Downloading tracks

• How does the Customer Satisfaction Guarantee work?

  If you can't use the sound / music that you have licensed from us, please contact us about this within 30 days of your purchase. We will first try to help you with the problem that's causing you not to be able to use it. If we are unable to fix your problem, we will ask you to confirm in writing (by email) that you have deleted the sound/music from your computer(s) and that you weren't able to use it, and a short explanation of the reason. We will then refund your money in full.

  Our guarantee is: Customer satisfaction, or money returned.

• How do I place an order / license a track from this site?
  1. Go to our site www.Shockwave-Sound.com and either Sign In or Create a user account.
     
     
  2. Once you're logged in, find the track you want to license by using the "quick search" box in the top left corner, or the other music browsing buttons below the quick-search box.
     
     
  3. Once you find the track you want, be sure to hit the little "play" button so you are sure this is the right track. If you want to know more details about the track, click on the actual track title. When you know you want to license this track, click on the little "shopping cart" icon next to the track/version you wish to license.
     
     
  4. The next page asks you which License Type you wish to buy. Click the right options here, and then scroll down all the way to the bottom of this page, and click the "Add to Cart" button. Now, the track is in your shopping cart, with the license type that you selected.
     
     
  5. Repeat 1-3 above for any additional music tracks that you also wish to license.
     
     
  6. Now click on "Cart" in the left menu on our site. You will now come to a page where you input your name, company name, email address and other information.
     
     
  7. Also on this page, you need to choose between three different payment gateways: Paypal or Stripe. These are just two different companies that we use to take payment on our behalf. Each of them accepts all major credit cards. So choose one of them, tick the mark to confirm you have understood and accepted the Terms and Conditions, and then click the PROCEED button.
     
     
  8. Now you will be taken to the web page for whichever payment company you selected. You are now on Paypal or Stripe. You provide your credit card information only to that company. We at Shockwave-Sound.com don't get to see your credit card number.
     
     
  9. Once you have paid, the payment company (Paypal / Stripe) sends an "immediate signal" back to our web server, and now our web server automatically finalizes the order, and sets it's status to "Paid". Our site automatically sends out an email to the email-address that you input in point 5. above, and that email contains a link to the "Pickup page" (download page) for this order. That's the page from which you download the music, and the license document.
     
     
• After I place an order, how long does it take to get a download link?

  There is no waiting time to receive your download. When you have paid, click "Return to Lynne Publishing" and then click "Proceed to your product download page". You are then taken directly to the page where you can download your product and your official Invoice and Music License Certificate.

  Additionally, an email is automatically sent out to you. This email has the subject: "Your Shockwave-Sound Order Is Ready" and it contains a link to your product download page, so you can go back to that page later to re-download your product any time you want. This email is sent out immediately on payment completion. You should receive it within 1 minute of having finished your payment process online -- but please wait 30 minutes before asking for help, because sometimes email can be delayed by high volumes of net traffic.

  Can't find your download? If you got lost along the way and you cannot find the email that we sent to you with the download link, you can still locate your download links using the My Orders page.

   

• I made an order, but I didn't get a download link

  You don't actually really need to receive the email with a link to the download page for the order you just placed. 

  You can just go to our site, make sure you are signed in, and then click on "My orders" on the menu on the left-hand side of the page. That will take you to a list of orders you've placed on our site. From there, click on the order number to get to the download page for that order.

   

• Is there a low-cost option for personal and non-commercial use?

  We have a few options for this:

  • Free use in non-monetized YouTube videos, where we get to keep a soft copyright claim on your video.
  • $2.95 per track for use in a personal project, family and friends, not for distribution.

  Please go to this article in our blog, to read more about these options.

  If you simply want to listen to our music, you can find a lot of our music just for listening on Spotify, Deezer, Soundcloud, or our YouTube channel.

Licenses and License Terms

• Will I get a real Music License Certificate and Invoice with my purchase?

  Yes. All our customers get real official Music License Certificate documents, which is also an official tax receipt. This is created automatically by our shopping cart system and is available to download from the order download page (the same page where you download the music or sound effects you purchased).

• Can I use your music on YouTube, Google Video, Vimeo and other similar video hosting sites?

  As long as you have purchased a license to the track you are using, yes you may. Your purchase with us includes a License to use that track in your YouTube videos - including monetized videos / commercial rights.

  If you have not purchased a license to the track you are using, you may not use our music on YouTube, Vimeo or other similar video sites.

