If you’ve been making YouTube content for any amount of time, you’ve probably come across the term “royalty-free” when looking for music. If you’re wondering “what does royalty-free mean?”, don’t worry! We’re here to help you understand the term and why it’s kinda a big deal. We’ll help you understand the basics of royalty-free music, how you can get a royalty-free music license, how it differs from copyright-free music and what you can do with it to go claim free on YouTube.
So let’s get going, here’s everything you need to know about royalty-free music.
You’ve probably already gotten your head around what copyright means in music and you probably know that when you use music in your videos, you’re only allowed to use music with permission. You probably also know that it can cost money to get that permission. What’s not as commonly known is that paying for permission to use a song on a video comes in two forms.
Number one is an upfront fee. You pay the owner of the song (or their representative) directly for permission to use the song in your video. That’s simple enough, but something else happens after the video is released. By law, money is owed to music Creators for broadcasts (or plays) of their tune as a part of videos, shows, or anything else they might be used in. This money is called “royalties”, and the rules around what royalties are owed when, and by who, can be tough to navigate.
For a YouTube Creator, keeping track of royalties can be nearly impossible, not to mention expensive, so sometimes music is offered on a “royalty-free” basis. This means the music creator has waived their rights to these “backend” royalties because they understand your plight and want to help!
That’s what “royalty-free” means, in a simplified nutshell.
The most important part to understand? “Royalty-free” does not necessarily mean “free”. You may still need to pay something upfront but after this initial fee, you may be free to use the song as you please without having to pay more fees.
No, royalty-free music isn’t free. It sounded too good to be true, didn’t it? Sadly royalty-free music isn’t free. It can be, but generally, you’re having to pay some kind of fee for the music.
Sure, in some instances people will offer you their music to use for free and that’ll still be royalty-free but generally, stock music for YouTube videos is not actually ‘free’. You’ll still have to pay for the right for that music to be free from royalties, usually with a one-time initial fee. Then, after you’ve done this the music will be royalty-free as you’ll not have to pay any further costs.
Copyright-free music has a couple of distinct differences to royalty-free music. Music becomes copyright-free after the passage of time. This varies from country to country. In the United States, for instance, it’s 70 years after the last surviving writer passes away. This makes it very limiting. The other instance is when a writer completely passes up their rights to a piece of work, which again is very rare. There are a few ways to tell if a song is copyrighted.
Both of these instances are different to royalty-free though. Royalty-free music is still copyrighted, you just aren’t having to pay royalty fees on it.
Sometimes, companies handle the royalty-free part, but not the claims-free part, and that can be a huge hassle. Another thing to watch out for – sometimes a “royalty-free” library is a dumping ground for cheesy, generic music. So much so that the term “royalty-free” can be synonymous with “bad” – the best artists avoid “royalty-free” libraries.
Lickd is different. We make sure our music Creators are fairly compensated while still keeping fees affordable for you. We’ve gathered over 1 million tracks from real artists, with real careers, real fanbases, and real music for content creators, all pre-negotiated and ready for you to use in your next video. Royalty and claims-free. Sign up today to get 25% off and never worry about a Content ID claim again!
First things first – what’s a royalty?

What is royalty-free music?
What does royalty-free mean for music?
The best way to highlight what it actually means for music, is to show you what it means in a real-world example.- Say you want to add one of the most popular songs for YouTube videos; SAD! – XXXTENTACION as the backing track to your upcoming video.
- If you purchase a royalty-free license for this track, you’ll pay the price you’re quoted a single time.
- It won’t matter whether you have 10 subscribers or 10,000,000, or how many platforms you want to use it on. Once you’ve paid that initial royalty fee, you won’t have to pay anything further.