What is music licensing for video and why would you need to purchase a license anyway? Can’t you just grab a piece of music or a song and attach it to your YouTube video, promotional video or online advertising video?
Well, technically you can, but you do run the risk of getting sued. Or at the very least being asked to remove the music from your video due to a copyright breach.
Just like photos, text and just about everything else you find online and off, music comes under the term of “intellectual property”. Meaning, the rights to it are owned by the creator or rights holder. Therefore, unless the music is offered up royalty free and free of charge, you can’t legally use it in your video without first purchasing a music license that gives you that privilege.
If you want to use music in any of the following videos, without fear of repercussions, then you will either need to create the music yourself, or pay for a license to use it for the specified purpose.
- Wedding videos
- YouTube videos
- Personal website videos
- Advertising videos
- Promotional videos
- Trailer videos advertising movies or games
Pretty much any type of video that you create will require the purchase of a music license to legally be able to feature a piece of music in sync with the video. It’s also known as a sync license.
Fortunately sync licenses for personal videos and wedding videos don’t cost all that much, in some cases maybe even less than $20. The average would be somewhere between $25 to $50 to purchase a sync license for a personal video. That price will generally go up when the project is for advertising purposes or a film.
I license all my music through Songtradr Music Licensing. Their prices are pretty competitive and there is a lot of quality, original music on their site -, some with vocals and many instrumentals. Click on the logo below and go on over and check out their great site.
Hi,
I knew that using music for your video would require buying the licence. Just as you mentioned, create your own music or use royalty free.
Same would apply to images. Royalty free music or images may not necessarily provide you with what you really want. So in some cases buying the license may be worth it if you can pay. A little less then $20 is not bad to pay.
I checked out the music website…it’s very nice.
Thank you for sharing.
Hi Rosa,
Just to clarify, royalty free doesn’t necessarily mean free. It just means you don’t have to pay ongoing royalties for the use of the track. Most images on stock photo sites are royalty free, but you still have to pay for the right to use the image in your project.