• Can I use the music in multiple videos?

  Yes, you can use the music in multiple videos.

  Under the Standard License agreement, you may use the music only on one YouTube Channel (though in multiple videos on that channel).

  To use the music on multiple YouTube Channels, you would need to buy the music with the Extended License option.

   

• I paid for a track, and still got a "copyright claim" on my YouTube video

  Copyright claims on YouTube are automated. YouTube automatically recognizes music in videos, by using "audio fingerprint" technology and this is what causes 'copyright claims'.

  A 'copyright claim' is not dramatic. It is not the same as a 'copyright strike', which is a more serious issue.

  A 'copyright claim' does not cause your video to be blocked, and it does not cause any negative effect on your YouTube account standing. 

  We have our music managed at YouTube in a system called Licensease. When you place an order on our website, you can input your YouTube channel link on the checkout page. The music you are buying then goes into Licensease and gets cleared for use on that YouTube channel (from the day that you placed the order with us).

  Even if your channel is cleared for using the music, a soft "copyright claim" will happen, and then automatically self-release within minutes or hours. This is just how the system works. The YouTube copyright claim happens immediately when the music is found - and then the Licensesase automatic process will release the claim.

  If you got a copyright claim on your video and the claim is still there a few hours later, we'll be happy to help you. Please fill in our contact form and let us know (A) the link/URL to your video, (B) details of your license order, such as order number or customer name so that we may find the order, (C) information from the copyright claim screen on YouTube which displays the track title being found in your video, the artist and the company claiming administration of the track. We will help you to look into the matter, and possibly contact the artist to get them to help as well. If you are a paying customer, we will definitely get the copyright claim removed from your video(s).

• Any way I can use your music completely FREE?

  There is one scenario in which we allow the use of our royalty-free music completely free:

  • YouTube only.
  • Non-commercial / not for profit / personal project.
  • You allow us to keep a 'soft copyright claim' on your video. This will mean that you cannot monetize the video. The copyright claim does not have any negative effect on your YouTube account standing. It only ensures that the music owner makes 'micro income' on your video.

  If you are interested in using our music for free in your non-commercial YouTube video, please contact us.

  Of course, if you pay us for a track, you may use it in commercial project, business, for-profit video, without credit, and without a copyright claim, so you can monetize the video yourself.

• I want to add my voice over your music, to use as a Podcast intro. Can I do that?

  Yes, you can do that, no problem.

  Some people are confused over the part of our License Terms that say:

  "2. To not create derivative works of our Tracks: This means that you cannot buy our Tracks, add your own voice, instruments or sounds, and then treat that as your own music. What you are doing then is to create new music that is partially built on our music, i.e. a “derivative work,” and this is not allowed under ANY license type."

  What we mean is that you may not make new music based on our music. So if you are a rapper or singer, you can't take our music, sing over our music, and then try to release that music as your song. Or indeed, to play instruments over the top of our music and then treat that as "your music". This is what is called "creating a derivative work", you are making music that's really based on our music, just with your own voice or instruments over the top. And trying to pass that off as "your music".  That's what we don't allow.
  
  Using our music behind their own spoken words in things like Podcasts and instructional videos is fine - we don't have a problem with this at all.

• What are "PRO Tracks" and "Non-PRO Tracks"?

  PRO-tracks means that the music composer and/or publisher is a member of a Performance Rights Organization (PRO). These tracks are royalty-free for nearly all types of use without the need for any further licensing but, in some circumstances, these tracks may require additional licensing from the PRO in your country. Examples of this would be to use the music at a trade show in Germany or to play the music in a shop in some countries (not all countries). TV/Radio broadcasting requires that you file a cue-sheet when this music is broadcast, but this does not cause any additional costs or additional licensing required, as the broadcaster already has a PRO license.

  Most "royalty free music" websites don't even tell you when a composer/publisher is a PRO member, because it's only in exceptional circumstances that such membership actually causes additional licensing requirements.

  Non-PRO means that the composer/publisher is not a member of any kind of Performance Rights Organization. This music is completely royalty-free for all uses covered by our license.

  To read more about this, please see our article General Royalty-Free vs Completely Royalty-Free.

• If I have bought the Standard Licence for a track, and used the track in a video, can I post the video on both my Youtube and my Facebook account?

  Yes, you can.

• I'm a musician and I'd like to use your tracks/loops within my own music productions. Can I do that?

