Music FAQ
The Most Frequently Asked Questions
1.) What is Royalty Free Music?
3.) Are instrumental versions of your tracks with vocals on AJ available for license?
4.) Is it possible to buy the full rights to a song?
5.) Why does that annoying voice keep speaking over your Royalty Free Music?
6.) Will songs on AudioJungle ever become available to those who just want to listen?
7.) Why don’t you have more music on iTunes and other music sites just for listeners?
8.) Will you play Overwhelmed at my Wedding? Please! 
What is Royalty Free Music?
“Royalty Free Music” is a term that refers to production music that has no additional fees to pay once the music has been bought (licensed). It is purchased once and (depending on the license or company selling it) can be either used a single or multiple times. Since it has no additional license payments it is classed as ‘royalty free music’.
Traditionally, production music had to be licensed each time it was used as part of a production or broadcast. For instance, TV programmers would have to pay a ‘Needle drop fee’ each time the music was used as part of a broadcast i.e. every time the needle was dropped on the record! The disadvantage is that it could be expensive and time consuming.
Royalty Free Music (RF music) is simply a way to make licensing music easier, cheaper and more convenient.
The Convenience of Royalty Free Music
The convenience of RF music means that it is an excellent solution for most production companies. The music is usually composed especially to work with TV, film, radio, computer games or multimedia. Its very composition targets certain moods, genres or themes. It is tailor-made for that exact purpose and fits the criteria of most production music needs.
What about using Commercial Music?
Sometimes production companies and other music users like to use commercial music on their projects but this can be very expensive and complicated. It takes a lot of time to find out the copyright holder and apply for the rights to use commercial music. Also, the administration job can be lengthy and hard work. On top of this the fee can be quite expensive!
To avoid disappointment and even having to remove music from a film or video project at a later date it is advisable to use royalty free music, since it is both easy to access and also always a cost effective solution. Royalty free music allows music users to use a piece of music that is just as well produced and composed as other types of commercial music but without the cost, time and effort involved.
What musical styles or moods does Royalty Free Music cover?
These days Royalty Free Music is produced to a very high quality and covers every genre of music and mood. The extensive use of Royalty Free Music means that all types of music are produced to fit the job. Royalty Free Music Music covers everything from pop, dance, jazz, blues, rock, folk and country to orchestral / cinematic pieces and more!
The Benefits of Royalty Free Music
• It is easily accessible.
• Simple to license and download.
• Cost effective and saves time.
• Piece of mind knowing you are using music legally.
• Composed in all musical styles.
• Finished and mastered and ready to use.
• Can be used again and again (depending on the license and company).
Special thanks to Beatsuite.com for the definition help!
What Is AudioJungle All About? www.AudioJungle.net
AudioJungle is the world’s fastest growing marketplace for world class royalty-free music, sound effects and audio content!
AudioJungle has an audio library of around 40,000 items (at the time of writing this at least) including music loops, music packs, source files, and both full length vocal and instrumental tracks.
With high quality audio ranging between $1 – $14 for single tracks, and it’s host of internationally recognized producers and composers, it’s no secret why The New York Times boasts AudioJungle as a world contender in royalty-free audio.
AudioJungle isn’t just a market place however, it’s a community where authors and buyers come together to form successful long lasting business relationships.
So whether you’re a producer, an indie film maker or a large production company,they will no doubt have the audio that’s perfect for your upcoming projects!
I have been selling Royalty Free Music on AudioJungle since August 2010 and am at the time of this post closing in on 3,000 sales worldwide!
The video above was created by me for an AudioJungle competition and features the track “Straight To The Top”.
Are instrumental versions of your commercial tracks with vocals on AudioJungle available for license too?
For almost all commercial tracks that have vocals on AJ (AudioJungle), yes, instrumental versions are also available to license. For most cases however, an extended license of a vocal track is required to obtain the instrumental. So just to clarify, if you would like an instrumental of “Give Our Dreams Their Wings To Fly” for example, you would purchase the extended license on AudioJungle, and then e-mail me through my AudioJungle profile page contact form stating that you’ve purchase the extended license and would like the instrumental.
Once I verify the license purchase from AudioJungle, I will then send you a link to download the instrumental via e-mail. If you require additional information, please don’t hesitate to contact me online.
Is is possible to buy the full rights to a song?
