and you paid for each music play. With royalty-free music, you have no additional fees. No matter how long you use music, you pay only the initial one-time license.

A lot of people use this term for free music. This makes the already confusing situation even worse. Many people, especially on YouTube offer free music and call it “Royalty-Free”. Technically, it still is royalty-free cause you don’t pay additional fees (royalties) for each play, but that is not what the “royalty-free music” was intended to mean in the first place. Think of it as a Coke Zero! The label says SUGAR-FREE, but you can’t just take it without paying and say: “Hey, it says FREE!” If you get away with that, please let us know! 🙂 But yes, it’s confusing terminology… When people give away music for free, it would be better to just refer to it as “free music” or even “no copyright music”.

Well, I guess it’s too late for that now… So, now that you know that, make sure you read the descriptions/details to find out if the music is completely free or you need to buy a license.

I know what is royalty free music, what about licensing?

Licensing music for your videos is very easy. Find the music you want, buy it, use it. That’s it! There are many royalty-free music markets online. If you search on google you’ll see you have a broad list to choose from. License prices are different, but the majority will give you at least a few licensing options to choose from. TV broadcast license will always cost more than a standard license for web use only. Whatever your need, just find the appropriate license and purchase it. And you are ready to go!

What happens if you use it without a license?

Let’s say you didn’t know what is royalty-free music. You thought it was free, and you just downloaded it from a YouTube video and used it without the license. What happens now? Is your video/project safe? Well, it depends.

Most royalty-free music is protected against unauthorized use, especially on YouTube. The most used copyright protection service is AdRev. So, how it works? AdRev scans all videos on YouTube. If the music is registered there, your video will eventually get a claim.

When the algorithm detects protected music on YouTube and claims it, upload a license certificate to clear claims. All royalty-free music markets will give you a certificate after purchasing as proof you own the rights to use music. If you don’t have it, there are two things that could happen:

Your video could get removed by the music author, and your channel can get a copyright strike.

Your video stays safe, but you can’t monetize it. In that case, ads will run on the video, and collected revenue will go to the music author and AdRev. This will not harm your channel in any way, but it’s bad news if you want to become a YouTube partner and earn money. This is the most common way this is resolved on YouTube.

Most composers will not take your video down, but it’s not worth the risk… Purchase the license and be safe.

If you use royalty-free music without a license on a TV commercial, radio, movie, etc. – you could get in real trouble. It can lead to very expensive lawsuits and all sorts of legal problems. You really don’t want to go down that path.

How to show YouTube you own the license?

So far you’ve learned what is royalty-free music, and all the details about licensing and copyright. But how can YouTube know you own the license? How does it work? Well, it’s a pretty fast and easy process! Takes about a minute and a few clicks. If AdRev claims your video, clear that following these steps:

Go to this page: https://adrev.net/contact-us
Fill out the required info (video url, email, name)
Upload PDF license certificate (“SELECT A FILE“)
In the message field, simply write “I own the license to use music”
Can’t find your certificate? If you bought music on WaveToys, download it here: https://wavetoysmusic.com/purchase-history/

Once you’ve done that, you will be able to monetize your videos. Claims are usually removed within few hours, but sometimes it can take 24-96 hours. You don’t have to wait to get copyright notification on your video. Do the same steps right after uploading the video. (It works with unlisted videos) That way you can prevent claims, so you won’t have to clear them after.

It may seem to you like time-consuming, but it really isn’t. As a matter of fact, if the music isn’t protected now, it’s often added to Content ID later. If the composer suddenly protects music, you will get claims on your videos. Imagine you have hundreds of videos, and they get claims all at once… It’s better to spend a minute on each new video. This way you know your videos are safe forever, and you don’t have to think about it anymore.

The other way:

If the composer has music protected with some other service than AdRev, which is not the case with WaveToys, file a dispute directly via YouTube. Find instructions here: https://help.market.envato.com/hc/en-us/articles/204484680

Where to get royalty free music

Many places on the web sell royalty-free music. The terms and prices are a bit different, as well as the overall quality of music. Here are some options:

WaveToys Music makes your life easier!

