Have you ever watched an online video or TV commercial and wonder how and / or where they get the amazing high-quality music playing in the background? The individuals / companies behind the media had to acquire what is known as royalty-free music. What is royalty-free music?
Audio files licensed from a customer for use in media-related activities such as movies, radio, or television.
This article was written to provide information and tips on how to purchase the best royalty-free music online. To get started, here are some things to keep in mind:
Fonts with free audio download
Websites that provide free audio files often have a catch. You have to pay additionally for the license. You can always download the audio files for non-commercial use, but the only way to avoid a potential lawsuit is to pay more. There are also websites that offer free audio downloads without license information. I would suggest avoiding all of these sites if you plan to use their music commercially. You might be thinking “why would anyone want copyright-free music?” Well, you would be surprised to know that many of these sites get their music from untrustworthy sources. Some even upload copyrighted music and offer it for free.
Low-quality reproduction sources
If you are looking for royalty-free music online on a website where the playback quality is not outstanding in your opinion, you should probably go. It’s true that some websites intentionally provide low-quality playback to prevent people from stealing your music. However, they may not have a choice in this regard as the original audio file may already be of poor quality. Lately, the most trusted sources offering royalty-free music are using tagged audio files for track previews. What I mean by this is that they provide tags or identifiers throughout the track, as in recent years it has been proven to be the most effective way to prevent online audio theft. An example of this could be the website name repeating every four bars throughout the preview.
Sources that do not provide any licensing information
Websites that do not provide any license-related information are likely to be unreliable. If you are especially cautious, you may want to contact the website owners about it. Any reliable website must have a contact system; most are called the “Contact Us” link.
Sources that do not provide audio playback
This may be the most important thing to consider. If a website can’t provide a preview of what might interest you, chances are you’re wasting your time there.
So where should you look?
Ideally, the sources to use to find royalty-free music would be those that offer:
– High quality reproduction
– Licensing options (as standard or unlimited)
– Variety
The only downside to using these sites would be that they can be very expensive, and that’s just for a single audio file.
Of course, you should know that there are sources that provide affordable solutions for high-quality, royalty-free audio. Feel free to visit my website for more information, or if you prefer, you can always explore different sources on your own. I hope this has been helpful.
Health.