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Quick explanation of terms - relating to Buyout music, music licensing and royalty-free music |
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Copyright Free Music
This is a frequently misused term. There is extremely little "copyright
free" music around, if any. As soon as a composer has composed a piece
of music, it is automatically copyrighted to him/her, regardless of whether
the composer actually takes any practical steps to "copyright" the
music. If the composer gives somebody permission to use the music in a project,
that doesn't mean the music is copyright free. Even music that you obtain
from free music web sites, from a music library, from a royalty-free music
source, etc., none of this means that the music is "copyright free".
You should never assume that a piece of music is "copyright free",
because it almost certainly is not, even if somebody tries to tell you that
it is.
Music Library
A Music Library is simply a "collection of existing music". People
who are in a hurry to obtain music for a project will often use a Music Library
because the music is already composed and immediately available. This term
says nothing about what costs are involved with using the music. It may be
subject to a one-time license payment, a monthly license payment, a per-sale
royalty payment, or a combination of these. All this term means, really, is
that the music already exists and will not be composed especially for you.
Royalty-Free Music
Royalty Free music (or Royaltyfree Music) means that you will only pay a
one-time fee to use the music, and you will not pay a per-use or a per-sale
royalty to the composer and/or publisher.
License Free Music
This is a bad term, because it actually means that the music doesn't need
a License for use. This is never the case, though, so when people say "License
Free", usually what they really mean is "Royalty-Free".
Buyout Music
Buyout Music (or Buy Out music) is a term that usually describes when a company
or person pays the composer, producer and/or publisher a one-off sum of money,
and then obtains all rights to that music. A lot of the time,
music buyout is misused or misplaced. For example, a company
might think that they need a total buyout of the music, but
all they really need is a License to use the music for whatever puposes they
want, forever. This would serve the exact same purpose, but leave the composer
with his basic rights intact. If you are looking to obtain buyout
music, most likely you are really looking for Royalty-Free
music.
Some web sites or music libraries claim to sell Buyout Music, but what they
are really selling is royalty-free music. If what they really sold was Buyout
Music, then they would sell the music to you, then delete it from their own
harddisk, never use it for any other purpose or sell it to anybody else --
they they would sign the copyright of the tracks over to you and retract it
from anybody else they have ever given the track to in the past. That
is a buyout. So really, what they are selling isn't buyout music, but royalty-free
music, or other forms of non-exclusive music licences.
Work For Hire
A special arrangement governs music that was composed whilst the composer
is an employee and composes music for his/her employer. The exact relationship
between the employee and the employer will depend on their individual work
contract, but in most cases (and if no particular contract exists) the composer
will retain the actual copyright to the music, but the employer will have
"free use" of the music without payment.
Moral Rights
Even when a composer has given (or sold) the master rights and publishing
rights to a music publisher, he/she will always retain "moral rights"
to his/her compositions. This enables the composer stop his/her music being
used for particular projects on moral, political or religious grounds. For
example, a composer who is strongly against smoking may have the right to
reject having his music used in a cigarette commercial, even
if all the other rights to the music has been signed away to a publishing
company.
Bespoke Music
This just means custom made music, written especially for the project.
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