When searching for free music, you have to be careful where you find it and what you can include in your video. It is important to understand the difference between the term “copyright” and “sovereign freedom” because there are many misconceptions surrounding these principles at the moment.
Free and stock music are not the same words. Stock Music is just a library of pre-made music that is licensed and used. Some stock libraries offer free music; however it is not required.
How to Get the Right Licensed Music to Use in Your Videos
Understanding music licenses can be a daunting task, and melodyloops.com can help you with that. But before you can download music online and stream it to your videos, it is important to understand what you are getting yourself into.
There are two types of free music related licenses – public domain music and free licensed music. This image is a good illustration of all the different types of licenses involved in music production.
Public Domain Music
Public domain music, which you see below the image, includes music that is not copyrighted, and may be used without permission, and without the payment of the actual artist. In fact, the music is for everyone and everyone, and you are free to use it the way you like.
Within the public domain, artists have exclusive rights to music recordings. For example, if you put your creative spin on a Beatles song, record it, and sell it online, you have the rights to that file.
Music Protected by Free Licenses
With music licensed for free licenses, artists can establish guidelines for duplication and distribution of work. These types of licenses often fall within the terms of creative commons, referred to in the image as “CC.”
Creative Commons
Creative commons licenses include works that are no longer freely distributed. However, it is very complicated – there are four conditions that apply to creative commons, and six licenses based on those conditions.
Four Circumstances to get Licensed Music
For Credit
If you use or distribute, you should give credit to the original artist for the work.
Non-commercial
With non-commercial licenses, the activity cannot be used to monetize, or be injected into a product or service for sale.
No Based Works
You cannot create an activity based on the original.
Share Similar
You are allowed to release new functions from the original, but must be protected under the same license.
Now that we know about the four conditions under which creative commons are kept, let’s look at how we can combine these to develop six types of licenses.
