Royalty free music explained

The term 'royalty free' means free of mechanical royalties.  These are royalties that you would pay if you used commercially-released or library music in your production every time you made a copy of the music.  That is to say every time a piece of music plays in your production you are making a copy so you pay a fee.  The fee amount depends on: how long the music is featured each time it plays, how and where the production will be used and how many times the production will be duplicated.

A lot of 'royalty free' music websites use the term quite loosely and the fee you pay for a licence will vary considerably depending on how many copies are to be made or how and where the production will be broadcast or distributed.  With Music2license.com you pay a set fee which covers you for unlimited copies, any kind of broadcast and world territory.

The term 'royalty free' does not mean free of performance royalties.  These are royalties that are generated when music is performed publicly (eg broadcast on television or radio or played in a cinema or theatre, etc).  These royalties are funded from the broadcaster’s licence fee that is paid to the relevant performing rights organisation. The performing rights organisation will distribute these royalties to the composer or copyright owner.

If your production is to be performed publicly, please fill in performing rights organisation cue sheets.  These inform the broadcaster of the music title, composer name, copyright owner and duration of the music used in your production.  This information is passed on to the relevant performing rights organisation who then pay the copyright owner the royalties they are due.  This costs you nothing but ensures the performance royalties generated go to the composer.

Any royalties generated by public performance are paid to the composers in full - we do not take a percentage.