In WaveToys Music shop, you can find many genres of music that you like or need. On WaveToys you can buy a subscription
We are launching a new song every week, so stay tuned! We take great pride in our support and we’ll solve any problem you might have and answer all your questions.

It should be enough to get started. We will cover all places to buy royalty-free music in the next article, so stay tuned!

Using royalty free music on TV, radio or public event

You learned what is royalty-free music, how to license it, where to get it… That should be all, right? Well, there is one more thing! These days, royalty-free music is in almost all tv and radio commercials. It’s an important part of video marketing and advertising in general.

Chances are you are reading this article to find information about the music you can use in TV commercials. If so, there is one thing you should keep in mind.

Performance Rights Organisations. (P.R.O.) Most known are BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC. Their job is to make sure the authors get paid for their work. Make sure you deliver correct info about the author’s name and song title. That way, music plays can be reported.

Remember, this doesn’t cost you a thing. Money TV houses, radios, restaurants, bars pay to use music is shared among all authors, according to how much the music was broadcasted. Again, all you need to do is provide the correct info about the used song, and you’re done. Here’s an example:

You bought a song from WaveToys. The title of the song is “Powerslide”. You made a commercial for TV and radio. Provide this info to them:

Title: Powerslide

Composer: WaveToys

What is royalty free music: FAQ

General questions:

Can I use the same music in multiple videos?

It depends on the place where you buy it. Some markets sell licenses for only one end product (your video or project), while others allow multiple usages. You’ll find this info on each market when buying a license. If they say something like “Use in ONE end product”, you’ll have to buy another license if you want to make another video containing the same music.

If “Use in one end product” is the case, you can still upload your video to different places. You just can’t create another different video with the same license.

Example: You bought a license and made a vlog about make-up. A week later you are making a video tutorial about installing windows 10. For that second video, you’ll need another license. That being said, if you created an intro for all your videos, you can use it in as many videos as you want, as long it’s the same material. Want to create a new intro for videos? Buy another license.

We offer you 3 subscription plans!
It’s more affordable than a single license.
As long as you are subscribed, you can use any of our songs you need. The videos that are uploaded when you were an active subscriber, will be protected forever.

I purchased music a while ago, and it’s not available for download anymore. How come?

Authors sometimes edit, update or remove music from community-driven marketplaces like AudioJungle. So, download music as soon as you buy it and store it on your computer. You will always be able to download documentation and certificates, but the actual files may be removed at some point from the market. The author has the right to remove music at any point, so keep that in mind.

Will my license expire?

No. As a matter of fact, that’s the beauty of royalty-free music! Your video can be online forever, and your music license doesn’t expire.

YouTube usage questions:

Do I have to submit license certificate to AdRev for each video?

Yes. If you use the same song on multiple videos, submit a certificate for each video to enable monetization. If you are a loyal customer of one composer, ask them to whitelist your channel on AdRev so you won’t have to do this. Keep in mind, some channels can’t be whitelisted if they used a lot of music from different authors.

Can I just give credit in the descriptions if I use it for non-commercial project?

Royalty-Free markets don’t allow this. You must purchase a license if you want to use it. If you are looking for this kind of music, you should search for creative commons music.

Do I need to give credit in my descriptions?

It’s not necessary. Still, we encourage you to do it. If you liked the music, spreading the word and linking to the author’s channel will help the composer to do better in a very competitive and saturated industry. It doesn’t hurt your video, so why not do it?

Conclusion

OK, that’s all! Now you know what is royalty-free music and all the things you need to do to stay safe and keep your videos up and running for a long time. Was this helpful? Please be kind, share it on your social media and blogs! Equally important, leave a comment below if we missed some information.

If you have any questions about our music, feel free to contact us here. We respond really fast!

If you want to read more articles about what is royalty-free music, here are articles on the same topic from our friends:

https://legismusic.com/whats-music-copyright-royalty-free/

https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/what-is-royalty-free-music/