It’s a tricky question of judgment and fairness with no definitive answer. Getting the right balance and charging the right royalty-free music license fee can be difficult. Make it too low, you upset composers, but make it too high, you upset clients. It is competitive out there so the temptation is to create a low […]
PRS Background Music vs. Royalty Free Music
Can I avoid PRS / PPL fees by playing royalty free music in my venue? It is often an assumption that any royalty-free music can be played in public as background music, avoiding the cost of PRS / PPL fees. As with many things related to music licensing, there is a little more to it. […]
I have been given some royalty free music. Can I use it in my audio-visual project?
As an audio producer, I am sometimes given music from clients to mix with their project, for example, a voice over with background music. When I ask if they have the appropriate license, they sometimes reply “I found it on the web”, “it was given to me by a friend”, “it’s free to use because […]
Understanding Royalty Free Music: Industry Recognised but Widely Misunderstood
As mentioned in my previous post Understanding Royalty Free Music: A Slice of Royalty Pie, the term ‘Royalty Free Music‘ has become an industry recognised term, but people’s understanding of it varies considerably depending on their experience and knowledge of the subject. A lot of people may not be aware that there is no standard […]
Understanding Royalty Free Music: A Slice of Royalty Pie
From my previous post you should now have an understanding of the concept of copyright & music licensing. This post will explain how copyright is broken down into areas, its implications on music licensing for new media developers and how royalty free music emerged. Think of music royalty income as a pie that can be […]
Understanding Royalty Free Music Licensing: Introduction
At a time when copyright infringement is frequent news, when media usage and music requirements are converging, the last thing a busy media industry professional wants to do is collate a vast array of fragmented, conflicting and confusing information just to understand copyright and its implications on music use in their multimedia projects. As a […]
Royalty Free Music – What is it, how does it work & what are its issues?
Audio version [7:56] This article is not like others in its subject… It is not going to be a sales brochure that paints a nice bright picture of how simple it is to use royalty free music for everything. I certainly think that royalty free music licensing is a good idea and I do advocate […]
10 Quick Tips for using music on your website
Love it or Loathe it, websites are becoming more media focused and music is becoming more common on the web. As broadband speeds increase, the web is becoming alive with the sound of music, glossy images and streaming video. Welcome to the online future! Tip 1 – Enhance it! Have music or sound if you […]