Royalty free music is advantageous to artists and content creators alike. For artists, it gets their music out into the world more easily, while content creators get to utilize awesome music for a small fee.
In spite of the benefits of royalty free music, there are lots of misconceptions about what it is and why it is created. So, we’ve put together this guide that will help you understand everything you need to know about royalty free music and how you can benefit from it.
We also introduce you to five platforms on which you can upload or license royalty free music, so you can begin growing your profile as an independent musician.
What is royalty free music?
If music is labeled as “royalty free,” it means that you don’t need to pay royalty fees if you decide to use or license it in specific ways. When you obtain music through a royalty free media company, they pay the musicians, so you don’t have to.
Royalty free music plays a really important part in the production of YouTube channels, corporate videos, advertisements, and film projects as it allows people to add music to their projects without infringing copyright laws.
As such, you can download royalty free music that you can then use on a range of projects without worrying about infringing copyright or having to pay over the odds for certain compositions.
Given the prevalence of content creators in every industry, there’s a huge market for royalty free music, and it continues to grow every year. But who makes royalty free music and why?
Who makes it and why?
The truth is that any musician can make royalty free music. It’s another way of getting your music out into the world and can be a viable way to develop your portfolio as a musician.
What’s more, when you release music and don’t expect royalty payments from individuals, your music is likely to be featured on a whole host of projects by individual creators, which significantly increases your exposure as a musician.
Typically, if people have to pay you to use your music within their projects, you’re only likely to be contacted by large companies with big budgets, and you miss out on the whole host of independent content creators who release projects on YouTube and other sharing platforms.
The main motivation for making royalty free music is that it is an effective way to get your music featured on a wide range of projects, and it can increase your credentials as a musician.
Can you make money with royaltyfree music?
It’s important to realize that royalty free music does not mean that musicians don’t get paid. In fact, creating music for royalty free platforms is an excellent way of supplementing your income as a musician.
You can work with royalty free stock libraries, as they pay you for the music that they then license to their customers. You will need to take some time to consider what type of music content creators are looking for, but it can be a great way to earn from tracks that are widely used on commercial projects.
The term royalty free is actually a bit of a misnomer, as musicians still receive payment for their tracks. As a musician, you receive money when a client licenses your song as part of the subscription fee that they pay to the platform.
So, although music marketed in this way is essentially royalty free, you can still get paid when you upload your tracks to stock libraries and royalty free platforms, as we explain below.
The best websites for royalty free music
There are lots of websites and platforms on which to upload and license royalty free music. Here are five of the best sites to try if you’re looking to promote your music in this way:
Epidemic Sound
Tracks posted on Epidemic Sound rack up more than 20 billion views each month. They are widely used on YouTube and Facebook in particular and provide an excellent source of revenue to musicians.
Users sign up for subscriptions, and musicians receive money when their tracks are licensed for specific projects. It’s arguably the best and most comprehensive source of royalty free music online and is a great place to get started as an artist.
Premium Beat
Shutterstock is the global leader in royalty free images, and its royalty free music site is Premium Beat. You can find more than 10,000 tracks on Premium Beat, which you can filter by genre, mood, and various other features.
Many of the tracks on Premium Beat are instrumental and provide up-and-coming musicians with the ideal opportunity to get their work into the world. Selling your music on Premium Beat is also a great way to maximize your earning streams.
Artlist
Artlist works with some of the biggest brands in the business, including the likes of Microsoft and National Geographic, among others. The tracks available on Artlist are specifically favored for their commercial qualities and are widely used in advertisements.
Again, if you can successfully partner with Artlist and promote your music to content creators, it’s an excellent way of increasing your potential audience and earning money when your music is licensed for specific projects.
Music Vine
Music Vine is a collaboration between the platform and more than 160 independent artists who offer thousands of tracks for commercial and personal projects. Many Music Vine artists feature in films and TV productions, such is the client base of the site.
With Media Vine, there’s a focus on the creativity of each artist, and the end product is a hugely impressive library of bespoke tracks. Collaborating with Music Vine is a great way to build your credentials as an up-and-coming musician.
