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Put in the simplest possible way, Royalty-Free Music describes a piece
of music that you can use as much as you want after paying a one-time license
fee. That's the most important thing to know about royalty-free music,
and you could walk away from this article now and probably know enough about
the subject to get by.
But if you want to know a little bit more, read on.
Royalty Free Music was first introduced in the 1980's, when it was more common
for producers and broadcasters to pay a fee for each time they used the same
music. Let's say they were producing a TV show and that TV show had some music
at the beginning of the show, which was repeated again at the end of the show.
They would have to pay the fee once for the music use at the beginning, and
the same fee again for the use at the end. And then, if this TV show was broadcast
once per day, they would then pay the same fees again for each time it was broadcast.
This "traditional" form of music usage fees were often referred to
as "Needle-drop" fees.
When Royalty-Free Music was introduced, it did away with all this, and allowed
producers to pay a one-time license fee for the music, and
then use it as much as they want. Not only does this usually work out a cheaper,
but perhaps an even bigger difference is the convenience. Producers no longer
had to measure each second that the music was used, and calculate fees based
on uses, re-uses, etc. No wonder it quickly became a popular way to obtain music.
A piece of music can only be royalty-free if the composer and publisher has
decided to make this track available on a royalty-free basis. You can't find
music by popular well known music artists on a royalty-free basis, because for
them it makes more sense to maximize their earnings by sticking to a more traditional
setup.
Luckily, there are now web sites,like this one, that offer great selections
of royalty-free music where the licensing procedure is so simple that it would
have been a dream come true for those producers from years gone by, who had
to deal with the huge complexities of needle-drop fees.
When you look for royalty-free music on the internet, though, be sure to read
the small print and to buy from a reputable company. There have been con cases
where people have offered music on a royalty-free basis, and the music wasn't
even theirs to offer -- leading to a run-ins with the law for the companies
who purchased what they in good faith thought was properly cleared royalty-free
music. Unsurprisingly, we recommend buying royalty-free music from ourselves,
Shockwave-Sound.Com, as we have been in business since 2000, use only on-staff
composers/producers, and have established our reputation by serving clients
including BBC, MBNA Bank Plc, IBM, the State of California, Raffles of Singapore,
Estée Lauder, and tens of thousand other small and large companies over
the years.
We hope this has been useful. If you have any questions, you may contact
us.
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