Freesound Forums

I know this doesn't relate to freesound.org, but what if I come across a CD that says "royalty free" but doesn't come with a license? Is this a scam? Or do they have to license me the music because it says "royalty free?"

You basically need to know how the cd is sold. Often a lot of sound samples collections get featured as royalty free, but the reality is its royalty free after you pay for the license fee.(not always though) I guess you'll need more information either way about the "royalty free" cd.

Well, this is the website: (http://loops4u.com/)

They don't let you have the samples unless you pay for them, and I already bought one of their CDs, and they never asked for a license fee. I also see no place on the website to pay for a license fee.

I don't know about this, but back when I worked for a radio station, we had a royalty free cd. Actually, it was simply a very expensive cd, so you paid for the royalties when you bought it, but you could use it unlimited. We used it for show tunes, commercials, lots of things. I've never seen a license with it, but somehow I think that's not necessary.
Think of it this way, I can take lots of public domain sounds and music recordings (like from Archive.org) and put it on a cd and call it royalty free music. It is true, it's public domain, I cannot claim they're my sounds, but I can use them any way I like and it doesn't need a license.

Yeah sorry for confusing you, buying the cd is usually like purchasing a license.

If you really want to be safe you can contact them at sales and ask them what the exact terms of use are for the samples. Like where you can use them and what for. Quickly looking at the site, its samples look designed for free use.(provide you bought the cd) But you're better off asking the terms of use to be sure.

I know about three hundred websites where you can buy royalty-free music, or production music. I really don't know if there is any of them providing it for free.You can make an online search for the purpose.

Benjamine
I know about three hundred websites where you can buy royalty-free music, or production music. I really don't know if there is any of them providing it for free.You can make an online search for the purpose.

Everyone here gave you very good information.
Now on a second note... if you came across this CD in a "used CD" store, or bought it from a friend, then you need to contact the company. The CD itself was probably purchased for $100+ dollars, which included the license fee. Now if you bought it second hand, then you don't own those rights. I've done this a couple times off Craigslist.com

You can contact the company and tell them you bought it off a friend or in a store, and they give you a discounted rate. But technically, you don't own the rights to the royalty free cd until you talk and make a deal with the company. Can you use it if nobody knows? yes... but not recommended.

Sound Ideas is the only company I know that actually watches their product on Ebay and other trading sites... So I alway make sure to go through them when making second hand purchases. Hollywood Edge could care less. They tell me they sold it and they don't care. But its always good to call the company and see what they say.

I'm lucky that i found a good royal free music https://www.neosounds.com and it wasn't scam

vergilmc wrote:
I'm lucky that i found a good royal free music ... neosounds.com and it wasn't scam

Reviews of that website on WOT services are not favourable ...
https://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/neosounds.com/comment-79760193#

[Like nemoDaedalus (above) , my suggestion would be Kevin MacLeod ... http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/ ]

I still have some Computer Music magazine CDs from over a decade ago with a few good sounds on them. Back then someone actually did see fit to write to the magazine and ask what ‘royalty-free’ meant and the reply was “You can do anything you want with our samples, other than redistribute them as samples.” In other words, use in completed compositions was fine, but redistribution as-is was not.

Of course, this isn’t necessarily true of everything described as ‘royalty-free’, but the doctrine of implied consent would tend to apply in many juristictions for compositional use if no other licence or terms of use were provided.

I might add that similar terms seem to apply to hardware synths with bundled samples. For instance, the manual for my Roland V-Synth forbids copying the bundled samples verbatim, but musical use is fine (you get the feeling it would be a bit of a shot in the foot if you couldn’t actually use the instrument you bought for £2000 at 2003 prices...)

I'd like to add a really helpful tip and a caution to anyone using Royalty-free sounds:

Make sure your sounds are free of Content ID when people try to download them. On Audiojungle, a stock sfx/music site, people are buying licenses to music and sounds and are having their videos shut down by Content ID notices, even though they bought a license.

Youtube's system for handling Content ID is automated, meaning people are losing money and business. If you need to use some sound effects, have a tool or something to scan each sound for Content ID. If it shows up, be very careful how you use it.

Best I can suggest as a sound designer is to see if you can get a copy of the original files from the artists directly, since some sites automatically add the Content ID as part of the uploading process on the site.

One thing to note is that Content ID has to be registered before it is activated, so that's a good thing.

If you need magical sounds or ambient tracks, I specialize in both.