The Business of Music Licensing, and Why "Royalty Free Music" Doesn't Need to be a Bad Word

As anyone who has worked in the music licensing world for even the last few years can tell you, certain terms in this industry give you that “ick” feeling. 

And that’s doubly true for anyone who’s been around long enough to remember the earliest days of the online digital music industry which originally brought us terms like “stock” and “royalty free” music.

Yet, while we here at Soundstripe often refer to our catalog as a “royalty free” music catalog, we want to relieve you of any preconceived notions about what this term means for us and our music. 

Plus, if you read through this article, we’ll give some more context into how modern royalty free music has changed from something generic and rigid into something much more musically diverse and usable for all types of projects and uses.

Here’s how we define “royalty free” music

So, “royalty free” music is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot in the music licensing world that really means different things to different people. To some filmmakers, video professionals, and content creators, the term means “free music to use for whatever you want.” Which, as we’ve covered quite a bit on our blog, simply isn’t true. Check out this article to find out what royalty free music actually is. 

However, for those in music publishing, royalty free music often means “of low quality” or “a non-traditional music library not registered with a Publishing Rights Organization.” Again, this is something that simply isn’t true for Soundstripe’s music.

As for how we define “royalty free” music at Soundstripe, we simply mean that you—the Soundstripe customer—won’t have to pay any royalties beyond your subscription or license fee. (We should note, too, that while Soundstripe customers don’t have to pay royalties, the end broadcaster of the content that contains our music does—which is important to keep in mind.)

Overall, while there are many reasons why these connotations are connected with this “royalty free” term, most of them come from a time when music licensing for video came from non-musicians and was marketed towards non-creatives in general. 

How is Soundstripe different from other royalty free music companies?

As the industry has changed over the years, the business of music licensing has become more sophisticated, diverse, and versatile. With companies like Soundstripe in particular, which was started by actual musicians who understand both the music and the business of music licensing, we’ve been able to disrupt the industry and create a new model for our library.

Furthermore, if it helps, you might want to not even think of Soundstripe as a “royalty free” music licensing company at all. In fact, Soundstripe is perhaps more like any other label or publisher. We register our songs globally and are administered by Kobalt. (Unlike some of our competitors that aren’t registered with PROs—Publishing Rights Organizations—we might add.)

It’s confusing, but our use of “royalty free” music is more for our content creator audience than for our publishing partners.

What is unique about Soundstripe’s music?

As mentioned above, unlike many other " royalty free” music companies you can find online, Soundstripe can organize a direct license, and our library can pay performance royalties to our composers.

Our catalog is registered with all PROs globally (including PRS) and is built more like other traditional music catalogs. We are very different from many of our competitors in this regard, and we have multiple composers who make tens of thousands of dollars a year in writer’s share alone.

For those looking at Soundstripe for sync options, it’s best to think of us as a typical production music library or a typical label and publisher copyright owner. 

Questions?

If you have any other questions about how Soundstripe’s music library works, or if you’re looking to license music for your various uses or are interested in how to license music for video, we’re here to help. 

If you’d like to learn more about Soundstripe’s music for video offerings, check out our guide on how to use Soundstripe here. Or, if you’d like to speak to a sales representative about more nuanced music licensing opportunities, don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly.