The Best Royalty-Free Music Sites

Royalty-free music subject to copyright or other intellectual property rights may be used without the need to pay royalties or license fees for each use, per each copy or volume sold, or some time period of use or sales.

Production music (also known as stock music or library music) is recorded music that can be licensed to customers for use in film, television, radio, and other media. Oftentimes, the music is produced and owned by production music libraries.

In our article you'll find out what the best royalty-free music is.

With the proliferation of music libraries in recent years and the increase in competition, some smaller libraries have evolved the royalty-free music model. These libraries do not charge their customers for licensing the music. Instead, the customers purchase a CD or access to an electronic collection of music - priced typically between 50 and 300 dollars - whose content is licensed in perpetuity for them to synchronize as often they wish. These libraries depend mainly on performance royalties for their income (with a small amount of income from sales of physical CDs or online track downloads). Assuming that the music is broadcast, royalties are paid on the music, though it is the broadcaster who pays them via annual fees to the performing rights societies, not the producer who uses the music in their production.

Some companies offer truly royalty-free music that is not registered with any performance rights organization (also known as "royalty collection agencies"). These companies license music to their customers on a non-exclusive basis where it can be used in perpetuity without any usage reporting. The music is licensed by the customers according to an accepted license agreement, and they cannot sell it or license it to others. Because of advancing technology, it is becoming easier for independent musicians to set up their own shops through which they can license music.

Non-exclusive production music libraries enable a composer to sign a non-exclusive agreement allowing the artist to license the same piece to other libraries and clients with the same non-exclusive agreement. In other words, their intellectual property (their composition) can be licensed to multiple clients simultaneously, provided that they are not contractually bound by an exclusive agreement with another company. The non-exclusive library doesn't own the rights outside of the licenses that are made by that library. Typically the library does not pay for the piece, and the artist doesn't get any payment until the piece is licensed at which point the library and the artist split the license fee equally. Libraries typically require the artist to rename the piece in effect creating a unique artistic work for the library to register with their PRO (BMI, ASCAP, SESAC). Should the composer want to enter the piece into an exclusive agreement with a library or client, they would first need to remove that piece from all non-exclusive agreements.

An advantage to using a non-exclusive library is the possible broad exposure through multiple outlets, and the ability of the artist to retain control. Conversely, if an artist sells his/her piece to an exclusive library he/she is paid upfront for the piece but the artist typically sells the publishing rights, hence losing control of the piece and future licensing fees.

Read on and find some of the best royalty-free music subscription sites.