  No. Our music tracks and music loops are not meant for music producers to use within their own compositions.

  What you need is a Sample Library, ACID loops, Sample CD, or drum loops that are made for music producers.

   That’s not what we sell. At Shockwave-Sound.com we sell music that is already finished, complete. It’s not for musicians. Our products are for television producers, film makers, web site designers and multimedia designers who need finished music to use within their TV programs, films, web sites, Apps and Games, and multimedia displays.

   In fact, it is illegal to use our music or music loops within any kind of music creation / composition. Ref. License, "You may not create derivative works". You may also want to see this blog post which explains why we do not let our music be used as a basis for music composition or song writing.

   

• What exactly is "royalty-free" music?

  Put very simply, Royalty Free Music is a term used to describe music that you can use as much as you want, after having paid one single license fee.

  With traditional music licensing ("not royalty free"), a film- or media producer either had to "hire" music library per-month or per-year, and/or pay a fee for every minute, second, or every cue that the music was used in a production. Typically, a producer would pay an annual fee to have access to a music library on CD's, and whenever they made a programme or a project of some sort, they would then keep track of exactly how many seconds the music was used in the project, and then pay an additional fee (a "needle-drop" fee) in addition to the annual fee. If they used the same music more than one place in the programme, they would have to pay a needle-drop fee for each one. Additionally, they might then have to go and obtain a synchronization license as well, for the right to combine the music with the visuals. And on top of that, or as an alternative, they might also have to pay a royalty to the music library, based on the amount earned, or copies sold, of the product in which the music was used. Administratively, it could be a bit of a headache.
  
  "Royalty-Free music" was first introduced in the 1980's, and the concept is that a producer pays a one-time license fee for the rights to use the music, and that's it. The producer is then free to use the music as much as needed, drop it into a production in several places without having to keep track of that, and without paying any further fees. The same music could even be used for several different programmes (say, for the intro-sequence of a 10-part series), without any extra payments. This would normally work out both cheaper and a lot easier to administer than the traditional music licensing system.

  It's important to remember that "royalty free music" does not mean that the music is "copyright free" or that anybody can do anything with it. There are still rights, copyright, legal rights and limitations as to what you are allowed to do with the music. Somebody still owns the rights to the music. It just means that the licensing of that music is done as a one-time, up-front payment, rather than incremental earnings made later, as a result of sales or performances.
  
  When you buy a piece of music from us, your purchase gives you a license to use the music in a variety of different projects (See License Terms for details).
  
  Whenever music is used in a broadcast or public performance (such as a TV documentary, TV show, radio show, advertisement, etc.), or exported for the purpose of being broadcast abroad, the producer needs to fill in cue-sheets detailing the music used in the program. This ensures proper distribution of so-called Performance Royalties which is not an extra cost, but is paid by broadcasting corporations as a set annual fee. The cue-sheets simply ensures the right distribution of money already paid, and causes neither the producer nor the broadcaster any additional cost.

   

Listening to previews and downloading previews

• Can I download a preview file (a "temp" file) and try it out in my project?

  Yes, you can. When you are browsing music tracks on our site, you can see a little icon that looks like this:

  Click it, and an MP3 file will be downloaded to your computer. This MP3 file has an occasional voice saying "Shockwave-Sound... Preview..." to remind you that this file may not be used in any final release product, or used in any form of distribution, free or paid.

• Can I download preview files without the 'preview' voiceover?

  We have a special area of our website where it is possible to download non-watermarked preview files, to test the music in a project without the 'preview' or 'shockwave-sound.com' voiceovers. Access to this area is limited to: Large volume customers / Long standing repeat customers / High profile, large companies / Other companies that we feel it is in our interest to grant that level of trust. All downloads of non-watermarked preview files are registered by your login and IP-address. If you wish to apply for access to this area, please follow this link.

Technical issues and file formats

• What are stem files?

  Stem files is a way to deliver the music to you, where each instrument / sound / layer of the instrument is in its own separate audio files. For example, the drums is in one audio file, the bass is in another audio file, the piano is in yet another audio file, and so on. By playing all of the sounds together at the same time, you will hear the full music track. By removing, muting, or changing the volumes of individual audio files relative to the others, you can take away, or reduce the volume, of some instruments. This gives you creative freedom and flexibility when using the music and will perhaps help you get the music to fit better with your project. To read a little bit more in-depth about this, and to see a short instructional video, see this article about working with stem files. 