CCMixter
A huge platform, CCMixter collaborates with more than 45,000 musicians around the world. The site works similarly to those already introduced and enables artists to upload a broad range of sounds and tracks to the platform, which are then licensed to content creators.
CCMixter was launched by Creative Commons as a way to make the process of working with music that little bit easier for creators and licensees alike. Ultimately, it’s the perfect platform for promoting your music to those looking for royalty free tracks.
Is creating royalty free music a good way to promote your tracks?
There’s no doubt that creating royalty free music can be an excellent way of promoting your music as an independent musician. Instead of working with a range of promoters and producers, you can partner with platforms directly to get your music out into the world.
While the fees that you receive for your music won’t necessarily be life-changing, it does provide you with a supplementary income as you look to grow your musical profile in other ways.
There’s also the benefit of hearing your music feature on a broad spectrum of projects, which is an excellent way for you to grow your musical portfolio and showcase how far-reaching your music is.
So, if you like the idea of creating royalty free music, we agree that it’s an excellent way of showcasing your talents. But how else can you promote your music as an independent artist?
Introducing Musicvertising
At Musicvertising, we work with independent and up-and-coming artists in a multitude of ways. We help to promote musicians on YouTube and Spotify in particular, which can help you to reach a much bigger audience in a fraction of the time.
Central to our approach is ensuring that we promote your tracks to real people, and we can get your music featured on popular industry playlists that are relevant to your niche.
Our plans are suitable for musicians looking to take steps in the right direction when promoting their own music and are perfect if you’ve decided that you want to invest in your music career.
Ultimately, we advise artists to keep an open mind when it comes to marketing their music, as there are so many techniques that can work. So, investing in one of our plans while working to create royalty free music with online stock libraries is a smart move if you’re hoping that your music will be heard by a much wider audience.
Final thoughts
As an independent musician, you will be aware of the importance of promoting your music. We hope that you’ve found our guide to royalty free music helpful and will consider creating such music to enhance your credentials as a musician.
You can also rely on Musicvertising to promote your music in different ways, particularly if you’re keen to grow your profile on Spotify and YouTube. After all, the more methods you use to promote your music, the wider your outreach will be.
Royalty Free Music: Everything You Need To Know
Table of Contents
Royalty free music is advantageous to artists and content creators alike. For artists, it gets their music out into the world more easily, while content creators get to utilize awesome music for a small fee.
In spite of the benefits of royalty free music, there are lots of misconceptions about what it is and why it is created. So, we’ve put together this guide that will help you understand everything you need to know about royalty free music and how you can benefit from it.
We also introduce you to five platforms on which you can upload or license royalty free music, so you can begin growing your profile as an independent musician.
What is royalty free music?
If music is labeled as “royalty free,” it means that you don’t need to pay royalty fees if you decide to use or license it in specific ways. When you obtain music through a royalty free media company, they pay the musicians, so you don’t have to.
Royalty free music plays a really important part in the production of YouTube channels, corporate videos, advertisements, and film projects as it allows people to add music to their projects without infringing copyright laws.
As such, you can download royalty free music that you can then use on a range of projects without worrying about infringing copyright or having to pay over the odds for certain compositions.
Given the prevalence of content creators in every industry, there’s a huge market for royalty free music, and it continues to grow every year. But who makes royalty free music and why?
Who makes it and why?
The truth is that any musician can make royalty free music. It’s another way of getting your music out into the world and can be a viable way to develop your portfolio as a musician.
What’s more, when you release music and don’t expect royalty payments from individuals, your music is likely to be featured on a whole host of projects by individual creators, which significantly increases your exposure as a musician.
Typically, if people have to pay you to use your music within their projects, you’re only likely to be contacted by large companies with big budgets, and you miss out on the whole host of independent content creators who release projects on YouTube and other sharing platforms.
The main motivation for making royalty free music is that it is an effective way to get your music featured on a wide range of projects, and it can increase your credentials as a musician.
Can you make money with royaltyfree music?
It’s important to realize that royalty free music does not mean that musicians don’t get paid. In fact, creating music for royalty free platforms is an excellent way of supplementing your income as a musician.
You can work with royalty free stock libraries, as they pay you for the music that they then license to their customers. You will need to take some time to consider what type of music content creators are looking for, but it can be a great way to earn from tracks that are widely used on commercial projects.
