When you’re looking for music to licence – whether it’s for YouTube content or a blockbuster trailer, ads or TV shows – we can guarantee you’ll have lots of questions. Is it a legal requirement to have a music licence? What does my licence cover? How do I find the best tracks – quickly? We’re here to answer all these and more, to make music licensing straightforward, and enable you to find your perfect track from our catalogue, which covers every genre and mood.
Watch our music licensing guide to find out more about what rights you need to clear when you’re using music in films, videos, ads or TV:
How Does Audio Network’s Licensing Work?
We want to make things as simple as possible. So we license our music tracks per project or video. Every licence is valid forever, and your project can be used across multiple platforms.
It covers all sync and dubbing rights, but it doesn’t cover performing rights. These are normally the hosting platform’s responsibility (e.g. YouTube). They can be easily cleared directly with performing rights societies.
Need a licence that covers multiple projects or videos? To license music for a campaign or series, get in touch with our account managers, who’ll be happy to help you out.
Read more about our licences to find the right one for your project.
The Right Track: At Your Fingertips
We’ve got loads of ways for you to find the track you’re looking for – such as hand-picked playlists that cover every genre and mood, plus our collections of everything from hip hop to classical.
If you want a deeper dive, then click ‘Search Music’ at the top of the page to get started, then use keywords or filters to find what you’re looking for (they’ll appear as tags above your search.)
To refine your search even further, click on ‘Advanced Filters’ to specify a track duration, tempo, BPM, key, metre, or by lyric content.
We’ve made it easy to identify tracks with explicit lyrics – just look for the (E) symbol next to the track name. You can filter these tracks out completely in the ‘Advanced Filters’ dropdown. Plus, if you want music without vocals, you can also filter vocal and instrumental-only tracks and versions.
Loving an artist, composer or album? When you’re listening to a track, just click on the three dots next to the listing.
Do I Get All the Different Versions of the Track When I Buy a Licence Online?
All our tracks have different mixes and stems, to give you the widest amount of choice, so this is an important question. Your licence means you only get the specific version that you choose to purchase. If you want to use various different versions of the track, they’ll each require a licence.
If you’re not sure which version of a track’s going to work best for your project, then we offer download accounts to test our music. This means you (or your clients) can get a real idea of how the track will fit with your finished production. Give your account manager a shout, or contact us and we’ll sort it out.
Cue up the Cue Sheets
When you’re purchasing tracks through music licensing companies for TV or radio content, you’ll need to fill in a cue sheet so the broadcaster can pay royalties to the artists and composers.
Cue sheets are an industry standard document telling everyone what music has been used in a specific TV show, film, production or video. You can download one when you’re looking at your orders online under Account > Orders.
Paying For Your Tracks
Our online purchasing process is designed to be as simple as possible. Once you’ve decided on the tracks you want, just click ‘add to cart’ and follow the step-by-step process to put in your project name, company and billing details.
We’re a VAT registered company, so if you’re based in the UK, we charge you VAT at the current rate of 20%. If you’re within the EU VAT area and haven’t provided a valid VAT number (including country code), we have to charge VAT at the rate applicable in your country. However, if you think you’ve been charged VAT incorrectly, please contact the billing team.
We also have lots of different subscription options, if you know you’re going to be licensing music regularly.
If you’ve got a subscription, but you’ve run out of downloads, then just speak to your account manager or contact us to ask for some more.
Once you’ve paid for your music, you can download your invoice, licence and the music from your account section.
Right Time, Wrong Music
With online purchases, we can’t guarantee a refund unless there’s a technical defect with a file and you let us know within 48 hours of purchase. To request a refund, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help. Refunds will be issued to the card used at the time of purchase and processed within 15 working days.
If you’ve downloaded and paid for the wrong track, though, get in touch and we’ll check your email receipt so we can send you the correct track.
Downloading Music
Once you’ve bought a track, you can download it in three easy steps:
- Go to your account page, and click on the ‘orders’ button
- Click on the view arrow on the right of the order you wish to download
- Choose to download tracks individually by clicking on the WAV or MP3 icon, or all together by using the tick boxes on the relevant tracks and then click on ‘download selected files as zip’ at the bottom of the list. There are select all/deselect all MP3 and select all/deselect all WAV buttons at the bottom to help
Just bear in mind, WAV files are quite large – typically 30-40mb each – so it’s not ideal to zip more than three or four of these together at a time. Most broadband connections seem to have an undefined download limit, and in our experience, attempting to download more than 200mb of data in one go will just result in a blank screen!
