Royalty free vs. Performance Rights Organizations

Dear fellow audiojunglers, I have been thinking for quite a while about an issue that imho hasn’t been entirely cleared by various older forum threads that I read on that topic.

What I’m aiming for is the term “royalty free” vs. “sync fee free music”. I try to make it as short as possible (esp. since it is hard for me as a non-english native to dive into legal or technical terms, but I try my best to describe it).

I know that there are authors on this marketplace that are not related to any performance rights organization and there are authors who are (member of a performance rights organization (PRO) like ASCAP , BMI, GEMA , PRS, SUISA etc.).

So my question is the definition of the term “royalty free”. Let me put this in an example:

Client XY buys a track on AJ for use in a youtube vid that gets an remarkable amount of views. If the composer of the bought item is not associated with any PRO than nothin happens. BUT … if the composer of the item is associated with any PRO it might happen that this client gets a calling from that composers PRO to pay royalties for the usage of that musical work in a public context (Given the fact that this PRO howsoever gets to know about this particular usage).

So my question reduces to the following, does “royalty free” mean a)”Client, you will never need to pay anything once you have purchased this track” or does it mean b) “Client, you paid a much smaller fee than a traditional “sync fee” but there may be future royalty payments involved if that’s a work of a PRO ”.

As far as I remember I once read somewhere, that you cannot sell items that are registered with a PRO . If that’s the case, my understanding of that is, that no PRO registered composer could sell tracks here, since you can’t choose which tracks are registered and which are not. If you are member of a PRO all your work will be covered by the PRO .

I hope that someone can share some insight on this, maybe even a PRO registered member to give some insight how this is handled.

Thanks and may sales ya all Dirk

Royalty Free Music is exactly as the name implies: royalty free. Any works sold as such should not be registered with a PRO , and as an author you DO get to pick and choose which songs you register.

I was just wondering, found this on another page that I don’t want to name here, since its a competitor to AJ – “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.” bla bla.

I only know from the german GEMA that you CAN NOT be picky which tracks to represent and which not, they represent your entire portfolio (even if you haven’t registered the tracks), but I don’t know how other PROs handle this. If a track was bought for broadcast and they put your name on a cuesheet it will be quite likely that the PRO will put this to their registered member for example. So I’m not convinced and satisfied lol.. Any more ideas on that?

Just looked up terms of german GEMA , which clearly states that ” a member of GEMA must not write “royalty free” music. In correspondence to AJs terms and conditions that means a member of a PRO is not allowed to sell here? Anyone knows how other PRO handle “track picking”?

Dirk,

I think that is where the sticking point is. GEMA , I believe, licenses exclusively. So you wouldn’t be able to be a GEMA member and sell on Audiojungle. At least that is my understanding.

North America has 3 PRO ’s, I believe. Ascap, BMI , and SESAC . I know BMI and Ascap are not exclusive. Not sure about SESAC . Meaning, a member of Ascap could register a track with ascap and not sell on Audiojungle. Or sell the track on Audiojungle, and not register it on Ascap.

So I believe this is where some of the issues are with AJ rules. Because not all PRO ’s worldwide are the same, and it gets very confusing.

I believe AJ is working on changing some of the licensing guidelines. I’m not sure how new AJ licensing will incorporate PRO ’s or not.

I’ve always thought that PRO -members cannot sell any stuff on stocks.

permian said
I’ve always thought that PRO -members cannot sell any stuff on stocks.

That may be the case with some PRO ’s. Not Ascap or BMI .

PRO ’s BMI and ascap exist for the sole purpose of collecting “performance” royalties for authors who have their tracks registered with those PRO ’s. A person does not have to register all their tracks to BMI or Ascap, but they can still be members. If they don’t register a track into their BMI or Ascap catalog, it would not collect performance royalties if it got airplay on radio or tv.

I’m a member of SOCAN (the Canadian PRO ) and have to explicitly register songs to earn royalties on them.

gbiasillo said
I’m a member of SOCAN (the Canadian PRO ) and have to explicitly register songs to earn royalties on them.

Yes. SOCAN was the other PRO I was thinking of. Similar to BMI and ASCAP

In Spain it is the SGAE the organization of rights. If you belong to this organization all your tracks will be managed by SGAE . It does not matter if only you have registered any in this organization and other tracks not esten registered. Care! I do not know in Germany or England but to the being members of the EU it is possible that equal.

Cheers!