I’m convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that the only way to survive in this world is to get a law degree. In an age where everybody and their grandmother is itching to sue the poor sap who just happened to not know the law, a degree could very well be a life saver.

Well, I can’t supply you with a law degree. Nor can I give you any law advice. Only a lawyer can do that. But I can warn you about some of the pitfalls associated with purchasing royalty free music. If you’re not careful, they could land you in a boatload of hot water.

Let’s start with PRS and ASCAP, which is the US equivalent of PRS if you’re living in the UK.

On the outside, it would appear that purchasing royalty free music is a simple process. You pick out the piece of music that you want, pay the fee and then you can use it for whatever project you had in mind as often as you need to use it.

In most cases, that’s exactly how simple it is and there is no need to be concerned about anything else. However, because some royalty free music creators like to cover all their bases and protect themselves further (something I personally don’t understand, but whatever) they will register their music with one of those two organizations depending on where they live. I live in the US, so if I were to register my music, it would be with ASCAP.

So what difference does it make if you purchase music registered with ASCAP as opposed to not being registered with ASCAP or its British counterpart?

Let’s take this example as a way to explain it.

Suppose you run a music venue out of a small club. And before each show begins you play a short little intro of music that you purchased. Let’s say you do 365 shows a year. That’s 365 performances of this piece of music.

If the music in question is not registered with ASCAP or PRS and the creator of the music gives you unlimited rights to the music, then there is nothing to worry about. There are no outside agencies to be concerned with. But what if the piece of music IS registered with ASCAP or PRS. What happens?

Well, if either of these two agencies gets wind that you’re using music registered with them as more than a one time thing, they may very well contact you and inform you that you owe them performance fees for each time that piece of music was played at the venue.

Even though the composer of the music claimed his music is royalty free, because he registered it with an outside organization, the organization in question is more than entitled to come collecting, even though the composer won’t see a dime of that money.

This is why if you decide on purchasing royalty free music you specifically need to ask the composer or the site selling the music (assuming the site has numerous composers) if in fact the music you’re purchasing is registered with either of these agencies. If the answer is yes, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to have to pay additional fees for multiple performances but it could. You need to be aware of this.

This is just one of the pitfalls of purchasing royalty free music.

But they don’t end there.

It has become very easy for people to steal things, especially off the Internet. A site claiming to have royalty free music could very well be one that has simply pirated music from other sources and you’d have no way of knowing until one day you get a knock on the door from somebody with proof that they are the original composer.

In my case, all my master tracks are time stamped and verified, something that a pirate won’t have. They’ll only have the MP3 files off this site. They won’t have the individual track breakdown or sheet music (which I have in some cases) to verify that the music is original. So if you’re concerned about any of the music on my site, just email me for documented proof. I’ve got tons of it.

In short, beware of pirates.

Another pitfall of purchasing royalty free music is the actual quality of the tracks you’re downloading. Some sites will have sample clips on their site where the quality is better than the actual file that you’ll download. This is kind of a bait and switch thing.

Then there are the sites that only allow you to preview 30 seconds from a 3 minute song. Then you download the track and find out that the last 2:30 is absolute garbage. No reputable site would do this and expect to stay in business long. But still, it’s something you need to look out for.

Finally, there is the trap of getting sucked into these package deals. On the surface they sound good. But then you download the whole package (say 200 tracks) and find out that only about 30 or 40 of them are any good and in the long run you would have spent less money had you just purchased the 30 or 40 tracks that you needed.

On my site you will get to hear every track in a package so you will know just how good, or bad, each track is. That way there is no guessing or wondering if the package is any good.

The above only scratches the surface of some of the problems you’ll run into when purchasing royalty free music. Unfortunately, we live in a shady world. If there is a way to put one over on the public, somebody out there will figure out how to exploit that way. At wagsrfm.com, what you see is what you get. No punches pulled and no bait and switch. Just the best music that I can give you at the best affordable price.

The key is knowing exactly what you want BEFORE you buy it. To that end, in future articles I’m going to cover just how to do that.

See you then.

For The Love Of Music,

Steven “Wags” Wagenheim

A very common question is this. “Why do artists make their music royalty free?” There are actually a number of reasons why artists do this and each artist may have a different one. I’m going to go over some of the more common reasons and then I’m going to honestly tell you why I personally make my music available royalty free. The candidness of my response might surprise you.

