Audiocrowd is a marketplace for music, sound effects, and voice services based in Potsdam, Germany. Our music catalog (royalty-free and also P.R.O. music) includes more than 20,000 high-quality music tracks and variations that can be easily and affordably licensed by businesses, content creators, and individuals. Our customers have the option to license individual tracks or access the entire catalog through a music subscription. Following our motto "Music for creators," we help agencies, in-house marketing teams, and social media teams quickly and securely find the right music for their content.

The main uses for our music are: 1. Background music for videos, social media, podcasts, or other media projects. 2. Background music for events and trade fairs. 3. Background music for soundscaping in business premises and retail stores. If you need information on other use cases, please contact us through the contact form.

Royalty-free music refers to music that is not protected by a performing rights organization like GEMA, or where the composer has explicitly exempted some of their works from GEMA protection (in the context of audiovisual productions). However, this does not automatically mean that you can use the music commercially without restrictions. Once a work has been registered with a collecting society such as GEMA, it is considered P.R.O. (Performance Rights Organization) music. Audiocrowd offers both royalty-free music and P.R.O. music, allowing you to make the best music selection for your specific use case. You can also use our license assistant to help you make the right choice.

The royalty-free music on audiocrowd is often more cost-effective than using GEMA-licensed music, depending on the intended use of the music. With our license assistant, you can easily determine whether you should use royalty-free music or consider P.R.O. music. Additionally, there are no further follow-up costs after acquiring a royalty-free music track, making the expenses transparent and easily manageable.

Royalty-free music is sometimes perceived as "elevator music" or background filler. However, nowadays, royalty-free music is produced professionally and to high standards, comparable to the quality of GEMA-protected music. The music available on audiocrowd undergoes strict quality control and is produced by experienced composers and producers according to modern standards. Royalty-free music is now commonly used in various creative and diverse ways by many well-known companies.

Audiocrowd primarily offers royalty-free music, but since 2022, we also include P.R.O. music in our catalog. You can easily find out through our license assistant whether you need only royalty-free music or whether you can also use P.R.O. music for your project. Each track on audiocrowd is labeled as either royalty-free or registered with a collecting society. You can also use the filter function to access only royalty-free music or the entire catalog including P.R.O. music. The usage rights for the music on audiocrowd are provided directly by the author/rights holder.

"Lizenzfreie Musik" is a misleading term that suggests completely free use of music. However, all music is protected by copyright, meaning that the composer of the work has sole control over its use and distribution. As a result, there is no such thing as "lizenzfreie Musik" (royalty-free music) in the sense of being completely free to use without any restrictions. In this context, what is often meant is "kostenlose GEMAfreie Musik" (free royalty-free music).

When a composer registers their works with a collecting society like GEMA, the music is no longer royalty-free but becomes P.R.O. music, as the usage rights are then managed by a Performing Rights Organization. On audiocrowd, you can find both royalty-free music and P.R.O. music. You can easily determine which type of music is suitable for your project using our license assistant. For YouTube videos, social media, and many other use cases, you can use our entire music catalog, which includes both royalty-free and P.R.O. music, giving you the best of both worlds on one music platform.

GEMA stands for "Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte" (Society for musical performing and mechanical reproduction rights). It is a collecting society that enters into contracts (known as performance or authorization contracts) with artists. With such a contract, a composer authorizes GEMA to monitor the public use of their works.

Once a work by a composer who has a performance contract with GEMA is used, GEMA is authorized to collect license fees (also known as royalties) from the user (e.g., a radio station, restaurant, concert organizer, or retailer) for the public broadcast and performance of the music of the registered composer. The collected fees are distributed back to the GEMA members after deducting administrative costs according to a specific formula.