• What are the "Music Loops" and how do they work?

  A "music loop" is a short piece of music that can be played over and over again in a "loop" so it sounds like a never ending music track.

  A music loop is typically 10-40 seconds long. When it reaches the end, it instantly jumps back to the beginning and starts playing again. The start- and end-points of the loop have been cleverly edited to make it sound like it didn't "jump" back to the beginning at all, but simply continues to play.

  Music loops are most commonly used for web sites or in Flash presentations -- which is why they are sometimes called Flash loops or web site loops. They are also often used in apps and games.

  On a web site, you want visitors to be able to see and hear the site as quickly as possible after they arrive. You don't want to have to send too much data to the visitor before he/she can experience your site, because you don't want your visitor to have to wait for large amounts of data to transfer to their computer. Because the music loop contains only enough data for a few seconds worth of music, there isn't a lot of data that has to be sent to your visitor before he/she can hear it. You can just send a few seconds worth of music, and that's enough for the visitor to be able to listen to music for as long as he/she is on your site. That's why loops are often used on web sites.

   

  If you are looking for music for media that's not going to be put on the internet, you're probably better off using the "full length version" of the music, rather than the loop. Although loops are great for web sites because they are so small, it can become a little monotenous to listen to the same 20 seconds of music over and over again. So if keeping the file sizes to a minimum isn't a real issue for you, then go for the "full length version" of the music, which will be more varied and have different sections and variations throughout.

• I bought a music loop, but it doesn't loop seamlessly. It kind of "hiccups" at the loop point. Why?

  All our loops play completely seamlessly, without any stutter, jump, skip or hiccup at the loop point, if used correctly.

  There are two things that can "ruin" a seamless loop, and cause it not to loop seamlessly during playback:

  1) Converting the loop to MP3 format. A seamless loop cannot be stored in MP3 file format, because of a limitation in the file format itself. The MP3 file format always includes a tiny bit of silence at the beginning and end of a file. This is why we don't offer our customers to download loops in MP3 format, only in WAV format. As soon as you convert a loop to MP3 format, it starts to hiccup at the loop point. This is not a weakness of our loops, but of the actual nature of the MP3 file format. If you are using Flash, you should always import the WAV file into Flash, and then use Flash's built-in compression settings (File, Publish Settings) to compress the audio.

  2) The other possible problem with a hiccuping loop is that the actual playback program isn't jumping right back to the beginning after reaching the end, without taking a little pause first. This is a well known problem with, for example, RealPlayer, Quicktime Player and Windows Media Player. If you ask these programs to play the sound in a loop, they do, but only in the sense that a CD-player does it -- i.e. there is a little pause while the program "re-locates" back to the beginning of the file. Again, this is not a weakness of the file, but of the playback method.

  The best way to use a music loop is to import the WAV file (without converting it to MP3 first) into Flash, and then use Flash's built-in compression settings (found under File, Publish Settings) to compress the audio. 

• What is the difference between the full-length versions, 60/30-seconds versions, and loops? Can the 30-second version loop?

  We present most of our music in different cuts/lengths: Full length version, 60-secs version, 30-secs version, and "loops".

  The full-length version: Typically plays for 2-8 minutes, and is quite simply the "whole" music piece. It begins, plays for a few minutes, and ends. If you play it with the loop setting ON, it will begin, play for a few minutes, end, wait a few seconds, and then begin again.

  The 60-secs and 30-secs versions: These begin, play for 60/30 seconds, and end. If you play them with the loop setting ON, they will begin, play for 60/30 seconds, end, then wait a couple of seconds, and begin again.

  The "loops" are typically 10-30 seconds long each. The beginning and end of the file is cut/trimmed in a clever way to make the end jump right back to the beginning in such a way that it sounds like it just keeps playing. If you play it with the loop setting ON, it will play for however long you want, or forever, until the viewer exits the page. Every time it reaches the end, it jumps immediately back to the beginning, and it does this without any skip or jump, it sounds like a never ending piece of music that just keeps playing.

  The loops are practical for use on web sites and in mobile apps & games, because you are only actually dealing with a few seconds worth of music, there isn't that much data that has to be transferred to the viewer's web browser, and this helps to keep your site/game loading fast.

  To learn more about music loops and how they work, see "What is a music loop and how does it work?".

• What's the difference between normal CD-quality and High Definition 24-bit files?

