Royalty-free

Pay once, use within the licence, owe no per-use fees. Not free, and not unlimited: the name misleads twice.

Royalty-free names a payment structure, not a price: the licence is bought once and covers ongoing use without metering, as against rights-managed work priced per territory, medium and season. It made stock affordable and ubiquitous, which is both its gift and its aesthetic warning.

The fine print survives the friendly name: caps on audience size, exclusions for merchandise or trademarks, attribution clauses, and no exclusivity ever, the same track under a rival's film is entirely legal. The craft position: royalty-free is fine scaffolding and poor identity. What must be unmistakably yours, commission; what merely fills, license.