Yes, it is possible to buy the full rights (the copyright) to a song, though prices can be expensive and differ depending on the desired song. If you are interested to the full rights to a track you can contact me here, but please, only very serious inquiries only.
Why is there an annoying voice in the background on all of your Royalty Free Songs?
This question is my favourite, and whenever it comes up each person reacts uniquely. The voice you hear on all of my Royalty Free music tracks is an audio watermark of a woman saying “Audio Jungle”. This watermark was created by AudioJungle and is required for me to sell music on their website. In fact, my terms as an author there state that it is necessarily that I include the watermark wherever the song is posted as a sample. In addition to being a legal requirement, the watermark helps to protect music against illegal downloading and use.
Let’s be honest – we live in a world that is all to often trying to get something for nothing and this helps to protect my music while allowing me to continue to write and produce content for buyers and fans!
Without getting paid, I could not continue writing and producing quality audio content. I am very aware however that the ones who complain about it on Youtube and Twitter are usually the ones trying to get it for free anyway 
– OR, want a Royalty Free song for listening purposes. While I completely understand that, and understand it can be annoying, the whole purpose of me displaying the audio tracks online is for preview purposes for potential royalty free music buyers.
A lot of interest has grown for my royalty free music for personal listening however this is actually more of a by product of the great exposure I’ve been blessed to receive by being used in various projects all over the world. While I will continue to release music for listening purposes, that is not my primary focus right now.
Will songs on AudioJungle ever become available to those who just want to listen, like iTunes?
This is my ultimate desire to make this happen, however it’s a little complex. The music I have for sale on AudioJungle.net in under an exclusive account, meaning that music can only be sold on that website. In return, I get a higher commission rate on sales. I have personally been lobbying AudioJungle to make a way to allow authors to sells songs to both business and regular consumers at different price points, however they have not yet budged on that topic. So for now they will remain Royalty Free, however in the future if things do not change, I will pull some of the songs to re-release them on iTunes for the general public.
Another scenario is if a song should go viral because of an advertisement it’s used in, I will also pull the song from AudioJungle to sell it on iTunes or a similar service. The only reason I am reluctant to do this is because once I remove a song from AudioJungle they will not allow you to re-add it to their library. As many songs continue to do well and be in demand by people for commercial use, there is no reason to pull the material for now.
Why don’t you have more music on iTunes and other music sites just for listeners?
When I first began pursuing music as a career, making albums and touring was initially my first plan. Growing up in an environment where I saw my father (who was also a producer) deal with many record labels both independent and major however turned me off to the idea of being signed. It became my goal to continue to write what I wanted to write and release what I wanted to release without the pressure of a money hungry label (and not having to sell my soul to it!). Financially however, going it alone was excruciatingly difficult at the beginning stages.
Unfortunately in the world today, though there are many honest upstanding people, it seems there are many more dishonest people who feel music should be free. To an artist just starting out, pirated music is enough to almost cripple your efforts all together – equipment and software costs, studio costs and living expenses on top of that make it near impossible when people don’t want to pay for music.
This was my first experience as an artist: you release a few songs, and if they are well received, almost immediately they start showing up on thousands of torrent sites. Now of course I am happy that people like the music enough to pirate it in that sense, however I had to change my strategy a little to continue to pursue my dream. I am not going to let pirated songs stop me from writing, however I don’t want to have to rely on money from iTunes or similar music providers alone to live.
I began writing Royalty Free Music to compensate for the income side of things – because while individuals may escape using music illegally, businesses and corporations with deep pockets will not take that risk with the fear of massive lawsuits.
So for now, I mainly write and produce for licensing purposes (mostly for TV and film) and royalty free content, however that does not mean I don’t have some upcoming plans for iTunes releases or live shows! What I have on iTunes currently are songs that were for specific projects that I still wanted to make available to the public. There will be MANY iTunes releases in the future crossing many genres, but right now I am primarily concentrating on building my Royalty Free portfolio. Due to the popularity of many of the Royalty Free tracks I am now doing the best I can to release songs I believe will be wanted for licensing and for listening – however this creates a tricky situation with different contracts and agreements. So if your a fan, which you must be if you’re still reading, hang in there! More music is always in the pipeline!
Will you play Overwhelmed at my Wedding? Please!
The success of Overwhelmed has been insane, the good kind! Unfortunately however, this has simply created a world-wide explosion of wedding performance requests that is simply impossible to do for one man. I am truly honored that you want me to play personally at your wedding (really!) however for now I must decline.