Royalty vs Royalty-Free

There are two types of Licenses on our Platform—Royalty-Free licenses, and Royalty licenses. Sellers determine which type of license their sample will be made available through, and buyers will have different continuing obligations to the seller depending on what type of license is obtained. Hovering over a sample will reveal whether that sample is "Royalty" or "Royalty-Free".

Example of a "Royalty-Free" sample.

Example of a "Royalty" sample.

Royalty-Free License
The Creator of a Royalty-Free sample agrees not to be entitled to any ownership and/or royalty interest in the underlying musical composition embodied in a Licensee’s music, or in the master recording(s) of a Licensee’s music, and agrees not to be credited in connection with a Licensee’s music.

Royalty License
Licensees have continuing obligations to the Creator depending on whether their music qualifies as a major or minor release. A Licensee's music qualifies as a “Major Release” if the Licensee's music is distributed or released by a major label. If the Licensee's music is not distributed or released by a major label it qualifies as a "Minor Release".

If a Sample licensed under a Royalty License is used in a Major Release, then Licensee must contact the Creator of that Sample before any commercial or public exploitation of that Major Release, to negotiate terms for use of the Sample in the Major Release. Relevant Creators’ email addresses are listed on a Licensee’s Downloads page (wavs.com/account/downloads). We expect Creators on our platform to act in good faith in their negotations. 

If a Sample licensed under a Royalty License is used in a Minor Release in a song that exceeds one million streams on Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube, then the Creator should automatically receive songwriting/producer credit and own a 15% share of the total songwriting splits and mechanical royalties.

For a more in-depth breakdown of this, please refer to Section 5 on our Terms & Conditions. For questions, please email us at [e-mail]