music for videos

Is royalty free music really free?

The answer to that question is yes and no.

What does creative common licence actually mean?
Let me explain there is a term called creative common in short this means you can use somebody else's work if you don't change it in ANYWAY.
If you include a music track in a video for instance that constitutes changing the track/music, its that simple.

Example: Finding Royalty free music on Soundcloud
So lets say you got to Soundcloud and find a relatively unknown song under the creative common licence agreement and use it in your video, you upload the video to youtube and everything is hunky dory.

Then all of a sudden 12 months later out of the blue you receive a copyright claim from youtube.

Music marketing companies are the same companies who are offering paid for music are looking for these artists and they find them sooner or later, sign them up to an exclusive deal that money-torises all there content.

And on top of that there are Right Management Agencies who are trying to sign the same artists to do income shares. Meaning the same song you found 12 months ago falls under that NEW licensing agreement.

Not to mention bogus people trying to claim the same music as theirs only to steal your income. (that's another long story for another day).

All this is making the water very murky indeed.

One of a few things can happen when you change it from its original usage by adding it to a video.  Technically the video is now deemed "for commercial use" because you can derive an income from your video on youtube.

Because the music is now in the video the creative common rule no longer applies.

Or all the income from the video goes to the music company, who in turn pays a royalty to the artist.

If you find something you like on soundcloud reach out to the artist and get permission to use it in your video.

You can only really do this if you are doing it for non commercial gain.
If you are planning to use it for a client or a commercial then you need to come to some to an agreement on how the artist is going to get paid.

Simply put the music artist is an artist like you, and should get paid for there skill, you wouldn't like it if someone downloaded your videos and re uploaded them to YouTube for commercial gain without your permission.
Treat fellow artists the way you would like to be treated.

We learnt the hard way on multiple occasion, but only a long time after we had made the video.
The video above copyright claim only came about 12 months after we made it.
Our personally take is that the artist gains great exposure from having there music in a video, but you must ask them first or pay the consequences of your actions.

Royalty FREE Music For YouTube Videos

youTube Audio Library Link

So you shouldn't have any problems finding the best background music for travel video. If you are interested in seeing how we use, music for vacation video montage & travel videos then check us out on YouTube.