Using Bjorn Lynne music in YouTube videos

Hi all!

Sometimes I get emails from people who wish to use my music in their YouTube videos, and they ask for my permission to do that.

To use my music in your YouTube videos, you have two choices:

1) You can just use it for free. There will probably be a "copyright claim" on your video, that appears automatically. This copyright notice does not cause the video to be blocked, and does not have any negative effect on your YouTube account. The only difference it makes is that you will not be able to monetize your video. While the copyright notice is on your video, I will receive some tiny amount for each view that your video gets (I believe it's something like $0.02 per 1,000 views). This money comes from YouTube/Google advertising -- it's not paid by you.

2) OR, you can purchase a commercial rights license to the music track. You can do that by going to www.Shockwave-Sound.com and buy the track from there. The price is around $30.00 or so, and that includes a commercial rights license to this music track. When you have this license, the "copyright claim" will be released from your video, and you may then also monetize your video, because then you have the commercial rights.

Buying a music track or album from iTunes, CDBaby, Amazon or some place like that does not give you the commercial rights to the track. Those purchases only gives you a personal listening license. Buying the track from Shockwave-Sound.com does give you the commercial rights.

So long as you are okay with the Copyright Notice existing on your YouTube video, from which I make some tiny income, then I'm okay with you using our music in your videos, for free.

Credits for the music is always expected -- regardless of whether you have bought a commercial use license or not. The same goes for all creative content that's part of your video -- you should always credit the creator(s).

If you wish to purchase a commercial rights license to a track that that track is not found at Shockwave-Sound.com (not all my music is for sale there), then just contact me personally and I will sell you a license directly.

Thank you!
--
Bjorn Lynne

No, you may not use my music for free in commercial projects!

I just received an email from a producer of a Travel television show that would be aired on "an Arabic TV channel, with more 200 million viewers world wide", and he wanted to know if he could have the use of my music for this for free because he had no budget. I would, however "be credited" for the music.

Quite frankly, this is an insult to me as a music composer and producer. What the hell is somebody doing producing travel programs for an audience of 200 million viewers, and hasn't even got $100 to license music, but has to go out and beg composers to use their music for free, in a massive project like this? What's up with that? 

Why do people think that composers should be happy to give away their music for free use, in return for credits? If you are going to use our music in public, in broadcast, in commercial or for-profit projects, we are entitled to payment and to get credit for our work.

Does the TV station, who broadcasts to 200+ million viewers, offer their advertisers free advertising on their channel, oh, hey, in return for "credits"?

I really would like to use some considerably stronger language here, but suffice to say I reject this, and any similar offers.

If somebody wants to use my music for charity, for selfless projects to help others in need etc., then you may ask me to use my music for free, and I'm happy to consider it.

If you're working commercially and you want FREE music, you are a joke!

Bjorn Lynne music appearing in thousands of productions - what's up with that?

Today I received an email from Assad, who had come across my music in a game called SolarMax (I've never even heard of this game before, but that's not unusual) and he had done a little bit of research and found that the same music tracks were up for sale / licensing via the royalty-free music website Shockwave-Sound.com for only $30. So he was wondering - is this really the case? Can people really take my music and put it in their game... and pay only $30??

I wrote him an answer and I thought I'd share it here, since I'm often asked about this.

Hi Assad,

It's true, it is possible to legally license my music, for use in games and other commercial products, for prices starting from only $30. I have made my living on this for many years now. For the last 12 years I have made myself a good income with this business model. Actually, prices start from $30 but if you want to use the music for “bigger” projects, you have to buy the Mass Market License, which costs 2.5 x the amount of the Standard License. So if you see $30, that means the Standard License costs $30 and the Mass Market License costs $30 x 2.5 = $75.

SolarMax - Just one of thousands of
games and apps with Bjorn Lynne music

I own and manage Shockwave-Sound.com and we are working with about 300 composers who have their music sold via this site. We sell many, many licenses each day. After 12 years of having my music licensed like this, I have got my music used in maybe over 50,000 different projects (films, games, commercials, web sites, YouTube videos, installation, trade show / corporate videos, etc. etc.). Most of them, I don’t even know about. Sometimes I surprisingly come across my own music in some video game, iPhone / Android App, etc.

It may sound like $30 is a very small price to license music, but remember, it’s the same music that gets licensed by several hundred other customers, so this customer is not getting unique music. He/she only gets to use the music that potentially hundreds of other people are also using in their projects. I’m making a lot of money on this and I’ve made great success. So… I’m pretty happy with that!

Plus, it's kind of cool to come across my own music here and there, whether I'm watching a film like Respire (where I surprisingly heard some of my music in the background to one of the scenes in the movie) or playing a game like Vertigo on the Wii, where I also surprisingly recognized my own music.

All the best,
Bjorn Lynne

Three new music tracks

Dear friends,

I have composed and produced three new music tracks since the last time I posted something here. You can hear the tracks below. They are all in totally different styles, so I hope you'll enjoy at least one of them. :-)

I like to work with different styles of music, this way and that -- I always have.

The first track listed below is China Temple Morning which started as a simple arpeggiated bell pattern which just sort of "happened" on my keyboard the other day. I've purchased a new software synth called Omnisphere from Spectraconics and I'm using it for several of the sounds in this track. This track was finished very quickly; I did it all in one day from 08:30 until about 23:00. :-)

The next one is Blue Sky which is just a "nice and easy" sort of instrumental soft-pop track, or pop/ambient crossover. I wanted to make something that would be good as background use for media, video, film, presentations, etc. mostly with the idea of licensing it through my stock music library. I try to combine synthesized sounds with acoustic guitar for a softer feel. In the last part, a subtle electric guitar also comes in. I never use "plug-ins" for these kinds of guitar parts, because I find it takes me a lot longer to fiddle with the settings to get it to sound close to a guitar sound, than it takes me to simply pick up the guitar and play it into a microphone. Much quicker. :-)

The third track Tempest Drive is quite similar in style to some other "upbeat electronica" tracks that I've been making over the past few months. It's not exactly techno, not exactly trance, but something like energetic electronica, I guess. In this track I'm using some sounds from the Top Production Samples CDROM that I made and published myself, a few years ago. I still find myself using sounds from that CDROM from time to time. I know the sounds well and keep coming back to them. Also present here are some other synth sample loops and three instances of the software synth plug in z3ta+.

Anyway, the tracks can be heard in the player below. I hope you'll enjoy them, and like all my other tracks, they can be licensed for Royalty-free use in media production through my music library website, Shockwave-Sound.com

All the best,
- Bjorn

"Undercover" now available as a CD

“Undercover” now available on CD

I’m happy to announce that Undercover is now available as a CD!

“Undercover” is a 14-track album that I have made together with my friend from the Amiga/PC demo-scene, Adam Skorupa, aka Skorpic. The music is in “Spy/Thriller/Crime soundtrack” style.

The CD was “pre-released” in my download-shop about 2 weeks ago. As of today, it is also available as a physical CD, from two different places:

From myself, in Norway: www.lynnemusic.com/cdshop.html
and from CDBaby in USA: www.cdbaby.com/cd/lynneskorupa

World wide shipping available both places.

I have to mention that this CD was not glass-mastered and duplicated in an industrial CD pressing plant. It was made in 300 copies at a “short-run” CD duplication company where they use big CD-copier machines to copy from the original master CD-R. So it’s neither a fully industrial CD, nor a home-made CD... but something in between, I suppose.

The album will arrive in a few weeks at iTunes and other downloadable services – but if you wish to buy it as a downloadable album already now, you can of course do so from http://www.lynnemusic.com/downloadshop.html right now.

To listen to the whole album online, just go to www.lynnemusic.com/cdshop.html and click on the “Undercover” album cover.


Update on other musical things....

I’m working on a long(ish) track for my next forthcoming solo album. I think I’m going to call the track “Voyager”, because it appears to me that every electronic music composer or band has to make a track called “Voyager” at some point in their career ... and I have yet to do so! :-) I’m trying out different ideas and throwing away quite a lot of stuff that isn’t working the way I’d like it to. :-) I’ll try to keep you updated.

As usual, I’m also working on my royalty-free music licensing site, www.shockwave-sound.com, which is how I make most of my income now. My music gets licensed from that page an average of 25 times every single day, and after years of this, it makes thousands of productions that use my music. Most of these productions I have never seen or heard. When somebody buys a license from www.shockwave-sound.com, I don’t actually ask the customer exactly what he’s going to use the music for. I just tell the customer what he/she can and can’t use the music for. So it’s kind of weird to think that my music is being used in thousands of different productions all over the world, and 99.5% of them I never get to see or hear about. A couple of times I have “stumbled across” my music while switching channels on the TV. :-)

Selling stolen music

Today while more or less randomly browing the web, I came across another musician's web site. I started listening to the music tracks that he offers on his web site, and was completely gobsmacked to find MY track "The Next Step" posted on his web site under the name "Highlander".

As many of you will know, I composed the track "The Next Step" in 2002 and released it on CD in 2003 on my album "Power Liquids". This guy had simply taken the track straight from the CD, changed it's name, and posted it on his web site as his own music.

I can only assume that all the other music on his web site has also been stolen from other musicians.

What's wrong with some people? Have they NO shame? Has the internet become so big and so complex now, that people like this think that they can just steal what they want and SELL it -- because the chance of being found out amongs millions of other musicians, is so low?

It has to be said that when I confronted this guy about it, he removed the track from his web site, so in this particular case, the problem has been solved. But it's got to make me wonder; how many other "musicians" out there are selling my music as their own?

I mean, there's stealing and there's stealing. There's the guy who downloads my music album from some pirate or peer-to-peer network, to listen to it himself. I don't like it obviously, because afterall I'm trying to make a living on my music. But I'm willing to forgive this to some degree.

But when somebody starts SELLING my music, credited to themselves, that's when things get serious and it's time to involve lawyers.