Royalty Free Music Questions and Answers

Question: Do I have to buy licensing credits to use music from Free Soundtrack Music?

Answer: No. The Example Listing Pages contain many FREE tracks which guest users can download and use without any payment required. Guest users can download and use up to 6 FREE tracks from the demonstration pages.

Question: Is there a time limit on how long I can use the music I have downloaded?

Answer: No. For registered and anonymous user alike, the right to use music from the royalty free library does not expire.

Question: What is the difference between a "FREE" and "1-credit" track?

Answer: "FREE" tracks are available to guest users, while "1-credit" tracks are only available for download to users who have bought licensing credits. Buying license credits makes you a "registered user" and gives you login access. Logging in allows you to download and use an unlimited number of "FREE" tracks and a number of "1-credit" tracks according to how many licensing credits you have purchased.

Question: I bought a "12-track download pack". Some of the songs that I want to use are "FREE". If I download the free tracks while I am logged in, will they count against my total credits?

Answer: No. "FREE" track downloads are not counted for registered users. As a registered user, downloading a "FREE" track will not affect your purchased download credits total.

Question: How is "Royalty Free" different from "Copyright Free" or "Public Domain" Music?

Answer: "Royalty Free" applies to a special type of music licensing where a video producer pays only a single, up-front fee to have the right to use a copyrighted sound recording in their film, video or digital multimedia production. (The process of obtaining the rights to use music in this way is called "synchronization licensing".) No additional payments (known as "royalties") need to be paid after the initial license purchase. "Royalty-Free" DOES NOT MEAN "Copyright Free". The moment a musician commits an original composition to paper, tape or computer memory, the music is automatically copyrighted by them. This is international law. "Copyright Free" is a bogeyman or perhaps boogieman? There is no such thing. Even if you record yourself farting around on a kazoo: Congratulations - you are a copyright owner. All of the music in the Free Soundtrack Music library is copyrighted by the composer or producer indicated in the description section accompanying each track listing. "Public Domain" simply refers to music by composers who have been dead for over fifty years (or longer in some jurisdictions). Almost all of what we think of as "classical music" compositions are now public domain, although any specific recordings of those compositions are, of course, copyrighted.

Question: Can I use the music I have downloaded as background music to lyrics that I will write and sing?

Answer: No. The downloaded compositions cannot be used as part of your own songs or recordings. They are for use only in the soundtrack of films or videos and cannot be re-released or redistributed in audio-only format for any purposes (including as background music for poetry, audio books or the like).

Question: I am a music producer who would like to post my music for licensing through The Free Soundtrack Music website: How do I go about this?