Collectors & Enthusiasts

The music and production elements licensed by Newsmusic Central are primarily intended for use on a market-exclusive basis by broadcasters and other professional producers of audiovisual content. Still, we recognize that there is a small but fervent community of news music enthusiasts — people interested in television news themes for various reasons, ranging from personal interest to historic preservation.

Traditionally, most news theme publishers have been reluctant to provide copies of their work to anyone other than the broadcasters licensed to use it in connection with their newscasts, presumably due to concerns that it might be improperly used in ways that could harm their licensees. There was also the practical consideration that news music was historically delivered on physical media (e.g., reels, digital audio tapes, compact discs), making distribution to anyone other than licensees simply cost prohibitive.

Newsmusic Central believes that the market and technology has evolved such that the interests of our professional media clients can coexist peacefully with the interests of the news music enthusiast community. Accordingly, we are pleased to make available many of our news music packages under a personal use license that allows those interested to lawfully obtain copies of our music for personal, noncommercial, not-for-broadcast use. Our friends at JAM Creative Productions, one of the world’s leading providers of radio ID jingles, have offered a similar program for many years with much success, and we are pleased to bring a similar offering to the news music community.

Please understand that not everyone in the industry agrees with our philosophy and, as a result, there may be circumstances in which we cannot make certain content available under the personal use license.

the “fine print”

The personal use license grants you the right to download and use a copy of a news music package for personal, noncommercial, not-for-broadcast, and not-for-production purposes. There’s a lot there, so let’s unpack it:

This personal use license is an agreement between CSR Media, LLC, doing business as Newsmusic Central (“we,” “us,” or “our”), and you.

When you license a package from us, we will send you a link to download a copy of it for your limited use as set forth below:

You may download and save a copy of the package on as many devices as you like, so long as you are doing it for your own personal purposes.

You may not distribute (“trade,” give away, sell, rent, or lend) copies of the package to anyone else (yes, we know, this has been “how it works” in the “trading community” but ideally, now that there is an “official” mechanism to get our music, that will stop. Fat chance, we realize, but a music publisher can dream, can’t it?).

You may not use the music in connection with any broadcast (radio, television, or internet) whatsoever, nor may you reproduce, synchronize, distribute, or publicly perform the music in connection with any motion picture, audiovisual work, or sound recording, including but not limited to, films, television programs, radio programs, live broadcasts, or podcasts.

That said, you may make limited use of the music in connection with personal projects such as demos or examples of your own personal production, editing, hosting, or anchoring capabilities, and so-called “resynchs,” so long as you do not infringe on any third-party rights while doing so.

You may also post such work, containing our music, to any generally recognized online video hosting service such as YouTube or Vimeo.

All rights not expressly granted to you under this license are reserved by us. We reserve the right to change, modify, or terminate this license at any time.

frequently asked questions

If you're so supportive of collectors, why are you charging a fee to access the music?

Two reasons.

First, the cost to distribute content on the internet is cheaper than it ever has been, but it is still not free. The nominal licensee helps offset the cost of the infrastructure necessary to deliver the music to you.

Second, and perhaps more fundamentally, creative industries such as the music business rely on revenues generated from the licensing of their works to fund the production of new ones. Indeed, the entire point of copyright law — the body of law that ensures creatives have the right to control their work (subject to certain limitations) — is to provide an incentive for creatives to make new things by guaranteeing them a limited period of time during which they may make money from them.

Can I use the music for my high school or college TV or radio show?

No. The license is, as the name implies, for personal use only. If you want to use it “on the air” (including streaming, podcasting, and whatever other internet-based equivalents of “on the air” might be developed in the future), you need a negotiated license with us. The good news is that we’re reasonable people and would love to talk to you about it, so drop us a note at hello@newsmusic.com and let’s discuss.

Are these the full, complete packages?

Yes, as far as we are aware. But please remember that many years have passed since this music was first produced. Much of it was originally recorded to reel-to-reel tapes and converted to digital formats over the years. Sometimes original masters go missing, sometimes they have imperfections on them making it difficult to pull off certain tracks. All of this is to say, these are the “complete” packages as they stand now, but it is entirely possible that there is a track or two that you might have heard in the past that has now been lost to the ages.

The number of tracks in the package doesn't match the version I ripped off the internet a while ago. What's up with that?

Well first, you should stop downloading music without a license.

Second, see the answer above. Some of these packages have evolved over time. Sometimes new masters emerge, sometimes they go missing.

If I buy a personal use license today, and you later update a package, do I get the updates without having to pay again?

Yes, but keep in mind that we may not always immediately make the updates available to collectors at the same time a package is made available for license to broadcasters.

Why did you rename [insert package name here]? #ImageX4Life

We renamed several of the packages (and in some cases, tracks within certain packages) so that they are more easily identified (and less likely to be confused) on cue sheets that are submitted by television stations and others that use the music. In the music industry, a cue sheet is a list of music used in a particular production that is sent to the various performance rights organizations which use those reports to ensure that the various stakeholders receive their due share of the licensee fees paid by commercial users of the music.

As an aside, it’s worth noting that the only people that seem to care about the titles of news music packages and the tracks that comprise them, are collectors and enthusiasts. Just sayin’.

Why is [insert package name here] not available here?

As noted above, there are some circumstances where we may not be able to make a package available under the personal use license because of our commercial arrangements with clients, composers, and other stakeholders in the ecosystem.