What is Royalty Free Music?

It's a question that often comes up time and time again in the world of vlogging, video making, streaming, podcasting, and other forms of media, and in this article we are going to do our very best to answer that question. To start, we must first answer another question.

What is a Royalty?

A royalty is an essentially a payment made to the owner of the rights of any form of intellectual property. This often includes art, songs, books, poems, movies and many other works, and in the case of music, the royalty often has to be paid every time the song is heard. For example, if someone creates a television commercial and uses a specific song on the ad, they generally have to make a deal with whoever owns the right to that track, and that owner will get paid based on how many times that commercial was aired with their music in it. 

Having a popular song as a part of their ad is usually a great way for a company's product to be thought of every time that song plays on the radio, or might even cause the viewer to pay more attention to the ad which can be very profitable for that company/business. However, this can often be very expensive and in order for them to make enough for that type of commercial to be profitable it often times has to run over wide areas, country wide or even international. This is because a higher number of viewers generally means a higher number of sales conversions. The same could be said for subscribers and followers for things like social media, video sharing, and streaming!

For people and businesses without a major companies budget this generally isn't an option, so a great way to solve this problem is to find good catchy royalty free music for their ad which is considerably more affordable and often involves only a one time payment to buy the license to use it.

Intro music is another good example. Catchy and memorable intros can be important for any video and audio based work but if you are using a track in which you have to pay a royalty every time it's played, and if your content goes viral, this can be a major expense.

Who Can Benefit From Royalty Free Tracks?

This option works great for YouTubers, vloggers, Twitch users, streamers, podcasts, independent movie and video game makers and more! Having affordable musical tracks in their work can take their professionalism and quality to the next level without wiping out most of their budget!

For example, a song can be used to help create a certain atmosphere during a part of a video, game, stream, where the viewer needs to be more immersed in the content as it can make the experience more enjoyable and memorable.

It can also benefit those looking to add a certain theme to their videos, or vlogs. For example, a terrifying video that talks about a scary moment in history or an urban legend may be all the more terrifying if it has the right type of scary background music used in it. Or for example, a video that takes it's viewers through the process of creating or making something like a jet powered aircraft or some type of technological invention can benefit from having a high-tech themed track added to it.

Streamers can also benefit greatly from choosing this form of track, especially in streams where there isn't a whole lot of speaking. Having a song going for example during an exploration themed stream or one that is more in the relaxing genre can help your viewers reach the level of relaxation that you mean for them too, and cover up any silent, or dead spaces in the project. This can greatly increase the quality of their streaming and can help increase the amount of time that a viewer spends watching it because they are able to enjoy it more.

Small businesses can also greatly benefit from choosing this option because as stated earlier, it can be very expensive having to pay a royalty every time their ads play and even more expensive if they have multiple ads going.

Independent video game and movie makers can find it very useful having tracks for their work in which they can permanently make apart of their projects. They can do this either by making the one time purchase of a license to use specific music, or by having a studio/composer write and create the music for their work if they have the budget for it. One of the dangers of using music that does not fall under the realm of royalty free is that a deal may fall through for the use of that music, or the rights for the song may change hands. Sometimes that can leave independent film and game makers with the problem of having to replace the tracks before selling more copies of their product.

Why It's A Great Option

 One of the largest benefits of royalty free music for projects like these is again that you often only have to make a one-time payment and you don't have to pay royalties for every time that the track is used. This is ideal especially for those just starting out who may not have a large budget to put towards a track but still want to create content that has the same level of quality and professionalism as those who have been working at it for a while. It's also ideal for those who have been around for a while as it can remove a lot of the stress of operating a large and successful social media channel or stream, or YouTube channel.

When using this option, you are also avoiding copyright infringement and avoiding accidentally stealing other peoples work, especially if you are using the track for any kind of commercial use project, though noncommercial use can also be a problem. It is after all someone else's form of artwork and understandably, they are going to want some form of credit and reimbursement if their work is being used. This is of course perfectly fair, most people wouldn't want their hard work used without getting compensated, and no one wants their work stolen. There are in fact organizations that can be joined to help protect artists from these sorts of issues, including cases where their work is sampled without their permission to be used in things like other music, which unfortunately occurs often. 

Another reason why royalty free music is a great option is that often times something like a video or other work requires multiple tracks with multiple themes or styles to go with the project. Backgrounds and transitions for example are often important parts of these types of projects and for different segments of a video it can be useful to have different styles of tracks. For creators without a large budget, paying royalties for projects like this often times isn't an option so using songs with licenses that only have to be paid for once is a better choice. 

Thank you for reading, and we hope this article has cleared up any questions you may have had. If you have any questions that weren't answered in this article, please feel free to email us at stockmusiccentral@gmail.com.