Royalty-free music

What royalty-free music means

Completely Royalty-free music or so called PRO-free music means that you as the user of the music track will only pay a one-time fee for the usage of the music as long as you use it within the terms of the license bought. Proud Music does not offer rights-managed or needledrop licensing, where literally costs would occur for every single usage.

In terms of modern cross-media usage, royalty-free music is safe, reliable and comes with a clear license statement for you as music user. Royalty-Free Music is sometimes referred to as license-free music which is a wrong term, as a license is always needed, but used commonly anyway.

Two types of royalty-free music

There are two types: Completely Royalty-Free Music or so calles PRO-free music - grey listed tracks on our library - where the composer is NOT registered with a collecting society (PRO) and tracks from PRO-registered composers – marked yellow.

All completely royalty free music tracks rights can be licensed directly from Proud Music with no further license fees for you. For both kinds, sync right are always cleared upfront with no additional cost, however performance royalties may be attributable in the second case, depending on the type of usage and your country's royalty collecting society.

Royalty Free Music License

If you are correct, you can not say "I buy music". This is about a legal purchase. you buy the right to use. But the right to use must be embodied - like a ticket to a baseball game. Therefore, our purchase comes with a pdf license agreement that shows you the details of your license certificate, the rights included and details about the track. You can forward this to your client, if you are creating productions for them so you have a proof of the correct license issued. The definition of royalty free music denotes a onetime licensing fee. This form of licensing differs from the traditional one in that earlier, licensing was paid for every minute, second and moment of use of a particular work of music. But the term can be misleading. Royalty free does not mean that broadcasting time, for example, is completely free.

Networks and radio stations pay for a license that allows them to broadcast that music at particular times and at particular moments. They are required to keep track of the number of broadcasts on a cue sheet so that music broadcast can be recorded properly and then, royalties are distributed accordingly to the musicians, composers, and music publishers. In other words, royalty free music means that you pay in this case a onetime licensing fee, but to use in your own productions regardless of how often you use it. Still, in this manner, royalty free music is made more accessible to the common public. Whether you are a teacher in a classroom who would like to make presentations more dynamic, a student working on a project, a friend working on a special present, or if you are trying to find the right way to propose by creating the appropriate mood, royalty free music helps you achieve your goal.

Royalty-free means not free music

Royalty-free means not that the piece of music is free to use. The most royalty-free music tracks are registered with a domestic or foreign collecting society. This means that the use of a piece of music must be reported with a registration form (=cue sheet) to the local collecting society, e.g. ASCAP.

When using royalty-free music in commercials or advertisements, although the use of the license price is often limited but already clarified, so that there will be no complicated negotiations with rights holders muß (pre-cleared music). That's why this is called rather Production Music. or Stock Music. But Stock Music is often music where the composer is not registered with any domestic or foreign collecting society. In the Proud Music Library you find this music under the label "completely royalty-free music" (PRO-free).

Our royalty free music content is very diversified, ranging from Rock/Pop, Dance, Electronica up to cinematic, epic and orchestral moods. We also provide production music that is protected by Performing Rights Organisation (PROs) such as PRS, SACEM, GEMA, SIAE, IMRO, SGAE, ASCAP, BMI etc., but we also offer licenses, which are completely free from rights of the Performance Rights Organisations - important if you are dealing with corporate media. You only pay a one-time upfront license fee.