Technology has made many things possible today and changed the landscape of many industries. Technology has even created a few industries. None more infamous than the video game industry.
But when comparing the dawn of the video game industry to the present the difference is as vast as the difference between the Bronze Age and the industrial age. For years video game developers were almost thought of as mythical. Now anyone can make a mobile video game from home even a full on computer game.
But there are downfalls to everyone having such ready access to this technology. The biggest problem is copyright issues, specifically with copyrighted music.
There are many options for video game developers to choose from in order to add the right music and sound effects for your project. But not knowing the difference between royalty free music and copyright free music.
Keep reading to learn what royalty free music is and everything you need to know about it.
What Is Royalty Free Music?
Royalty free music is music that is free of royalties. Meaning that the artist doesn’t receive anything every time the song is purchased. For video game developers this means being able to purchase a music license once.
Music Licenses
Music that is copyrighted requires the purchase of a license in order to be used by someone else for commercial or publication reasons. Basically, no one is going to have an issue with that cute tribute video you made in middle school is set to one of the top 40 at the time, however, publish that to social media and things can get sticky.
A song is broken into two components for the purposes of copyrighting. There is a copyright for the musical composition and sound recording. This means that requiring a musical license requires permission from multiple copyright owners/holders.
Royalty free music sites provide these licenses for a one-time fee that allows the buyer to use the song for as long as they like. The important thing to remember is that royalty free music is not free music. It is only free of royalties. Like tax free.
How Does It Differ from Copyright Free Music?
Royalty free music and copyright free music are actually two completely different things. Where royalty free music is free of royalties only, non copyrighted music or music is located in the public domain. This means that anyone can use the music for anything they want for as many times as they want.
Benefits of Royalty Free Music
There are many benefits to royalty free music. While some might claim that royalty free music is cheap, poor quality, and stock music, the truth is quite different.
Using royalty free music is a great way to create a quality audio library for your projects. These audio libraries allow you to organize and store all the audio files you use for your future projects. Either for reuse or to avoid reuses.
Royalty free music also grants you access to popular more mainstream music and sound effects as opposed to music found in the public domain. This allows you to use high quality audio samples and files adding an extra level of immersion and quality to enhance your game.
Where to Find Royalty Free Music
There are a variety of options when it comes to finding royalty free music to use for your games. Remember these are not non copyrighted music or music files, these are royalty free. The price for these files could be anywhere from free to over $300. But most seem to keep prices relatively low and reasonable.
If you enjoy making videos for YouTube and the video sharing platform offers an audio library. This library consists of over 1,000 tracks you can use for music or sound effects. However, for those who are into more intricate and complicated projects there are other options such as Sound Strip, Audio Jungle, and Vimeo Music Store.
Choosing the Right Sounds for Your Projects
When choosing the right sound for your project you should know which songs and effects are safe to use and which will land you in a heap of financial and legal trouble. You aren’t allowed to use just any music or sound effect file you come across. You will need to instead be sure you have the right to use the music in your project.
Royalty free music is the best way to do this. Be sure to conduct your research and give your project the best chance at coming to life by using the perfect music and sound effects today.
