Frequently Asked Questions

If you can’t find the answer you are looking for below, please feel free to contact us for helpful advice.

What is royalty free music?

Royalty-free music is music that you can legally use for commercial purposes without having to pay any ongoing fees. Royalty-free music costs more than normal music, but the price includes a one-time license fee that allows you to use the music to create products and services that earn you money, for example, hypnosis & meditation recordings, YouTube videos, or software applications. You can also play royalty-free music at your place of business without having to pay any performing rights fees. For full details on what you can and can’t do with our music, please read our license terms.

What do I need to do in order to legally use your music in my recording?

You can purchase and download music from our website like you would from any other music website. You don’t need to do anything special. Your invoice and a copy of our standard license agreement will be all you need to prove that you have the legal right to use our music. You’ll receive an invoice immediately after purchase, and our license agreement is available on our web page.

We keep detailed, long term records of all purchases, so even if you lost your records and needed to prove that you have the right to use our music, we’ve got you covered.

Can I use your music to create . . . ?

One of the most common questions we are asked is, “Can I use your royalty-free meditation music to create meditation/hypnosis recordings and then sell them?” The short answer to that question is “Yes! That’s exactly what our music is for”. You can also use our music to create all sorts of other media productions that you can monetize. For example, YouTube videos, interactive apps, and relaxation DVDs, to name just a few. Want some more insight into how people use our music? Click here for some real-world examples.

I want to create one CD with two tracks on it. Do I have to pay for the royalty-free music twice?

Certainly not. You can use your royalty-free music to create as many tracks as you like. You can also use it to create an unlimited number of different spoken word recordings, and you can sell an unlimited number of those recordings as CDs or digital downloads.

I have used your music in the background of my meditation CD. Can I now sell it on iTunes?

Yes indeed. Once you have created your own recording by adding your voice to our music, you can sell as many CDs or MP3’s as you like. Sell them on iTunes, on Amazon, on your own website, through a retail outlet…wherever you like! Your recording belongs to you, so there are no restrictions on where you sell it or how many copies you sell.

Can I embed your music in my website?

Unfortunately not. If you made our music playable on your website, then your visitors could use your website as a free music player, and this is not permitted. Our license terms do not allow people to sell or stream our music by itself (i.e., without the addition of a voiceover).

Can I purchase CD’s of your music?

Our music is delivered via download only, but don’t forget, you can always burn your own CDs with our music once you have downloaded it. It must be said that we greatly prefer downloads to CDs. Not only do digital downloads cost less, but we are also able to deliver them to you instantly, so there’s no waiting for CDs to arrive in the mail.

Digital downloads are also much better for the environment. In addition to the plastics that go into CD production, various carbon-emitting vehicles must transport CDs to you. In contrast, digital downloads require just a tiny amount of electricity from your computer. So while we understand that some people still prefer the familiarity of CDs, the simple truth is that they are more expensive, slower to deliver, and more damaging to our planet.

I need to purchase music on behalf of a client – can I do that?

Yes, of course. To purchase music for a client, log out and create a new account registered under your client’s name. Any music purchased using this account will automatically be licensed to that client. You can create separate accounts for as many clients as you need to. We recommend that you provide each of your clients with their account login information and a copy of our license terms. For further information on how we handle licensing, please click here.

Please keep in mind that you cannot use the music you purchase to create products for multiple clients. You must purchase music for each client, even if they want to use the same music that you purchased for someone else.

Is there anything that I cannot use your music for?

There are a few things that are not allowed. You cannot sell our music in its original form. For example, you cannot sell our music or make it available to download for free from your website, you cannot create CDs with our music without a voiceover, and you cannot use our music in a software app that can play the music without a voiceover. You can’t mix our music with other music or add musical instrumentation to it. However, you can add nature sounds to our music. You cannot sub-license our background music in any way – meaning that you cannot purchase our music and then re-sell it to other people to use in their projects, nor can you take our music and turn it into your own music library to distribute to others. Please refer to our license terms. for full details.

Can I mix nature sounds into your music?

Absolutely. This is exactly what our nature sounds were designed for. You can use any nature sounds you like (even nature sounds that you purchased elsewhere). However, you cannot mix our music with nature sounds and then sell that recording without a voiceover. Remember – all our music and nature sounds are to be used as background music only – you cannot resell our audio productions in their original form, and you cannot use them to create derived works.

When I receive my music, what format will it be in?

For your convenience, you will receive your music in two formats:
(a) Uncompressed WAV files, 16-bit / 44 kHz. These are equivalent to CD-quality sound and are the best choice if you want to burn a CD with your music or use your music in studio production.
(b) 320 kbps MP3. These files are smaller in size than WAV files and are the best option if you want to copy your music to a portable media player.

Both of these formats are of high quality. Both are compatible with Macintosh and PC. Note: These audio files are compressed into zip files to ensure secure, complete download delivery. Simply double-click the zip file to open it and reveal the WAV and MP3 files inside.

What’s better; WAV files or MP3 files?

WAV files are the highest quality audio files and are sonically identical to a CD. They are of higher quality than MP3 files. However, our MP3 files are VERY high quality as well, and as a result, many people can’t tell the difference. We supply both file types simply because these are the two most common types of audio, and some people are more familiar with one file type than the other.

