Royalty-Free Music Music FAQ Licenses Scoring Services

Support! :-) Donate Email Me Everything Else

Graph/Grid Paper Monthly Calendars Yearly Calendars Mailing Labels

How Copyright Law Applies to This Site and You

Copyright Origin and Rights

Every piece of music on this site is Copyrighted. Even the recordings that were written by Bach and Beethoven are Copyrighted.

Every time a piece of music is recorded, it immediately becomes Copyrighted due to the "Copyright Act of 1976".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Act_of_1976

The 1976 (and 1998) Acts grant the copyright holder many exclusive rights, including the right to sell, perform, display, and create new works based on the work.

Once the piece of music is recorded, I am the only person with those rights.

Giving up Some Rights (Creative Commons)

I choose to give away many of those rights, with some stipulations. This is covered under the Creative Commons: By Attribution license.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/legalcode

But there are still rules you need to follow to use the music - they are just different from the standard copyright rules.
Under standard copyright, you can perform any music, but you must pay for it.
Under Creative Commons, you can perform my music, but you must credit me.

You can sell a movie with my music in it, if you credit me.
You can not sell the rights to use my music to someone else.

Another Kind of License (No Attribution)

There is a hole between these licenses; if you wish to use a piece of my music but do not credit me.
This most often happens in short radio and tv productions, but can be in any medium.

I offer a license where you can still use my music with worldwide distribution, not crediting me, and also not paying royalties.

More about this license is available here: http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/licenses/

As of May 12, 2011 - the text for this license reads

For good and valuable consideration, receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, Owner hereby grants to Producer the right, but not the obligation, to incorporate the audio described above ("Property") in any manner Producer sees fit in the production ("Program") only and to use and authorize others to use the Property as so incorporated in the Program in the distribution, sale, licensing, marketing, advertising, promotion, merchandising, exhibition and other exploitation of the Program in perpetuity, worldwide in any media currently known or later devised. These rights are non-exclusive. All other rights are reserved by the Owner.

In full consideration of all rights granted herein, Producer agrees to pay to Owner and Owner agrees to accept, a fee of $______, US Dollars payable in full within ten (10) business days of initial airing or sale of the Program containing the Property provided mutual execution of this authorization has occurred.

Owner warrants and represents that Owner has the right to grant all rights granted herein and Producer and or Company's use of the Property as permitted herein will not infringe on the rights of any third party. Owner waives claim to any compensation from Producer for use of items noted in this document. This release applies to any and all media and related usage in any future forms, and in any location.