Once you’ve paid for a sound file, it stays in your account permanently and you can download it as many times as you need. However, you cannot re-use/sync it onto new content.
Get the Best Music for Your Project
When you want to put together tracks for a specific project, just make sure you’re logged in, and then click the ‘Add to Project’ icon when you find a track you like (we’ll give you a prompt to see if you want to add the file to a new project or an existing one.)
If you’re a member and have access to projects, you can download music from them in two ways: One by one - by clicking the WAV or MP3 icon, or packaged as a zip file - by selecting multiple files and using the file download format action from the drop-down box at the bottom of the page.
When you want to share your project with other members of your team, or your client, you can choose to only include yourself in the ‘participants’, or click ‘Edit Project Info’ on the project sound file listing page, then select or deselect users.
Once you’ve created your new project, or added your file to an existing one, you’ll go through to the project file listing page; download your files either one by one (clicking on the icons), or packaged as a zip file.
YouTube & Other Content Platforms
As a YouTube creator, it’s important to understand music licensing for videos. Content ID allows copyright owners to identify YouTube videos that include content that belongs to them. If you use unlicensed music, then they can take down your content – and even your channel.
YouTube monetisation is how you can earn money from advertising based on the number of views your video gets, which the platform has integrated into your YouTube account. Open your YouTube channel homescreen and select ‘Video Manager’ from the menu and you should see a submenu with the label ‘Monetization’.
Monetisation means you need to agree to YouTube’s terms and conditions for advertising. Once you’ve agreed to these terms, you can allow ads to run alongside your videos and YouTube will share a portion of the ad revenue generated with you.
What is Google AdSense?
AdSense (or Google AdSense) is a Google-managed advertising service. It’s designed for website publishers who want to display targeted text, video or image advertisements on their pages and earn money when visitors view or click the ads. The video element is integrated into YouTube, which is why you may have heard about it in relation to monetisation. Google explain this in more depth.
Ads will appear on most videos that use copyrighted music. The revenue paid is shared with our composers.
To block third-party ads or to monetise your YouTube videos, you will need to buy a Creator+ or a Corporate licence. If you use your video to promote a business, brand, or service, buying the Corporate licence also prevents unwanted ads (such as competitor ads) showing on your videos.
If you’re creating ads shown on YouTube, you need our Digital Advertising licence. And when you’re working on a project or campaign where you or your clients use media spend, give our team a shout and we’ll discuss the project and how we can help you to find the best music.
Claim Notices on a YouTube Account
Music licensing for YouTube can be something that many creators fall foul of. YouTube’s Content ID system automatically detects copyrighted material and serves a notice when it finds it. If you have the correct licence, you can use our YouTube monetisation code to clear this claim. Once you’ve entered your code, it can take up to 48 hours for your claim to clear.
For more info on YouTube Content ID see our useful links section. If you have purchased a Creator (previously Home & Student) and you do not intend to monetise your videos then no further action is required.
If you don’t want to monetise your video, simply click ‘Acknowledge’ when YouTube sends you the copyright notice. Your video will then be cleared to stay up.
YouTube Monetisation Codes
We want to make licensing music for YouTube and dealing with the platform as simple as possible. Our YouTube monetisation code clears YouTube copyright claims that occur when you use Audio Network music in your videos – we developed the code to speed up the process.
You’ll find a four-word code either on your order confirmation page, or on your confirmation email, with codes related to previous purchases under Account > Orders.
Here’s how to clear your video using the monetisation code:
- In Video Manager, select Copyright Notices.
- Underneath your video, click the link that says Includes copyrighted content
- Click File a Dispute and then select I have a licence or permission from the proper rights holder to use this material.
- After confirming you wish to dispute, place your code in the Reason for Dispute box
- Your video will be cleared within 48 hours
Need some more info? These are trusted resources that you may find helpful:
So now you know all about our licensing, it’s time to start exploring a world of high-quality, original music! Latest albums, playlists, collections, commercial releases, it’s all here. And if you’re looking for expert takes on everything from the best ads to the biggest TV series and must-see movies and their soundtracks, we’ve got you covered on The Edit. Check out our latest releases below -
Need Music for Your Project?
At Audio Network we create original music, of the highest quality, for broadcasters, brands, creators, agencies and music fans everywhere. Through clear and simple licensing, we can offer you a huge variety of the best quality music across every conceivable mood and genre. Find out how we can connect you with the perfect collaborator today by clicking the button below!