What is the loop length of your music?

Many of our music productions are very long, but this does not mean that we create 3-minute tracks and loop them over and over again. Our music usually contains very long, expressive passages that evolve whilst maintaining a certain theme. Many of our tracks will play for 15 – 30 minutes before you hear any looping at all. Even once a section of music has been looped, we will add subtle variations so that the music continues to evolve and remain interesting.

We take this approach to ensure that your music is as expressive and enriching as possible, but without going off on any unexpected tangents – exactly what you need for high-quality meditation and hypnosis recordings that your clients will appreciate.

How does the download process work?

As soon as your payment is received, you will be directed to a page that contains links to download your music. You will also receive an email that contains a link to your downloads. All you need to do is click on the download links and then save the files to your computer. The files you will download are in zip file format. Once downloaded, double-click the zip file to open it and reveal the audio files inside.

You can also return to Highermind-Royaltyfreemusic at any time in the future, log in to your account and download your music again – as many times as you want.

Should you ever have a problem with a download (a rare event), please feel free to contact us for support. We will attend to you promptly and will make sure that you receive everything you ordered.

I’m trying to download my purchase, but it’s not working. What’s wrong?

Problems like this are rare, but they can happen from time to time. Our music files are stored on some of the world’s most reliable and fastest servers, with a guaranteed uptime of over 99.9%. So if you ever find that your music is downloading very slowly, or not at all, this is probably due to a temporary disruption to the internet service in your local area or a temporary problem with your personal computer. Sometimes these problems go away by themselves, and your download will speed up over time. Sometimes these problems are resolved simply by restarting your computer or switching to an alternative web browser. If you have problems downloading, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We have never failed to deliver music to our customers, not once ever.

How big are the music downloads and how long do they take?

This will depend on the speed of your internet connection and the size of the file you are trying to download. Our music files are high quality and fairly large, with the largest being around 750MB in size. With a fast internet connection (more than 20 Mbps), these can be downloaded in a few minutes. They might take up to an hour or two with a prolonged connection (less than 2 Mbps).

Can I download your music to my iPad or iPhone?

Apple mobile devices like iPads and iPhones cannot download music files from any source other than iTunes. This means that you can’t download music from our website directly to your Apple mobile device. The solution is quite simple, though. Follow these steps to transfer your music to your mobile device:

1. Download your music to a proper desktop computer/laptop.

2. Unzip the music file to reveal the MP3 and WAV audio inside.

3. Drag one of these audio files into your iTunes library.

4. Sync your iTunes library with your mobile device.

You can then play the music using iTunes on your iPad or iPhone.

Can I download samples of your music?

You sure can. While browsing any of our music, right-click on the “sample” icon and then select either “Save As” or “Save File As” or Save Linked File As.” (This will vary depending on which internet browser you are using). You can then save the music sample to your computer.

Do I have to credit you?

For our free downloadable tracks, you will need to. Publishing a credit is easy to do. For information on how to publish a credit properly, please click here.

Can I monetize YouTube videos that I create with your music?

Yes – you may run ads on YouTube videos that include our music in the background.

I used your music in a YouTube video, and now YouTube is claiming copyright infringement. What next?

This is nothing to worry about. You CAN use the music you purchased from us in YouTube videos. YouTube Copyright Violation Notices are quite common and are easily resolved. YouTube uses automated software to scan the content of its videos. If it detects that the music in your video is the same as some music that belongs to a third party, it will automatically initiate a Copyright Violation Notice. Obviously, if you have purchased royalty-free music, then you do have the right to use it in YouTube videos, so you can usually dismiss these violation notices from your YouTube account with just a few mouse clicks. Log in to your YouTube account, go to your video manager and click on the link related to the copyright notice. You’ll often see this written as “Matched third party content.” Follow the links to dispute this claim, and YouTube will withdraw the claim soon thereafter.

For further information, check out this great article: How to resolve YouTube copyright notifications.

I run a non-profit organization. Can I have a special discount?

We offer discounts to everyone when you buy a subscription plan. Anyone can take part in this offer at any time.

So many of our customers are non-profit organizations and other charitable foundations that we have already adjusted our prices and discounts to take this into account.

I want to make a video or recording with your music and give it away for free. If I credit you, can I have the music for free?

Unfortunately not. We rely on your financial support to be able to continue making beautiful music.

Please note that providing credit is a standard requirement of our free license terms (if you buy our songs, this is not required!). So if you use our music to create a recording or video, then you must credit the composer even if you plan to share your recording or video for free.

Do you plan to make a YouTube video with your recording? Here’s a helpful tip. Keep in mind that you can offset our music’s cost by allowing occasional ads on your YouTube videos. Many people monetize their videos these days. It’s a great way to earn revenue without actually charging your viewers. How much you earn depends largely on how many times your video is viewed, so there are no guarantees, but if your view count is strong, then, in the long run, you could feasibly earn 10 times to 100 times (or more) what you spend on background music. If you need more subscribers, we recommend trying TubeBuddy to help grow your channel.

Can you compose original music for me?

At this point in time, we are unable to compose music to order.