We are building 1RoyaltyFreeMusic.com

Welcome to 1RoyaltyFreeMusic.com where the term royalty-free music really does mean totally royalty-free music.

Why royalty free may not always be royalty free:

Generally speaking, whenever you see the term “royalty free music” being used on the internet, it does not necessarily mean that the music is completely royalty free. Most likely, it’s royalty-free for some uses, but not for others. For example, public performance, broadcasting, on-stage, or on-hold use may not be allowed without a separate license from your country’s performance rights organization (PRS, ASCAP, BMI, GEMA, etc.) These terms can usually be found deep inside the “small print” of most, nearly all, sites and services that offer stock music, or royalty-free music.

While this may work ok for some music users, for others it may represent a risk of additional, surprising expenses later. Say, for example that you produce a video for a client. You license stock music from another “royalty-free music” website and sure enough, you won’t have to pay any royalties. But, a year later, your client for whom you made your video, now wants to use this video at a trade show in Germany. Your client will now be invoiced by GEMA, likely several hundred dollars, because it turned out that the composer who wrote the royalty free music was in fact a member of ASCAP, and while ASCAP may not collect for using his music at a trade show in USA, ASCAP is represented by GEMA in Germany, and they have a different policy on music usage than they do in the USA. So, unwittingly, your music which was licensed royalty-free in good faith by yourself, has accidentally caused your client to be billed hundreds of dollars by a performance rights society in a different country.

In another example, you’re making a video for YouTube. You license music royalty-free and you get the permission to use the music on YouTube. No problem. But months later, your video may be compromised by annoying commercials & advertising, ruining the mood of your video. It may turn out that the composer who wrote the music was a member of PRS or another royalty collection society. These societies work with YouTube to collect money for their composers by monetizing the videos (in the form of advertising) in which their composers’ music are playing.

There are many ins, outs and complications involved with using so-called royalty free music which is not always completely royalty free after all. The different performance rights societies in different countries work in slightly different ways. In the USA, ASCAP are said to be “non-exclusive” but if you read the small print ASCAP website, you will find that you need to pay ASCAP a license to use “their” music on a website. And when I say “their” music, I mean any music that is composed by any composer who is a member of ASCAP, or indeed a member of any performance royalty collecting agency elsewhere in the world, which are represented by ASCAP in the USA.

What makes us different

Here at 1RoyaltyFreeMusic.com we offer only music that is 100% royalty-free for all uses. That includes broadcasting, in-public performance, trade show play, on-stage / theatrical, TV/radio, YouTube, video games, products for sale, websites, and everything else. We do not accept any music composed by any composer who is, or has ever been, a member of any performance rights society or royalty collection society, anywhere. Period.

That is why our motto is, “1 Payment covers everything. Guaranteed”.

Admittedly, we sell two different License types. You can buy our Standard License, which covers you for most commercial uses. Or, you can buy our Mass Market License, which is meant for (you guessed it) mass market use. For details, see our full license terms (Coming soon).

Whichever license type you choose -- Once you’ve purchased that one license from us, you will never, ever need any additional licensing. Not from us, not from PRS, GEMA, ASCAP, BMI, SOCAN, BUMA-STEMRA, STIM, or anybody else.

We are currently setting up our shopping cart software and creating a great user interface for our customers and contributors.

Speaking of contributors, if you are a musician who would like to have your music sold through this site, please contact us through Shockwave-Sound.com. Please note, due to the reasons discussed above, we are only interested in working with composers who are not, and have never been, a member of any royalty collection society.

Keep your eyes on this site for more updates, soon! And in the meantime you can check out some royalty-free music at Shockwave-Sound.com.

By the way, you can reach us also via this shorter website name: 1rfm.com