So I've been selling through AudioJungle with a some luck over the last several months. I'm ready to start experimenting with direct licensing, skipping the middle man. After all, AJ is keeping %50 of MY sales. I understand that a big part of selling is attracting the buyers, and thats the role AJ is playing, but ultimately to be successful I think I should be attempting to take on this job myself

I've found very little information available on the subject of direct licensing audio though. The only example I have to go by right now is AudioJungle's. I want example licenses and contracts, legal information, how do royalties work, how pricing should be determined, and general advice from you pros at GameDev. To start off, I've been experimenting with integrating Paypal into my website. I've found this to be pleasantly easy.

I've also been experimenting with a simple royalty free system like AudioJungle's where the user selects a track, selects the type of usage license they need, payment is made, and then a custom license with purchase information and a unique purchase ID is generated for the buyer. Is this a smart way to go? Should I focus more on direct contact with buyers instead? Are special contracts and agreements necessary, or will they deter potential buyers that need music immediately?

It just seems like there are so many different ways to do it and so many unanswered questions. I want more examples and advice before I start focusing on hunting down buyers and selling future tracks on my own.

-Thanks!

This may not help, but you might try google search for something like "sample contracts". There are quit a few out there

A few months ago I was doing a search for things like photography, work for hire, model contracts, artwork etc (researching largely out of interest for book cover usage) - and found quite a few examples online. There might be some similar for audio also.

www.printablecontracts.com/ is one of the sites that comes up and has some samples for various uses. I see several in various places geared toward recording studios or publishers that might be somewhat useful.

Thank you! I'm beginning to find more information. I think one big problem I had was lack of proper terminology to aid me in my search. I needed a sample synchronization license and I've found one.

I'm still interested in hearing more about how others are doing this. How do you guys go about your licensing? How do you determine pricing?

Here is another, more specific question. I'm trying to understand the functionality of the mechanical license. From my understanding granting someone mechanical rights allows that person to modify, duplicate, and distribute the master work. So is this required for game developers to duplicate and distribute their project that contains the song?

As I'm understanding it, a run-of-the-mill license that allows a game developer to use a track in a typical scenario would grant master use rights to allow the use of the recording, synchronization rights to allow the use of the composition, and mechanical rights to distribute the recording with the project. Is this correct?

[Edit] Ok, so I did a bit more research and it seems that the mechanical license is more for re-recording and distributing music that is not being synced to film. So a sync license and master use license is all that is generally needed?

There's something here called a composer's agreement also that might apply (I'm searching along with you as I'm interested also).

http://www.versusmed...m/downloads.php


This one seems like a pretty good example too
http://www.biztree.com/Templates/Music-License-Agreement.html

Thanks for the samples, fartheststar! I have my automatic licensing system set up now at

http://jonahsmusic.leadhoster.com

I'm opting for a system that accepts payment via Paypal then autonomously generates a really basic license for the most typical kinds of scenarios. I'm not sure how many composers actually go this route with their stock audio, but I'm hoping it will attract smaller developers as well as developers that are in a hurry. Hopefully it doesn't turn away developers that want to discuss and negotiate licensing with me directly, because that's still an option.

Here is the sample license. It's a little bare, but I think it does the job. Then again, I'm not a lawyer so I don't know for sure :/

http://jonahsmusic.leadhoster.com/sample_commercial.txt

Jonah has opened a new thread on this topic in the Business / Legal forum, so this thread is closed.