Music Licenses

All of our music licenses can be used with free and paid Final Products. Depending on the chosen license, there are other limitations on reproduction or broadcasting.

Yes, to a certain extent. You can modify a Track to delete components from it that you don’t need (and still use the Track only in a Final Product). However, you are not allowed to take a single component from a Track and use it as a standalone component.

You should not allow end users of the Final Product to extract a track from the Final Product. You should do so by technical means, if feasible, or by other means, such as in the terms of use for your Final Product.

Generally, your license is only transferable in these few exceptions:

1. If you are an agency/freelancer using the Track for a single Final Product for one client. The license would effectively be transferred to the client.

2. If you are using the Track as part of an on-demand service to create custom products, where you purchase a separate license on behalf of the client for each individual Final Product they create. Each license would effectively be transferred to the client.

3. If you purchase a license to use the Track as a prize/gift. The license would effectively be transferred to the receiver of the gift.

In all these cases you should inform the client/receiver about the license conditions and delete the Track from your own systems.

If your Final Product has no credits as part of its design, it is not mandatory to give the author credit, but we appreciate it.

If your Final Product has credits as part of its design (such as a movie or TV show), the author has to be credited. Also, the author retains ownership of the Track, therefore you shouldn’t claim copyright on the Track.

Example: If the footage in your movie has already credits, the author has to be included.

For each substantially different ad you need an additional license.

Example: If you have 3 identical ads with only subtle text changes, a single license is sufficient. If you use a single template to create ads for 3 different products/services, you should purchase 3 separate licenses.

Nothing, your license continues even if a Track is removed from the store. It is highly recommended to download the Track short after purchasing the license.

For the vast majority of buyers and end users, no, you do not have to worry about additional performance rights fees.

Some tracks are registered with a P.R.O., others are not. So if you are unsure whether your project and use qualifies as a public performance, or whether you may be required to pay additional performance rights fees, you should contact your local performance authority for more information.

Yes, a Track can be used as an audio (“sound”) logo. The audio logo is still a stock Track and therefore can be used by other people. You can not claim trademark or service mark rights on the audio logo.

Yes, as long as the audio-only Final Product has a larger scale and is distinct from the music itself. As a rule of thumb, the music alone should not be the main value of the Final Product, but should be layered and interspersed with speech. You can never distribute the music track as is or with superficial changes.

Example: you can use a relaxing background music to accompany your guided meditation recordings and sell a CD with this music to your spa clients.

Yes, you can by all means use licensed music in your YouTube video.

YouTube takes copyright infringement seriously, and its Content-ID audio detection system occasionally displays a copyright notice in videos that use licensed music. This means that YouTube has found material in your video that belongs to someone else. To remove this notice, simply tell YouTube that you licensed the music and own the rights to use it.

Yes. all of our music licenses allow the usage for commercial and non-commercial applications.

Copies and downloads occur when a Final Product is distributed to an end user and the end user retains ownership of the Final Product in physical or digital form (for example, a DVD, app, video game, or audio book). The number of copies/downloads of the Final Product that you may distribute can be limited depending on the music license you purchased.

Audience size applies when a Final Product is intended for broadcast on television, radio, or online substitute programming. The size of the audience to which you may broadcast can be limited depending on the music license you have purchased.

Views and impressions refer to non-broadcast Final Products displayed on the Internet and are a measure of how many visitors have viewed or played your Final Product. None of our licenses contain any limits on page views or impressions.

Our music licenses define broadcast as:

a) Traditional television or radio broadcasting (eg terrestrial, cable, or satellite television, radio); or

b) Mobile or online substitutes for traditional television or radio (eg mobile television, streaming TV, video-on-demand, streaming radio).

Online broadcasting means online content services that distribute professional, syndicated broadcast content, such as Netflix or other Internet television providers.

Streaming web video is anything else, including videos uploaded to your personal or business website and to user-generated content networks such as YouTube or Vimeo.

All of our music licenses, including our Standard Music License, are suitable for streaming web video. However, for broadcast use, you will need one of our broadcast licenses, and depending on which one you choose, there may be restrictions on the number of viewers allowed. For streaming web video that is not broadcast, there are no viewership restrictions. See question “What does Broadcast mean?” for more information.

When using a music track in a broadcast project, simply ask your client or producer what the target audience is for the production, i.e., the maximum number of people the broadcast can reach.

As a rule of thumb, an audience of up to 1 million is more appropriate for local and targeted broadcasts, 1-10 million is more appropriate for regional to national broadcasts, and over 10 million is more appropriate for national and international broadcasts. Please note that this may vary by location and target market. In some places, this size corresponds to the audience share of the broadcast DMA.