(To download these license terms as a printable PDF file, click
here.)
Shockwave-Sound.com offers music licensing under two different license types:
The Standard License or the Mass Market
license.
Standard License:
Grants permission for most commercial uses. Includes Synchronization ("Sync
License"), products for sale or give away up to 5,000 copies, use on
web site (one site)*, internet video (YouTube, MySpace, Google Video, MetaCafe
etc), corporate video/presentation, educational, shareware/freeware game,
single location music-on-hold, trade show/presentation, podcast, student
film and film festivals. You may sell up to 5,000 physical products or downloadable
products that contain the music. You may broadcast the audio on local and
regional radio/TV (up to 200 miles/320 km radius).
The license lasts in perpetuity.
* (If you have a website based in the United Kingdom, please read additional
“Note on UK based web sites” below).
Mass Market License:
This is a license for Mass Market use. It grants all rights included in
the Standard License, plus national and world wide radio/TV broadcast, multiple
location music-on-hold, multiple web sites, reproduction of an unlimited
number of items for sale or give-away, and theatrical release license.
What you cannot do with our music, EVEN under
the Mass Market License:
You may not trade in the music itself:
You may not trade in the music, i.e. to sell it as a music track, include
it on a music CD for sale, offer it for sale or licensing through a web
site, or other means of trading in the music as a music product.
You may not include our music with a Website Template
You may not include our music in a Website Template which is subsequently
offered for sale to multiple end-users. You may however use our music
in a unique website that you build for your client (one end-client).
You may not create derived works:
You are not allowed to create derived works of our music. What
this means is that if you are a musician, music producer, rapper, singer
etc, you cannot buy our music, add your own voice/instruments, and then
treat that as your own music. What you are doing then is to create new
music that is partially built on our music. This is known as "creating
derived works" and it is not allowed.
You are however allowed to use our music as background
music and add your voice over the music in products such as healing/meditation
tapes, self-help tapes, audio-books and similar. Here, even though you
have added your voice over the music, you have not created new music based
on our music - you haven't created derived musical works - so these uses
are fine.
Note on UK based websites:
As of spring 2008, the PRS (Performance Rights Society) in the UK now collects
broadcasting fees from UK companies using music on UK web sites. This means
that even if you buy a license from us, you also need to buy an Online License
from the PRS in order to use music on your site. This applies to all music
composed by any composer who is a member of any performance rights society
world wide, which includes most of our composers. The PRS Online license
typically costs £53 per year and you can obtain this license by filling
in a simple PRS Online License Application form which you can download here.
This only applies to persons or businesses in the United Kingdom using
music on UK web sites. Also, even if you are using music on a UK based
web site, you may still avoid PRS fees by using music composed by those
of our composers who are not members of any performance rights society.
(See the completely royalty-free
page.)
Note on German trade shows:
In Germany the organization GEMA collects money from businesses playing
music in public at trade fairs. Typically in most of the world, the venue
would already have a license which covers the companies that display at
the trade shows, but in Germany there are some occasions where it's the
company that has the booth where music is played, that has to pay a GEMA
fee. This fee is typically €30 per day to play music from a big screen
at your booth. To completely avoid any chance of having to pay a GEMA fee
when playing music at a German trade show, you can use music by those of
our composers who are not members of any performance rights society. (See
the completely royalty-free page.)
About giving away our music on custom label
CD's:
Whether you buy the Standard or the Mass Market License, the license is
for one company or person to use the music within
their own media, such as web site, film, advertisement, animation, game,
etc. It is not a license to simply duplicate our music
as it is.
We are sometimes asked whether it is acceptable to license music from us,
put that music on a music CD, and sell or give away that CD as a promotional
gift. The answer to this is:
- If you are creating a music CD to give away for free as a promotional
gift (for example, you want to include a free music CD as a bonus gift
to somebody who buys a product from you, or just as a gift to your clients),
this use is not covered under our Standard License or Mass Market License.
