What about "royalty free" music libraries?

[davewalton]

Hi,I thought I'd start a thread about "royalty free" music libraries - the pros, the cons. I'm a listener on this one so have at it folks. Dave

[sonicart]

I'll try not to get in the way of the stampede of replies here I think these guys can cause a real problem to us aspirant pros. There's a lot of people making decent useable music as a hobby and selling it for diddly squat on to production libraries.I was recently asked to do some work on a tv advert, they just wanted a voiceover recorded. So I told them I could look after any music they needed in the advert to, I could make a composition to order for a few hundred euro....or bucks as I appreciate that's the prevalent currency on the forum. The guy said "Nah, I picked something up from a library for Euro30 (about $40) and I'm happy with that". Sure enough the piece of music he got from the library was well produced and well performed and well beyond my abilities to give him a reason to commission me when such libraries are available.

[roughly]

I'm curious about this too. I figure they are just able to sell it to so many different people that they make their money that way. 40 "bucks" times just 100 people adds up.

[johnnydean1]

I have never heard of Royalty Free Library's before.Surely then these have to blow Taxi's only Raisen D'etre out of the water!

[53mph]

Ok firstly let's break down what Royalty Free means.Every time you use some music you need to pay a licensing fee. Ususally you pay this on a per use basis and it's usually very cheap. Royalty free music basically means you buy the rights to use the music on anything you want, whenever you want. You are basically paying for unlimited usage in all formats over all territories when you buy the CD.I used to have to source music from Music Libraries for audio productions. I used mainly classical music, so usually opted for the higher class of music libraries.Basically Library music is like chart music...there are various styles, levels of quality etc...If you're looking for some electronic music to have in the background of a 2 second scene in a bar on a TV add, why pay a fortune to Fatboy Slim when you can find something very similar on a dirt cheap music library....but if you're looking for the main backing music for a BMW advert you'll probably look a bit harder than the royalty free selection." You get whet you pay for"There were some library companies I went back to again and again and others that I never touched because the quality was bad, wasn't applicable, the music was awful etc...and I usually steared clear of Royalty Free Music Libraries for this reason:If I have to do a complete buy out of the rights at the beginning (Royalty Free) I want to know that I'm going to use that track more than once, otherwise I'll just pay my small fee for one off use of individual tracks. What's the point in paying $40 for a techno CD I'll never use when I can pay $5 per track of an unlimited selection of music?Of course you need to read the small print because maybe you have a license to use the music on all formtas...but not the internet. The internet has created a whole new avenue of revenue and legal problems because originally you paid a license fee based on which territory you're in (Ie USA, England etc...). Obviously the internet doesn't have this restriction and the buyout fee for All Territories can be astronomical.I had to clear old productions for all territories when our Director decided it would be a "cool" idea to stick our products on the web....after paying thousands of dollars in new licenses for a handful of tracks he decided that in future we'd take all the music off the productions before we stuck them on the web.What I'm trying to say is in a long winded way is that Royalty Free Music may seem like just giving your music away for free but the truth is many companies won't use it because to make their money back on buying the Rights in the first place they need to use that music on a regular basis, and usually that just isn't how it works. You're fees change depending on the format, territory, length of usage, number of seconds etc...and if you're needs are varied then Royalty Free music is more expensive than using ordinary Library Music.Royalty Free Music Libraries are just another part of the business that will not replace all the existing Music Libraries....so Taxi will still be here for a while

[matto]

Quote:Ok firstly let's break down what Royalty Free means.Every time you use some music you need to pay a licensing fee. Ususally you pay this on a per use basis and it's usually very cheap. Royalty free music basically means you buy the rights to use the music on anything you want, whenever you want. You are basically paying for unlimited usage in all formats over all territories when you buy the CD.Yes and this is why I prefer the term "buy-out library".The term "royalty free" suggests the composer won't get paid any royalties, which in most cases isn't true. You won't get any mechanical type royalties from the sale of the library CD's, and obviously there are no (sync) license fees involved, but if the song is used in a broadcast situation the user is typically still required to file cue sheets and thus you will get performance royalties for those uses. If this is not the case, don't sign.I have had a bunch of cuts in a buy-out library, and in addition to the upfront fee they've paid me for every track, some of them have brought in significant Bmi. Buy-out libraries are sort of lower on the food chain than needle-drop libraries and in general won't get used on major movies or primetime network tv, but they'll get used by smaller producers, for example Spanish soaps, local radio commercials, low profile syndicated shows and the like. Quote:If I have to do a complete buy out of the rights at the beginning (Royalty Free) I want to know that I'm going to use that track more than once, otherwise I'll just pay my small fee for one off use of individual tracks. What's the point in paying $40 for a techno CD I'll never use when I can pay $5 per track of an unlimited selection of music?This is true and can actually work in a composer's favor...a producer will tend to use the same track over and over if they've already paid for it...they wanna "get their money's worth". If the track is one you wrote and it happens to be a broadcast application, the royalties can really add up.The one caveat about buy-out libraries is that they get used a lot in non-broadcast applications such as industrials, and for those kinds of uses you won't see any backend.Personally I would only sign songs to buy-out libraries if some kind of upfront money was involved.matto