  Most of our music and sound effects are now being made available in High Definition, 24-bit sound files. However, some of our back catalog is still only available in regular CD-quality (16-bit, 44.1-khz).
  
  When searching and browsing for music / sound-FX on this site, you'll get more search results by including both HD/24-bit files and regular CD-quality files in your search. But if you're working on something that really needs 24-bit audio fidelity, you may want to limit your search to only 24-bit / HD files.
  
  A purchase of 24-bit/HD file also includes a file that is downgraded to regular CD-quality / 16-bit, 44.1-khz. You download a .zip-file that contains both the High Definition 24-bit file, and the normal CD-quality 16-bit file.
  
  If you want to learn more about our High Definition 24-bit royalty free music and royalty free sound effect files, please see this article.

Custom music editing - making a track fit my project

• Custom music editing - making a track fit my project

  For our customers here at Shockwave-Sound, we offer a free music editing/customization service. 

  For example:

  • Create a longer-playing version of a music track that plays for the length of your video/presentation.
  • Edit out a part/section that you don't like, or doesn't fit your project.
  • Make the track go quieter or louder at certain times to match your project.
  • Remove the intro / build-up, to make the track go straight into the main part.
  • In some cases (where we have the track's stem files) we can change the volumes of different instruments/sounds in the music, or remove certain instruments from the mix.

   

  This type of music editing work is quite easy for us - We have a ton of experience and we use professional music editing software and various techniques such as precise cutting, looping, cross-fading, volume equalization, overlaying etc. to create a version matched to your video or other projects.

  We only do this for music tracks and sound FX that you have actually licensed from us here at Shockwave-Sound. We do not work for free on any music/sounds that you've obtained from anywhere else -- though, we may do that too, for a service fee.

  This offer is with an understanding that we will work for free for you "within reason". We'll spend minutes, maybe an hour or two -- not several hours or days.

  Please contact us through the contact form to request help from our free music editing and customization service.

Other - misc

• I heard a music track on the radio. Do you have it?

  No. We don't sell music tracks by "popular" artists such as John Mellencamp, Dollie Parton, 50 Cent or any other artist or song you may have heard on the radio. All our music was composed by our on-staff composers and producers.

  If you want to try to license the use of a popular music track, one good place to start your quest would probably be at the Harry Fox Agency, where they at least should be able to get you started.

   

• Cookie Policy

  We use cookies to keep track of what you have in your shopping cart, which tracks you have \"tagged\", your track display preferences and (if you choose so) to store the name, company name and email address on the checkout page, to save you from having to type it again next time. No sensitive or financial information is stored in our cookies.

• Privacy Policy

  When you sign up for a user account with us, you are asked to provide the information we need to fulfill any orders you place on our site.

  We never share your information with any third party. Only Shockwave-Sound.com staff will have access to the data.

  The data will be retained on our server until such time as you as a user ask to have it deleted.

  You have the right to be forgotten. Should you wish to have your user account deleted, please contact us to request this, and we will promptly delete your user account from our database.

  Login by Facebook: If you log in with Facebook login, we obtain your name, your email address and a numeric user-ID from Facebook. This information is used to identify you in our order system, shopping cart system and track tagging system. We do not receive any other information from Facebook and we do not request or receive access to post anything on your Facebook page/profile.

  You may request deletion of this data by contacting us and ask to have your user account deleted.

  If your user account is deleted, your information will still be stored as part of customer data on any orders you have placed with us, because the order history is not deleted even if we delete a user account. Should you wish to have the information about your past orders also deleted, please specify this in writing, and in this case, we will also delete the customer information from any and all orders you have placed on our site. Such action will completely eradicate any trace of information about you or your purchase history on our site, so it will be impossible for you to re-download your past orders, invoices, license documents, or to obtain from us any proof that a license purchase ever took place. 

  Being contacted by Shockwave-Sound: We send out newsletters a few times per year (no more than once per month) with major new releases, announcements and special offers. If you do not wish to receive such newsletters, please log into your Shockwave-Sound user account, go to your Profile page, and switch off the option to receive newsletters. OR, simply contact us and tell us that you do not wish to receive updates or offers from us.

  At Shockwave-Sound we never get to see any financial data such as credit card numbers. These are gathered and processed by our e-commerce partners PayPal, 2Checkout or Stripe. For information regarding their privacy policies, please refer to their websites.

  If you wish to make a complaint about how your data is being stored or used, you may complain to the national data authority.