Such use comes under the giveaway promotions license,
which is detailed on the giveaway promotions
license page.
- If you add your voice over the music (say, a therapy CD or self-help
CD with spoken words mixed over the music), this is okay under our Standard
License and Mass Market License.
Broadcasting and cue-sheets:
Most (not all) of our composers are members of Performance Rights Organizations
(PRO's). Whenever their music is broadcast on TV or radio, you are required
to fill in a cue-sheet and hand this cue-sheet over to the broadcasting
company along with your film/program. This represents no
additional cost, neither to you, nor to the broadcaster, but it is very
important to our composers. If you want to know more about this, please
read our notes about cue sheets and public performance.
YouTube, MySpace, Google Video and similar
video sites
You are welcome to use our music in videos and post the videos to sites
like this, and you only need our Standard License to do that. However, it's
important that you include information about the music used (track title,
name of composer, name of publisher) when you upload your video to YouTube
and enter the information into YouTube's system. Assuming correct information
is given to YouTube, the composer will earn a "micro payment"
from YouTube when the video is watched. This micro-payment is paid by
YouTube - not by you. YouTube, in turn, gathers money from advertisers
on their site.
It is therefore a requirement of this license that the track title(s),
composer name and publisher name are correctly entered when you submit a
video that contains our music to YouTube and similar video hosting services.
You can find the composer- and publisher-info on page 2 of the Invoice/License
document that is made available to you after you make a purchase on our
site. If in doubt, feel free to ask us.
Flash games and other freeware/shareware online
games:
A lot of games are being developed today which are free to play, but are
Ad-sponsored and thus somewhat commercial even though they are not “sold”
directly to the playing public. The license type required by these games
depends on the amount of Ad revenue or sponsorship earned by the game. A
game with income of up to USD 750 (or equivalent in other currency) needs
only our Standard License. A game with income of more than USD 750 (or equivalent
in other currency) needs our Mass Market License. If you don’t yet
know how much revenue your game will make, you can start with the Standard
Licensee, and then come back and upgrade to the Mass Market License if and
when necessary. (Click “add to cart” on the product and then
choose the “Upgrade” option)..
Editing/changing the music:
You may edit our music (fade, crop, cut, stretch, loop) etc. to fit your
required cue lengths.
You may however not use our music as a basis on which to create new music.
(See “You may not create derived works” above).
Credits:
Except where practically impossible or unfeasible, the composer shall always
have a credit for his work. Crediting Shockwave-Sound.com is not required,
but appreciated.
Privacy:
We take our customers and users privacy seriously. At no time will your
personal details or e-mail address be passed onto any other company. As
a new customer, you will be added to our own internal mailing list for our
monthly music newsletter. This newsletter can easily be unsubscribed from,
by following simple instructions included with each newsletter.
We only hold details of our customers' e-mail address, shipping address
and telephone number. At Shockwave-Sound we never get to see any financial
data such as credit card numbers. These are gathered and processed by our
e-commerce partners PayPal, 2checkout or WorldPay. For information regarding
their privacy policies, please refer to their websites.
Refund policy:
After you have placed an order, you may cancel any item that
you have not yet downloaded and get a refund. If you wish to cancel a
purchase of one or more items, simply use the cancellation process described
in the email that is automatically sent to you when you place an order. This
must be done before the product is downloaded.
Like other shops that sell downloadable products, we do not refund or exchange
any product that has been downloaded. Once the download has taken place,
the purchase is final.
Disclaimer of consequential damages:
Shockwave-Sound.Com are under no circumstances liable for any damages,
consequential or incidental, arising out of the use of the audio or inability
to use the audio including without limitation, computer failure, work stoppage
or any other damages, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.
Because some states and countries do not allow the exclusion for limitation
of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation
may not apply to you.
Limitation on liability:
Shockwave-Sound.Com's liability shall in NO event exceed the actual price
paid for the license.
If you have any questions on how you may or may not use our music, please
contact us.
(To download these license terms as a printable PDF file, click
here.)
