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Home | Terms of Use | Guide | Search
FREE SOUNDTRACK MUSIC FAQs:
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 12 FREE tracks from "blue window" section of the search result pages. (as long as your credit the composer and this website as in the following example:
Question: Is there a time limit on how long I can use the music I have downloaded?
Answer: No. The right to use music from the royalty free library does not expire.
Question: Why are there two different sets of search results for each keyword?
Answer: The "FREE" tracks displayed in the first window are available witout payment, while the second group require purchase of a license.
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?
Answer: Please read the FreeSoundtrackMusic Composer's Agreement.
If these F.A.Q.s do not answer your questions, please email your question to: