Royalty free vocal or Exclusive vocal, which one is better?

Let’s say you have decided to add a new element to the latest track you produced and you are currently looking for a nice acapella to put on top of your already done instrumental. If you do not yet have the possibility to work with a vocalist your options are limited to either using a royalty free vocal or an exclusive one. So what are the differences between the two?

A royalty free acapella is pretty much what the name itself says: An acapella for which no royalties must be paid, meaning that once you download or purchase the vocal you are free to do whatever you please with it. You are not required to give credit to the singer and you do not need to split any royalties with them.However, there is a catch here. Royalty free vocals are not limited to one purchase only and therefore many people can obtain them and use them in their songs. At first this does not seem like an issue, but then there happen to be multiple songs with the exact same vocalist and lyrics and this could get confusing and troublesome for the producers. Also more often than not digital distributors would have troubles differentiating between tracks with the same vocal and this could lead to possible copyright claims and legal troubles even though both producers paid for that vocal. On the bright side though, royalty free acapellas are easier to find (a quick Splice search gives countless results) and much more affordable than custom one use only vocals.

Now with that said, if you do have extra money to spend you could opt for the second option that is exclusive vocals, whether they are custom or prerecorded.

Then you would not have to worry about other producers using the same acapella as you, as you would be the only one with rights to that particular vocal. Nevertheless you will need to consider other things, such as finding the right vocalist to do the job for you, or negotiating royalty splits with the singer.

If you are currently looking for an exclusive vocal for your next track, look no further than Ghost Vocals, our newest feature that offers you the chance to purchase an exclusive, one use only acapella from one of our professional session vocalists. Each acapella you buy includes a dry and wet version and is guaranteed to add that extra touch to your track.