If you produce film or video productions, big or small, then you will be aware of the minefield that surrounds securing great music to accompany your visuals. There are many ways you can look to find and use great resources to score your projects but in reality the most convenient and highest quality option is royalty-free music.

So What is Royalty-Free Music?

Free royalty music is musical content that is available for a one-off subscription fee and comes with all the relevant licenses included into the package. This makes life much easier for directors, producers and editors to go about marrying the visuals to the score in a way that enhances the potential of your overall vision.

The content you have available, especially from the best operators, comes from musicians, singers, DJs and bands who are benefitting from a steady stream of income (which is quite rare in the music industry at present) as well as the chance to secure a great deal of exposure.

So what are the main benefits of royalty-free music? Here are five that spring to mind.

Great Variety

The best royalty-free providers offer thousands upon thousands of tracks and samples and this variety makes it much easier for you to find just what you are looking for, rather than settling for music that you felt just ‘sounded right’. 

By looking for music in this manner you get to really test out and try a vast selection of possible options before finding the right one for your needs.

No Need to Worry About Licensing Issues

Have you ever tried to clear music for use in a film or video production? If you have, then you’ll know it’s a mighty task. Even if you happen to know how the licensing system works, and have found out all the relevant rights holders and reached out for clearance, the journey doesn’t end there.

The costs of getting a mainstream song cleared is huge and the worst part is that even if you have the budget, it’s very likely that you won’t be given the permission anyway. Especially if you are not a known player in the film or tv field.

You Won’t Break Your Budget

It’s likely that the project you are undertaking operates within the confines of a tight budget and trying to score your production AND stay under the costs you have factored in, is very tough indeed. 

Subscribing to a royalty-free provider is much cheaper than you might think and far far cheaper than trying to clear individual tracks, the additional bonus is that you’ll save the time and effort you’d need just to manage the process of getting the relevant copyright license.

Access to Sound Effects

As well as scoring your project with musical tracks, you are likely to want to use sound effects. The good news is that most royalty-free music providers offer a strong suite of options in this avenue also. 

This means that the entire process can be taken care of within the same subscription and the top brands in the field offer very large databases of SFX (sound effects) so again you’ll be covered for most eventualities. 

Similarly, these libraries are well ordered so that you can easily locate the right sound effect. These are usually split into genres and types, making it a real pleasure to scroll through and test out what’s available before you select the effect that pays off.

High Quality Music Files

A common complaint when it comes to trying to score a film or video project comes in relation to the quality of the files that are downloaded and synced with the visuals and this is doubly true for those who look to use music that has seen it’s copyright expired, or that’s available within the ‘public domain’, both of which can be very old indeed.

Often when using these files, downloaded from the few sites that offer access, there are issues with the quality and this can have a negative effect on the overall project you are trying to put together. This isn’t an issue when you sign-up with any of the best royalty-free music providers, who offer sound files of various high quality denominations. 

Royalty-Free Music, The Smart Choice

There is a reason royalty-free music is experiencing a renaissance and that’s chiefly due to two factors. Firstly the amount of content we produce, and consume, as viewers and creators in 2021, is vast. We, as an audience, have a voracious appetite for content and this has led to an increased need for the services that royalty-free music providers offer.

The second key reason the royalty-free music market is growing and that is down to the quality of the product on offer. An increased need for the service has led to an ever improving product, both in terms of the music offered but also in the interface that it is delivered in, this has led to a perfect storm that has resulted in it being the ideal time for you to consider signing-up and trying it out for yourself.

Author Name: Eddie Davis