If you’re a beginner, then you must be excited about starting your live streams. A part of your plan involves playing your favourite tracks as the background music. That’s great. But, wait just yet. There are a lot of legal rules involved with licensed music. So, how do you know whether a particular song is copyrighted or not? Where do you find royalty free music? Today, we uncover it all and let you in on the ways of playing music on a live streaming platform.
Music enhances the feel and appeal of live streams. With music, you can set the mood and theme of your streams and make your viewers perceive your content in the way you want. The right tunes at the right moments can significantly boost the quality of your streams – it’s quite the chef’s kiss that can make all the difference. However, one must be careful about licensed music. Today, we dig a little deep into royalty free music and how one can use them on a live streaming platform.
The Concept Of Royalty Free Music
Let’s start with the basics. When a song is copyrighted, you need to make a one time payment called the royalty to gain the right (also known as the sync license) of using it in your broadcasts. This is exactly how producers use songs of artists in TV series, movies and commercials. Without this sync license, you cannot use that music in your content. However, there are certain artists who won’t sue you if you use their songs on your content. In other words, they do not impose copyright restrictions on their tracks and this is what royalty-free music is.
Knowing Whether A Song Is Copyrighted
Now, there are a few ways of finding out whether the song of your choice is copyrighted or not. The most convenient option would be to go online and search for the song’s legal requirements. For instance, if you choose a song by an American artist, there are certain organizations where you can check its copyright laws like Broadcast Music, Inc., SESAC, ASCAP and Global Music Rights.
Rules Imposed By The Popular Streaming Platforms
Besides the above, you must be aware of the certain restrictions imposed by certain streaming platforms. Below, we discuss the requirements of the four biggest streaming platforms.
Twitch: Twitch is very strict when it comes to using music in your streams. You can play music as long as it’s either created by you or you have the license for it. You can also use music from the Twitch Music Library.
Facebook Live: Facebook Live will allow you to include music in your content only if you hold the license for it. If you do not have the license, then Facebook will simply cut out the audio. Continuing with this will result in the deletion of your videos.
YouTube Live: YouTube Live follows the same theme – no license, no play. However, having the license is not all. The track’s owner must also add you to his/her allow list. There’s an Audio Library as well where you can find some royalty-free music.
In conclusion, you can integrate music in your content only if it’s royalty-free or you have obtained the sync license. If you wish to use royalty-free music, you can usually find them in each platform’s music/audio library. Try these out while multi streaming via Flutin Live and let the music take your streams to the next level.
