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If you are podcasting, hopefully you know that you can’t just play your favorite radio tunes over the internet airwaves without having to pay royalty fees. Even if your best friend is your only listener or even if it’s just a snippet of your favorite Bon Jovi song as the intro, you WILL get in trouble…eventually.
It’s great to have music as an introduction and to use as segues between your show segments. The music can become your signature or brand, the tune that identifies YOUR show to the listeners. The trick is to find podsafe music, which basically means that the artist who created the music is willing to let you use it as many times as you like, without paying royalty fees.
By doing an online search, you will find many websites that offer podsafe music, which is royalty-free. However, the big mistake many podcasters make is believing the music on those podsafe sites are free of charge. There is a difference.
One of my clients was searching last week for some free of charge, podsafe music for her podcast. Being that she’s working from home, her budget was limited, hence the “free of charge.” She found three awesome tracks that would have worked perfectly for her show except she missed the rate card, which stated she would have to pay about $500 for a licensing fee. She was also fooled by the “free” in the company name.
Licensing music is basically paying upfront for permission to use the music for a certain length of time for a certain number of projects. If you are part of a huge corporation with a monster-sized budget, then licensing would be no problem. But for the home-based business owner who wants to start podcasting, keep looking.
What would have happened had my client simply downloaded the track and started using it? Presumably the company has a way of checking which IP address downloads files and whether they have a license. Which means eventually they would have sent a letter to my client threatening court action (which is stated very clearly in their terms of service). That’s not a risk any small business owner should be willing to take.
If you want podsafe music that is free of charge, check out Podsafe Music Network. It’s free to register and there are no charges for using the music. Check out the Terms of Service because I believe you are supposed to credit the song and artist on your website as a courtesy, but simply find your track and download the Mp3 file.
Music Bakery is another wonderful resource for music BUT there is a one-time charge for purchasing any track that is listed. This is a worldwide, lifetime license to use that track as often as you like. Many of my clients have found awesome music there but it’s not free of charge.
Now that you know the basics of podsafe music, have fun searching for your perfect theme song!
