Royalty free music is a popular solution among video creators, filmmakers, advertising agencies, and businesses who want to legally use professional music in their projects.
Below, we’ll explain exactly what royalty free music is, how licensing works, its advantages, and what to consider when selecting tracks for your film productions. This will help you avoid legal misunderstandings and choose music perfectly suited to your needs.
Royalty free music consists of tracks that you can legally use in your projects – both personal and commercial. In practice, this means you pay once for a license and can use the track multiple times without time restrictions, according to its terms. Purchasing a specific royalty free music license gives you the right to copy (mechanical rights) and synchronize the track with video (synchronization rights) within your project. You pay for these rights once, upon license purchase.
A royalty free music license isn’t one universal license type – everything depends on the specific application and intended use of the music. Therefore, it’s crucial to review the scope of rights you receive before purchasing a license for a particular track. Below we present our licensing options that cover the most common areas of royalty free music usage.
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Online
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If you’re creating a film for personal use and plan to publish it exclusively online – the BASIC license will be best. If you’re producing a project for yourself or your client, want to use it in paid online advertising, video games, publish on DVD, or use during public performance – the STANDARD license is appropriate. If your film will be broadcast on TV, radio, or paid streaming – choose the Premium license.
PRO (Performing Rights Organization) are organizations that act on behalf of authors, composers, and music publishers to collect royalties for their work used during public performance.
If the music author (composer) is affiliated with such an organization, the royalty free music license covers mechanical rights and synchronization rights. However, if the track is publicly performed (e.g., played on television, in restaurants, during live events, etc.), the entity conducting the public performance may be obligated to pay licensing fees to the PRO representing the author. Royalty free music license users in most cases don’t need to worry about additional public performance fees, as these obligations lie with the entity publicly playing the music (which should have appropriate collective licensing from PRO).
In case of film broadcast on TV, radio, or music playback in public places (restaurants, bars, stores, clubs, gyms, hotels, shopping centers) – please provide the following information to identify the music author:
Milosz Pawski – BMI IPI: 367859696
This will enable the broadcaster or entity responsible for public performance to complete appropriate documentation and settle formal matters with PRO.
In practice, for most users purchasing royalty free music for video projects, advertisements, or podcasts, the fact that the author is in PRO doesn’t generate any additional licensing costs. It’s the entities that publicly broadcast or play these tracks (TV stations, radio stations, etc.) that must have appropriate licenses from PRO. In our specific case, Miłosz Pawski, composer and producer of all tracks in our library, is affiliated with BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) – one of the largest performing rights organizations in the United States.
We’ve been creating royalty free music for decades. This invaluable experience has allowed us to understand and identify specific needs and requirements that filmmakers place on music. Hundreds of completed productions have reached thousands of film realizations, and we continue striving to meet our clients’ ever-evolving expectations. We hope you’ll join their ranks, and we’ll contribute to realizing more valuable projects.