One reason that an artist might make his music royalty free is for exposure. Think of it, if you will, as a company selling a product and in order to get you to buy that product they give you another product of a lessor cost for free. This is done as an enticement to try the more expensive product.

If you look around the Internet at many sites selling some product or another, you will often find words like “Free Report” or “Free Download” or “Free Sample”. A big reason why this is done is because today’s consumer is very wary of buying anything, especially online. The horror stories of crooks and con men are rampant over the web. In fact, things have gotten so bad that the FTC had to recently step in with some regulations on what you can and can’t say on your site when selling a product. As a result, consumer confidence is shaky to say the least.

So music creators as well as other vendors will create what is called a “loss leader” in order to gain the public’s trust in the hopes of selling a more expensive product.

Let’s face it, relatively speaking, royalty free music is cheep. Especially when you consider that a piece of music where you have to pay a royalty fee for can run you tens of thousands of dollars, if not more, if it ends up on a CD or movie soundtrack that is seen, heard, purchased or whatever, millions of times. So while the music creator could make more money selling music where they got a royalty for, making their music royalty free is more enticing to the customer which means more purchases which in turn means more exposure for them as an artist. This could, down the road, lead to higher paying projects.

It’s really no different than an actor starting out doing commercials because the exposure might make it easier for him to break into doing feature films, or a comic doing improve to start before landing a sitcom or playing Vegas.

Another reason why composers might make their music royalty free is because they don’t want the hassles of the more lucrative writing gigs. There is an old saying. “Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.”

As somebody who has been in the music business since 1979, I can tell you that it is not all roses. There is a lot of politics, hobnobbing and backstabbing. There are a lot of compromises that you will have to make. Think you have any real creative control or input? When the executives say “I want a 3 minute pop tune” and then go through all the things they want in it, they’re not kidding. And if you want to keep your writing gig, you’ll give them exactly what they want.

And contrary to what most people believe, being a pop song writer doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to make a fortune, even if you write a song that’s a hit record. At 2 cents royalty per song (after all, the artist, label and a whole lot of other people involved also get their cut) you have to sell a boat load of records just to make a decent living. And hit records don’t sell forever. Eventually, they go off the charts and the sales stop, which means the royalty checks eventually stop coming in or at the very best look more like an electric bill for a bungalow.

Point is, because of the frustrations and corporate BS that you have to put up with, royalty free music, as a business model, can be a relaxing and refreshing change of pace.

Another reason composers will choose to create royalty free music is because of the ease of creation.

When you’re writing for a major project, you’re under some very strict guidelines as I stated above. When you’re writing royalty free music there are no constraints. Take a look at this very site. You will notice that there are a number of categories from acoustic to rock and everything in between. There is no way that you have that freedom of creation when you’re working on a specific project or an artist says to you “I want you to write this kind of song for me.” You do what you’re asked to do, period.

The royalty free music business is total freedom. Sure, if you have to do a custom track for somebody then it’s different. But you’re always free to turn down any work you don’t feel suits you. And in the meantime, you can continue to write any tracks you like and put them up on your site because you know there is somebody out there who is going to want it. Just looking at my daily download logs is proof of that for me. In fact, I am often surprised at some of the tracks that have been downloaded.

Okay, so why do I personally do royalty free music? Well, to be perfectly honest, my experience with the music business in 35 years has been less than pleasant. It is a rough world out there. My successes have been few and far between. In short, I like to eat and praying for a hit record is no way to live. So I’ve turned to this business model because it is a fairly certain income.

Will I ever get rich off of this model? Probably not. But as long as my wife is working and the bills are paid, I’m content with this model. At the very least, it allows me to do something that I love without all the hassles and pitfalls that I’ve outlined above.

So when you get a chance, check out some of the music on this site. You may just find something that you can use.

For The Love Of Music,

Steven “Wags” Wagenheim

A question that a lot of people have is this. What are the best uses for royalty free music (RFM)? You would be surprised at all the things that RFM is used for. But where do you get the best bang for the buck? After all, in most cases you’re paying a fee that is slightly higher than if you were to pay a royalty for each use per use itself.

For example, if you only need to use a piece of music five times and only have to pay $20 for each use, that’s still cheaper than buying a piece outright that’s going to cost you $1,000. In this case, you’ve spent $900 more than you had to. Now, if you need to use that piece of music 10,000 times then yes, you’re better off paying the one time license fee for RFM and be done with it.

