For some years I’ve been adding audio tracks to my artwork, largely since I began making video based augmented reality versions. The tracks have all been free to use for non-commercial purposes.

But with the prospect of using these AR layers in my forthcoming book containing the target images, I contacted the composers of three music elements for permission to use their tracks. Two did not reply, but the one who did and was willing, said I needed to contact the host platform for confirmation.

When I did this, I found that their charges would be upwards of $2000.00 for each track in the book, including sound effects lasting as little as a second, leading to a total of over $40,000.00. This, it seems, is because the company has bought the rights to the tracks and not just the right to host them for use by paying customers.

This would stand even for online publication, for non-profit publication, and for free access publication, whether physical or digital.

As this isn’t viable, I’m currently identifying all soundtracks associated with any video in my entire YouTube account in order to strip out anything that is, in particular, theirs, and in general, not clearly mine. This is going to take a while. In the meantime, my YouTube account is set to Private.

Notes.

1. For clarity, this is what their strapline says: Used by the Biggest Creators — Choose from 50,000+ tracks & 200,000+ sound effects in 390+ genres in our audio library. Give your social accounts the music they deserve and take your content to the next level. Royalty Free Forever. The clue, I think, is the term ‘social accounts’, although even then I’m not clear if they simply mean non-monetised.
2. None of my accounts, including WordPress, are monetised and I have told them this. This appears to carry no weight in this situation.
3. I have a paid account with this company. This also appears to carry no weight in this context.
4. I know of many creatives using this company as a resource to supplement their own output.
5. I don’t know how many are paying $2000.00 or more per track or are in breach of a contract they maybe didn’t know they had.
6. While all of this is something of a nightmare, I’m very glad I found out so that I could take the appropriate steps. I am a supporter of people’s and companies’ right to protect their intellectual property; I don’t expect other people’s work to be freely available*. This is about being treated, in this instance, as though I were a large organisation exploiting a resource in order to benefit financially. They appear not to recognise, or to have appropriate contracts for, individual artists with limited resources or who may be making work that will be free for anyone to access.
7. If you’re reading this and wondering if it applies to you – look very carefully at any third party apps you’re using to make video material or add sounds or images to your work, even if you’re paying for their content. Check out their Terms of Use.
8. If I’ve misunderstood this provider’s postion, I’ll be delighted to make corrections but, on the ‘once bitten, twice shy, principle, I am not naming them.

*Art has what seems to be a fluid approach to copyright. This is a wiki summary of the practice of appropriation: “Appropriation in art is the practice of using pre-existing objects or images with little or no transformation in a new work. It can involve borrowing, copying, or altering existing materials to create new meaning, challenge originality, and explore concepts like consumerism, authorship, and the boundaries between art and reality.” Try that with a piece of literature and you’d be in the courts for as long as the victim felt necessary. The idea that someone could just take a substantial piece of someone elses’ work without their knowledge or consent sounds to me like theft. To wit, this paragraph from the same wiki: Appropriation can raise legal and ethical questions, particularly concerning copyright and intellectual property, leading to debates about artistic freedom versus theft. 

So there we are; art is a bit relaxed in its approach to other people’s IP while the rest of the world is stitched up so tight it can barely breathe.

© Suzanne Conboy-Hill 2025