I license my music with royalty-free scheme on Audiojungle and Pond5.
These two sites are the best ones I have found amongst all the other.
They have two different kind of licenses and different prices. It definitely depens on you, which one do you prefer and which kind of license do you need.
Have a look at Pond5 license agreement
Have a look at Audiojungle license agreement
In a nutshell:
Audiojungle
Audiojungle has a very cheap standard license (18$ maximum), suitable for most personal use. It says: "Use in one end product, free or commercial. Most web uses. 10,000 copy limit for a downloaded or physical end product. No broadcast use. The total price includes the item price and a buyer fee."
It has different license type depending on the use music use (refer to webiste!)
You can use the music in only 1 end-product, regardless of the license type
Standard/cheapest license can NOT be use for TV/radio broadcast, broadcast advertising and online equivalents
Number of copies of downloaded or physical products depends on license type
For Theatrically released film you need a very expensive special license (Music Broadcast and Film)
Pond5
Very simple: You pay once and use the music any times you want, wherever you want
The license says: "We hereby grant you a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual right and license (the "License") on the terms and subject to the conditions and limitations set out in this Agreement, to, an unlimited number of times: (i) directly or indirectly create Works for Distribution incorporating the Content, (ii) use, copy, modify, manipulate, couple, synchronize, publish, publicly display and perform, transmit, broadcast, telecast and distribute the Content within such Works For Distributions, (iii) permit third parties to do the foregoing subject to the conditions and limitations set out in this Agreement, and (iv) use the Content Information internally to facilitate the foregoing with regard to Content obtained from us."
My pond5 music is more expensive than the standard audiojungle license, but usually cheaper than audiojungle Music Broadcast license.
For any question write me an email!
What is royalty-free music?
Royalty Free Music refers to a type of music licensing that allows the purchaser to pay for the music license only once and to use the music for as long as desired. For example you purchase a Royalty Free Music license for a video on your website. You pay one single price whether you have 100 visitors or 10,000 visitors, and whether you use the music for 1 month or 10 years.
Or you purchase a TV advertising license for your new restaurant. You pay once and the commercial can play once a week or 50 times a week, for 3 months or for 5 years. You pay once and you use it for as long as you want.
The term “Royalty Free” is confusing for more reasons than one. In fact it simply means “Free of Royalty”. The term is in opposition to “rights managed” licensing where the purchaser pays fees (royalties) according to the number of times it will be used as well as the size of the territory. With Rights Managed licensing or “Needle Drop” licensing you would need to pay a fee every time the music is used or as the old term expressed every time the “needle is dropped” on the record.
It is a term that refers to production music that has no additional fees to pay once the music has been bought (licensed). It is purchased once and (depending on the license or company selling it) can be either used a single or multiple times. Since it has no additional license payments it is classed as ‘royalty free music’
Traditionally, production music had to be licensed each time it was used as part of a production or broadcast. For instance, TV programmers would have to pay a ‘Needle drop fee’ each time the music was used as part of a broadcast i.e. every time the needle was dropped on the record! The disadvantage is that it could be expensive and time consuming.
Royalty Free Music is simply a way to make licensing music easier, cheaper and more convenient.
The convenience of Royalty Free music means that it is an excellent solution for most production companies. The music is usually composed especially to work with TV, film, radio, computer games or multimedia. Its very composition targets certain moods, genres or themes. It is tailor-made for that exact purpose and fits the criteria of most production music needs.
Just as importantly here is what Royalty Free Music does NOT mean…
Royalty Free Music is NOT free!
It is “Free of Royalty” not cost free. Just like a fat free cookie is “free of fat” not free of cost. Or a “tax free” product is not free, it is just free of taxes. And yes some people may be offering their music for free – whether it is also Royalty Free or not! For example a composer may be offering you his music for free for your College film in exchange for listing his work in the credits.
Royalty Free Music is NOT Copyright Free music
I am not sure there is such a thing as “Copyright free” music since anyone who creates a piece of music automatically owns the Copyright for that music. The creator may not care and say that anyone can use his music for any purpose. In this case the Copyright owner is giving you the “right to copy” his music for any purpose. So it may be free to use but that does not make it free of Copyright. And this does not mean that the composer has given up his Performing Rights if his music ends up a background music on television for example. The composer as the Copyright owner may want to receive his composers royalties for the public performance of his music. Even the recordings of Public Domain music are not Copyright Free. The composition may be Copyright Free but not the actual sound recording (also called the Master).
Royalty Free Music is NOT a specific type of music
It can be music in any genre from Classical to Heavy Metal to Country music. Instead it is a type of “Music Licensing” for commercial use. Commercial use here means using the music for more than your private usage (your home, your car, your iPod). Private usage is the right you get when you purchase a music CD or pay and download your music from iTunes for example. That does not provide you with any broader rights (your website, your videos, your slideshows, TV shows, etc.).
Royalty Free Music is NOT poor quality music
Any music can be licensed as Royalty Free music. The good the bad and the ugly. This choice for music licensing has strictly nothing to do with the quality of the music itself. The quality will vary enormously from one library to the other. The quality of library music has more to do with management policies, whether the music is hand-picked or not, whether composers are screened or not, etc.
Royalty Free Music is NOT cheap music
Royalty free music can licensed at any price. It is not a price structure, it is simply a licensing model. You can find Royalty Free music for $30 and you can find it for $600. It has nothing to do with pricing, it has to do with the licensing model of not charging royalties each time the music is used. This being said most of the time music licensed with a Royalty Free model is inexpensive and affordable for most people.
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