So to answer the question of what the best uses are, one has to look at the various uses for RFM to see where you are likely to make out better with an outright purchase than having to pay per use.

One of the best uses for RFM is when you’re creating a product that is going to be sold or distributed in bulk.

For example, I myself am planning on putting together a CD with a collection of original songs targeted to a certain sub niche of the dieting niche. If this CD sells a lot of copies and this music was not original but licensed with the requirement to pay a royalty fee for each song on the CD and for each sale of that CD, imagine how the costs would add up if the CD contained 10 songs at $1 royalty for each song. That’s $10 per CD. If you’re selling your CD for $19.95 that means for each sale you’re losing more than half your profit to royalty fees.

Imagine you sell 1 million copies. That comes out to $19,950,000 in sales and $10,000,000 in royalty payments.

Now imagine you purchased royalty free music and each song cost you (I’ll go crazy on this one) $10,000. That comes out to a total cost of $100,000 for the 10 songs. So instead of your net profit being $9,950,000, it’s $19,850,000 because you opted for a one time license purchase rather than pay a royalty for each song.

Sure, you’re not going to pay $100,000 for 10 songs unless you are pretty darn sure that you’re going to make your investment back. Naturally, if you are unsure then maybe paying the royalties is the way to go even if it means a lower net profit at the end of the day. The upside is, if the CD is a loser you don’t really lose any money on the purchase costs of the music. If you sell no CDs you pay no fee.

This is why it is critical that before you even decide on what music to purchase and how to do so, you have a pretty darn good idea of what you expect your CD to do in the marketplace. Naturally, your best bet is to write and produce your own music. But if this isn’t an option then licensing music is your only other alternative.

Another great use for royalty free music is if you’re doing some kind of theatrical production. If you know anything about the theater you know that it’s very unpredictable. A show could be a huge hit or close after one night. If, however, you know how long your show is going to run, you can calculate how much you can spend on royalty free music in order to make a profit.

Let’s say you’re producing a musical and there are going to be 12 tunes in the show. Each tune, if bought outright will only cost you $20. That comes out to a total cost of $240. Now, if the show closes in one night and you only sold 10 tickets, yeah, you’ve taken a bit of a loss on this.

But what if you know that you’re show is going to run for a year. It’s an iron clad contract with the theater. Do you really want to be spending even $1 per song for each performance? After a year, that $1 per song ($12 per night) is going to come out to over $400 if you’re doing one performance per night.

And what happens if you decide to make a CD out of one of the performances and sell that? With royalty free music there is no additional cost over the $240. With music you have to pay a royalty for you are now paying an additional $12 for each CD sold.

Again, volume is going to be a big deciding factor on which direction you’re going to go in.

What if you’re making a movie and you need a title theme? Let’s say the main title theme is 3 minutes. In most cases, this is going to cost you $300. That might seem like a lot of money compared to that same 3 minute tune that you might have to only pay $1 for each time the movie is shown.

But what if this movie ends up as a huge hit and is shown all over the world? Hey, it can happen. Dream big. Would you rather pay a one time $300 cost or pay $1 for each movie theater that show the film, for each TV broadcast, for each DVD sold, for each…well, I think you get the picture.

And therein lies the key word…picture. Or should I say, big picture. You need to look at the big picture. You need to always ask yourself. Where will I be spending more money if this venture is as successful as it can be? Can I afford to go the royalty free route if the project is a bust?

The more sure you are that your project is going to succeed, or success or failure isn’t part of the equation, the more it makes sense to purchase royalty free music IF the number of uses of that music would total more money spent IF you payed a royalty for each use. And all you need to figure that out is a calculator.

For The Love Of Music,

Steven “Wags” Wagenheim

I’m going to cover quite a bit in this article so pour yourself a cup of java (or whatever brew gets you going) and pull up a seat.

Let’s start with what royalty free music is because a lot of people have some pretty wild misconceptions about its definition.

In spite of what a lot of people think, royalty free music is not free. It’s royalty free and that’s a big difference. So I guess what we have to do is start off with defining exactly what a royalty is.

A royalty is a sum of money that is paid to the creator of some piece of work (could be just about anything) for each use of that piece of work.

So for example, let’s say Jim Smith wrote a poem and had it copyrighted and Sally Jane Ayres wanted to use that poem as an opening for a play that she had written. Sally would have to pay Jim whatever fee was agreed on EACH time that play was performed and each time that poem was read.