The term royalty free is actually a bit of a misnomer, as musicians still receive payment for their tracks. As a musician, you receive money when a client licenses your song as part of the subscription fee that they pay to the platform.
So, although music marketed in this way is essentially royalty free, you can still get paid when you upload your tracks to stock libraries and royalty free platforms, as we explain below.
The best websites for royalty free music
There are lots of websites and platforms on which to upload and license royalty free music. Here are five of the best sites to try if you’re looking to promote your music in this way:
Epidemic Sound
Tracks posted on Epidemic Sound rack up more than 20 billion views each month. They are widely used on YouTube and Facebook in particular and provide an excellent source of revenue to musicians.
Users sign up for subscriptions, and musicians receive money when their tracks are licensed for specific projects. It’s arguably the best and most comprehensive source of royalty free music online and is a great place to get started as an artist.
Premium Beat
Shutterstock is the global leader in royalty free images, and its royalty free music site is Premium Beat. You can find more than 10,000 tracks on Premium Beat, which you can filter by genre, mood, and various other features.
Many of the tracks on Premium Beat are instrumental and provide up-and-coming musicians with the ideal opportunity to get their work into the world. Selling your music on Premium Beat is also a great way to maximize your earning streams.
Artlist
Artlist works with some of the biggest brands in the business, including the likes of Microsoft and National Geographic, among others. The tracks available on Artlist are specifically favored for their commercial qualities and are widely used in advertisements.
Again, if you can successfully partner with Artlist and promote your music to content creators, it’s an excellent way of increasing your potential audience and earning money when your music is licensed for specific projects.
Music Vine
Music Vine is a collaboration between the platform and more than 160 independent artists who offer thousands of tracks for commercial and personal projects. Many Music Vine artists feature in films and TV productions, such is the client base of the site.
With Media Vine, there’s a focus on the creativity of each artist, and the end product is a hugely impressive library of bespoke tracks. Collaborating with Music Vine is a great way to build your credentials as an up-and-coming musician.
CCMixter
A huge platform, CCMixter collaborates with more than 45,000 musicians around the world. The site works similarly to those already introduced and enables artists to upload a broad range of sounds and tracks to the platform, which are then licensed to content creators.
CCMixter was launched by Creative Commons as a way to make the process of working with music that little bit easier for creators and licensees alike. Ultimately, it’s the perfect platform for promoting your music to those looking for royalty free tracks.
Is creating royalty free music a good way to promote your tracks?
There’s no doubt that creating royalty free music can be an excellent way of promoting your music as an independent musician. Instead of working with a range of promoters and producers, you can partner with platforms directly to get your music out into the world.
While the fees that you receive for your music won’t necessarily be life-changing, it does provide you with a supplementary income as you look to grow your musical profile in other ways.
There’s also the benefit of hearing your music feature on a broad spectrum of projects, which is an excellent way for you to grow your musical portfolio and showcase how far-reaching your music is.
So, if you like the idea of creating royalty free music, we agree that it’s an excellent way of showcasing your talents. But how else can you promote your music as an independent artist?
Introducing Musicvertising
At Musicvertising, we work with independent and up-and-coming artists in a multitude of ways. We help to promote musicians on YouTube and Spotify in particular, which can help you to reach a much bigger audience in a fraction of the time.
Central to our approach is ensuring that we promote your tracks to real people, and we can get your music featured on popular industry playlists that are relevant to your niche.
Our plans are suitable for musicians looking to take steps in the right direction when promoting their own music and are perfect if you’ve decided that you want to invest in your music career.
Ultimately, we advise artists to keep an open mind when it comes to marketing their music, as there are so many techniques that can work. So, investing in one of our plans while working to create royalty free music with online stock libraries is a smart move if you’re hoping that your music will be heard by a much wider audience.
Final thoughts
As an independent musician, you will be aware of the importance of promoting your music. We hope that you’ve found our guide to royalty free music helpful and will consider creating such music to enhance your credentials as a musician.
You can also rely on Musicvertising to promote your music in different ways, particularly if you’re keen to grow your profile on Spotify and YouTube. After all, the more methods you use to promote your music, the wider your outreach will be.
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