U don't need Royalty Free Music but this instead....

JayManOurMusicBox

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Ok so a lot of people maybe shock to read this but let me first give you a bit of background about myself so you know I am not just making this up. I have been a professional full-time composer/producer for more than 20 years. I started out writing jingles for TV and radio and have scored for series, played live for touring artists, played in music festival, jazz clubs, you name it and of course composed for online productions.

What is royalty free music? Royalty free music is music that you do not have to pay any royalties when using it. So what are royalties? Traditionally you would have to pay performance rights organization (PROs) like ASCAP (US), PRS (UK), GEMA (Germany) etc when using music for your production. These organizations help their composers collect royalties based on the how, where, when, how many times a composer's music is used. However PROs royalties only apply to traditional media like broadcast (TV and Radio), film, instore music and physical performances. They do not apply to online - YouTube, Twitch, web, Vimeo, Daily Motion videos. So you would only need royalty free music if you using it for your TV commercial, radio commercial etc. It does not apply to online videos as PROs have no jurisdiction to collect royalties for online use.

I myself am not a member of any of these societies although I had contemplated in my earlier years but decided against. So my music is royalty free.
There are pros and cons of being a members of these PROs but that is another story for another time.

In summary, you do NOT need royalty free music for YouTube.
Instead you should be looking for is music that is YouTube friendly and allows you full monetisation.
 
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InstaSound

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This is nonsene.
You are not allowed to use music without owning the respective rights. Simple as that. Doesn't matter if online or not.
 
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MattyGreen

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Whether or not the world of Copyright Law has caught up to the streaming digital era is irrelevant. YouTube states in it's rules that you cannot use 'Sound recordings and musical compositions' So therefore you are going against YouTubes Terms of Service by using copyrighted music which means you risk getting your account banned. Why would the Content ID system exist if they allowed you to use copyrighted music?
 

JayManOurMusicBox

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This is nonsene.
You are not allowed to use music without owning the respective rights. Simple as that. Doesn't matter if online or not.
Mate this discussion has nothing to do with rights etc. Of course you need to be given the rights to use the music.
This discussion is about 'royalty free music' and why you don't need it for YouTube.

Royalty free music does not mean non copyrighted music. You need to know your terms mate.
Besides all music is copyrighted automatically to the creator of the music.
There is no such thing a non-copyrighted music.
Refer to this: copyright.gov/circs/circ50.pdf (go to this page)

So you do need to get permission from the copyright owners before you use any music. Whoever produced that track, is the automatic copyright owner of that song. No copyright music does not exist. Expired copyright does and it is called public domain (dead composers works after x amount of years).

The point I am making here has nothing to do about rights.
It is about the term 'royalty free music'.
People are constantly searching for 'royalty free music' when what they actually need is music that has nothing to do with it being royalty free. Royalty free only applies to you if you are using for broadcast. It's an old world's term. You don't pay royalties when using music online or for YouTube. So why do you need royalty free music then?
Btw Royalty free music means music that is free from any royalties payment claim.
Eg. 'Sugar free' isn't free sugar but instead no sugar.
 
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ApexTV

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Awesome post! Thanks so much for sharing it with us!