While it’s true, at least before the recent shutdowns due to the pandemic, that the real money in the music industry came from live shows, it’s worth noting that there is one other area of the business model that is going swimmingly and that’s the royalty-free market.
A number of sites and services have cropped up offering free, or very cheap, access to royalty free music for use in your personal video content. This could come in the form of music that overlays your social posts (which can prove very effective indeed), to your short film productions, podcasts or even your wedding videos.
The library’s offered for such services are vast, some are simply mammoth-like in their size, and the genres of royalty free music that are available will pretty much suit any need you might encounter.
If we are now living in the content creation age then the key need of musical accompaniment has never been so vital and frankly trying to license and use songs, or even short portions of songs, from big-name artists is just not cost-effective outside the use of national television stations or very large production companies.
Therefore scanning what’s on offer from those in the business has never been more relevant, or indeed easier.
Some services even offer you access to latest albums available from artists who are freely making their efforts available on a royalty free basis, no doubt confident that the use of their work may well open doors in the future.
Artists that are hosted on these relevant services aren’t usually signed up to major labels but that doesn’t lessen their quality, indeed if anything the work they produce is more bespoke in nature and could well be a smoother fit for whatever niche you are looking to cover.
For example, perhaps you represent a budding new brand looking to market your services across all the relevant social channels and you are seeking a kicking beat or an ideal tune that will linger in the heads of viewers who come across your offering. A good track could prove key in getting the most out of your promotion or advertisement.
Of course it’s not just specific songs you are looking to use, it’s also SFX (sound affects) and again the royalty-free model is one that works ideally for such a service.
Most sites offering these packages are super intuitive as they are built specifically to fit your needs, all manner of options are available and prices are far cheaper than you’d imagine, and a fraction of the costs associated with licensing existing commercial efforts from established acts.
Among the acts that we’ve been enjoying of late are the minimalist stylish licks coming from Spearfisher along with the dreamy soundscapes produced by Denitia, there really are a huge number of relatively unknown gems out there, just waiting to be used to perfectly push your projects, be they personal or public in nature.
This move was perhaps an expected one. Great advertising productions have become the bread and butter of some acts’ attempts at breaking the market. There was of course the time Moby did all he could to get the tracks of his Play album licensed as far and wide as possible, this led to that album selling 12 million copies.
Then there was the succession of number one hits that sold by the bucketload after appearing in Levi jean commercials.
Music helps to cement the quality of the visual placed against it, this goes from personal social media posts (Tik Tok users can’t get enough of matching short-sharp portions of songs to their latest dance videos), to branding efforts used to bring maximum awareness to the company running them.
The nature of buying music has evolved over recent years and the act of purchasing a musical product is in many ways alien to the younger demographic. However the use of music as a product in it’s own right, outside of one’s personal enjoyment, is becoming a more common portion of the revenue producing arm of the industry.
It appears that the readily accessible music market, where you can download and play any track you require (usually for free via a paid streaming service), has on the whole made the commodity of music somewhat cheaper on the whole.
However services that offer royalty free music for personal and commercial benefit could well be a bright new future for emerging acts.
