What does Royalty-free music mean?

Royalty Free Music. What does royalty free mean?
　Many people who see the proliferation of royalty-free sites are confused by what this actually means. I will attempt here to to give a brief , but hopefully easy to understand explanation as to what the term royalty-free acutually means, and how to apply it's use.
"Royalty free" as it applies to music, is the right to use music without having to pay a royalty fee. The use of certain intellectual properties require users to pay a royalty fee to the owner, creator or copyright holder of that property.
Royalty-free does not mean the product is free or public domain, it just means you don't have to pay royalties.
Royalty free or buyout music, and it's use is governed by the the licensing agreement that you agree to when you obtain the music. The license type will determine how you may use the music, whether you can use it in a commercial production or in a personal or non-commercial production, and what the limitations are. License agreements vary considerably. It always pays to read the fine print.When you purchase a piece of music, you buy the rights to synchronize the song with your productions. The music and it's copyright will however, always belong to the copyright holder of the product. Generally you pay a one-off fee to purchase the use of the music, and then no more fees are required. AS long as you abide by the conditions of the license you should have no trouble.
So what are royalties?

Royalties are fees that are paid to rights owners (such as record labels, publishers, composers and artists) for the use of their work. The money paid to composers by publishers for the right to use their songs, is usually determined by an agreed percentage of the price per copy sold. Often only a small percentage of the continuing sales of the music goes to the composer or artist. Payments received for use of or the right to use intellectual rights are called royalties.

What about cue sheets and broadcast royalties?
One thing that can be a confusing issue is royalties for the broadcast of shows on television that use music ( that may or may not be licensed as "royalty-free" music). Television stations pay royalties to the Performing Rights Societies for the right to broadcast music in their shows. Music usage in Television and radio show broadcasts are tracked by documents known as cue sheets. It is important for cue sheets to be submitted so that the composer of the songs receives the royalties from the broadcasting of their music. The broadcasters still pay their royalties to the performance rights societies regardless of whether or not a Cue Sheet is submitted. If no cue sheet has been submitted, the royalty money paid does not go to the person who wrote the music. Instead, it goes into a general fund, which is then distributed to whomever is topping the charts at the time. The composer of the music is entitled to the broadcast royalties accumulated by the use of their music in the broadcast, but this cannot be tracked unless cue sheets have been submitted. This is why most sellers of royalty-free music still require cue sheets be submitted when the music is to be used in a broadcast show.

What is a Cue Sheet?

A cue sheet is a document that lists all the music used in a project, allowing Performance Rights organizations like APRA, BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC (and others worldwide) to properly compensate composers for performances of their work. Cue sheets detail the length of the music used, the track's title, the composer and publisher of the music, and where it was used in the film. It also has some general information about the project. Broadcasters such as TV stations, Radio stations, etc are responsible for paying performance fees to the performing rights societies (PRS). Then the PRS pay the composers. Broadcasters always pay a regular fee to the PRS. As a purchaser of royalty-free music you only need to report what music was used, via the cue sheet system. The composer is then able get their portion of that fee. As the music license purchaser (you) are not required to make any payments to PRS. Webcasts do not require the submission of cue sheets.

To see an example of a Royalty-free music license　visit the Rocksure Soundz.com licensing page.