Royalties have been a major issue that almost all content creators struggle with. You just never know whether the images, videos, or music you use are protected or not. And it gets even worse when your content necessitates the use of numerous music or videos. Samplesound is one great example of music producers that allow content creators to create music with fresh and free copyright samples.
Royalties are perhaps the most important things content creators must consider before releasing their content. The topic is very complicated and can be quite confusing if you don’t properly understand what you are doing.
In this post, we will make it easy and simple for you to understand what royalties are and how they work.
What are Royalties?
Royalties are payments that are generated by recording artists, songwriters, publishers, composers, and any other copyright holder. Basically, royalties give you the right to use the creator’s content. You could define royalties as paid fees that are paid to the content creators every time other people use their content.
Therefore, anyone who wants to use your copyrighted music has to pay to use it. This makes royalties one of the main sources of content creator’s income and plays a critical role in promoting their work.
Importance of Royalty-Free Music
Royalty-free music is important, especially when promoting content like video to monetize your work. Even if your video isn’t on YouTube or any other social media platform, this is something you should pay attention to.
Like most content uploaded online, the bottom line is that you cannot just use any content type (song) you find. There is always the chance that you might be infringing some copyright laws. That’s why some video-on-demand and pay-per-video content creators reply on their content playlists.
But the fact is that always checking whether the music or video content you are watching or intend to use is royalty-free can be quite annoying because of the effort you must put into it. On the other hand, not finding or using the right music in your content may be counterproductive for yourself and your viewers. And here’s where royalty-free music can be a lifesaver.
Can You Use Royalty-Free Music for Commercial Use?
Unfortunately, no, you shouldn’t use royalty-free content for commercial use. This is perhaps one of the most common misconceptions that content creators fall into. Royalty-free content does not necessarily mean that the song you intend to use is free, especially for commercial purposes.
In fact, you will always find many services clearly stating that their music and other content cannot be used for commercial content for free, such as monetized videos. As such, it is always important to carefully read the terms of agreement of the content creators to determine their requirements and expectations.
Who Receives Royalties?
Some of the people and companies that royalties are paid to include:
- Recording artists
- Distributors
- Record labels
- Songwriters
- Publishers
- Licensing companies and sync agencies
- Collective management organizations
How Royalties Work
Here’s a more generalized overview of how royalties work:
- Artists Create Content
Naturally, this will be the first step of the entire process. A songwriter will write a composition and share it with an artist who records the song. This creates both parts of the copyright (music composition and master). Next, the artist looks for the best partner to promote and monetize the content.
- Intermediates are Contacted
The artists and their representatives then contact intermediates to distribute and register the song to earn potential royalties. This could mean registering your song with the Performance Rights Organization (PRO) on the composition side and with streaming platforms like YouTube on the master side. These allow you to collect royalties.
- Music is Played
This section pretty much explains itself. Here’s where the music is played and consumed by viewers. However, the music consumption process can take multiple different shapes and forms before reaching viewers.
- Royalties are Collected and Distributed
This step may take very different aspects, depending on the type of music and royalties you’re using. However, the basic idea is that different intermediaries collect data on when and how the music was used and the payments. With this information, you can distribute the royalties collected to the right owners.
- Paying the Rights Owners
Finally, the artists and songwriters are paid, and the revenues are split with the partners (publishers and record labels). On one side, the record labels and artists receive a part of the digital performance royalties, stream loyalties, sync fees, and other neighboring royalties.
On the flip side, the publisher and songwriter receive the performance royalties, sync fees, and mechanical royalties.
Final Thoughts
Like all other content created online, music artists and songwriters have their own requirements and needs. The same applies to content creators who use music to create media for their viewers. Finding the perfect royalty-free content when it comes to music can be quite a time-consuming process.
Thankfully, most online websites and music platforms allow viewers to listen to music tracks for free. But still, it is always a good idea to check the quality of the music and whether it is copyrighted. This will allow you to know whether to buy a subscription or not.
