If you’re looking for background music for your YouTube video or podcast, but you don’t want to get caught up in a licensing deal, royalty free music is for you.
And while it can be tricky to find the exact right song to match your video or podcast, there are a number of great libraries online, such as TuneReel.com, that curate and catalog a wealth of royalty free music, proving you with production ready, royalty free music for your situation, whether it be video, film, TV, radio, YouTube, podcasts, or any other multimedia.
But what exactly is royalty free music, and what does that mean for your production? Let’s take a look.
What does “royalty free” really mean?
Typically when you use a piece of music in a production, you would need to pay a royalty fee for licensing that particular track.
However, when you go through a royalty free music company, they handle the royalty side of the transaction, either by sourcing material where the writer has waived their rights to getting paid for the work, or by paying the writer directly so you don’t have to.
This means you don’t have to keep track of payments and licensing long term – you just secure the usage once and you’re ready to move on.
Can you use royalty free music for commercial use?
Typically, yes. Just because your particular production is monetized, such as a YouTube video, a commercial for a corporate client, or a film project, that doesn’t change your rights to use the music once it has been acquired from the royalty free music company.
There’s also a common misconception that any instrumental music, or music that sounds like it’s been made for commercial use is free to use. This is incorrect, you really do need to secure a license for any music you want to use, but buying that one time license will save you ongoing headaches.
Do you have to pay for royalty free and copyright free music?
The word “free” in “royalty free music” doesn’t typically mean you get it for free, more so that you are free to use it without making ongoing payments once you have purchased the right to use the piece of music.
When we refer to a piece of music as “royalty free”, we mean that you do not need to make an ongoing payment to the creator for it’s use, but you would normally need to pay a one time fee up front to gain access to and use the song on an ongoing basis. However, this does free you up on the long term, and can often be much cheaper than paying an ongoing royalty.
What about public domain and Creative Commons music?
While there is free music to be had either marked as public domain or within the Creative Commons system, these can have large pitfalls and glaring downsides.
For public domain music, you’ll often find either the available tracks are extremely old (pre-1923), or marketplaces for public domain music have so much low quality music available that turning up the right track for your project takes significantly longer than it’s worth.
For Creative Commons, there are often attribution rules that can be difficult to keep up with in a commercial setting, or the actual terms of usage are quite murky, leaving you open to future claims from the creator.
Final Thoughts on Royalty Free Music
Whatever your project is, from YouTube to TV ads, finding the right music is key, and putting the time in to secure a one time license for that music will save you time and money in the long run.