Let’s assume this play was on Broadway and was performed daily 365 days a year. And let’s assume that each time the poem was read (once per performance) Sally had to pay Jim $10. Over the course of the entire year, that would come up to $3,650 in royalty fees.

That’s a nice little sum a money.

Now, what it Jim made his poem royalty free? Does that mean that he gives Sally the poem for free? No, of course not. What it means is that he licenses the poem to Sally for a one time fee, say $25. After Sally pays the one time fee, she can then read that poem as often as she likes without having to pay any additional monies to Jim.

That is essentially what royalty free is. It’s a one time charge to allow someone unlimited use of a piece of work for no additional fees.

So royalty free music is music that is written for the express purpose of charging a one time fee to whoever purchases a license for it. In return, that person can use this music as often as they like for whatever project they need it for.

Now, it’s important that you understand that because this music is licensed, that essentially means that the creator of the music can license it to as many people as he likes.

Turn on the TV sometime and you might notice music that you hear on more than one show. Now more likely than not, especially if it’s well known music, this music is not royalty free. A fee is paid for each use. I mean you really don’t think “Eye Of The Tiger” comes with royalty free rights. I picked that song because I think it’s appeared in more movies and TV shows than just about anything else I can think of.

But the principle is the same. More than one person can purchase rights to use a piece of music, royalty free or not. My point is, your purchase of a royalty free piece of music doesn’t mean that you’re the only person who can use it. Don’t confuse a royalty free license with an exclusive license. They are not one and the same.

Take this site for example. There are currently over 5,000 tracks on it available for license for a one time fee (between 99 cents and $2,99). As many people as I allow (I may take a track down if it’s being licensed too much) can purchase these tracks and use for their projects. That is essentially how a royalty free music creator earns their living, through volume, since the licensing fee is usually so small in comparison to a non royalty fee. And again, this will depend on how often the piece of music is going to be used.

So let’s do some math. Let’s say you wanted to license “Eye Of The Tiger” for a one time use and the royalty payment for that one time use is $20. That’s not too bad. But what if you needed to use that song 100 times throughout the course of the year? Now you’re running into a bit of money depending on your budget. I don’t know about you but I don’t have 2 grand laying around to hear that song 100 times. This is why royalty free music is so valuable to so many people.

Okay, so why DO you need it? After all, you have other options available to you. You can license music with royalties or you can hire a composer to create a piece of music just for you.

In some cases, especially if the music is for a one time use, paying the royalty can be cheaper than getting royalty free music. Seldom, however, will having someone compose a custom score for you be less expensive. My custom scores essentially go for about $100 per minute of music. That’s not exactly chump change.

So I guess the question comes down to this. How can you tell if royalty free music is your best option?

To answer this, you need to do a bit of math but not much.

Take the project that you’re working on and analyze it. How much music do you need for it in minutes? How often will this music be performed, broadcast, distributed, sold, and so on?

After you’ve done that, you need to look at how much it’s going to cost to license music where you need to pay a royalty for each use. The base cost may be lower than the cost for royalty free music but if how often you’ll be performing this music is considerable, you will probably end up paying more money for the track that has a lower base cost.

Example:

The song “This Is My Royalty Pay Song” costs just 10 cents to license for each use or distribution.

The song “This Is My Royalty Free Song” costs $1,000 to license.

On the surface, it would appear that “This Is My Royalty Pay Song” is the better deal. After all, it only costs 10 cents to license. But that’s 10 cents for each use.

What is this was something you were going to distribute in a workout CD set and that CD sold 1 million copies? You would have to pay that 10 cents for each copy sold. That comes out to a royalty fee of (hold onto your cookies) $100,000.

Now imagine you purchased my custom royalty free track for $1,000 and used it for that same workout CD.

You just saved yourself $99,000.

Too many people look at the base cost of a song’s license fee and base their decision on that. They then end up spending more money because of the use factor.

Yes, those pennies add up.

This is why, if you do an Internet search, royalty free music is in such demand. Those who understand how this system works realize how cheap royalty free music is in the long run. Again, this will depend on how much you intend to use it.

After reading this, you might decide that royalty free music is not something that you need. But at least you’re now informed and understand the difference between royalty and royalty free.

Knowing the difference can make a HUGE difference in YOUR bottom line.

For The Love Of Music,

Steven “Wags” Wagenheim