Important Question From Authors Regarding Licensing Terms

Hello community!

After some time spent studying Envato License FAQ for authors (AudioJungle particularly) myself and a dozen of other authors were faced with some confusion regarding what we authors can and can not do. Representing our collective interest, we decided to create a post on a forum from my name so we all can discuss it :slight_smile:

So, to make it short, here it is:


  • Are we as authors and copyright holders allowed to use our own items on our terms for freelance work for other people? For example, if we’re delivering a project to a direct client, should we license our own item? (yes, we can’t do it anyway). Should a client license the item anyway? What if he pays us directly and can’t license the file and wants us to take care about everything? So does it mean we can provide the item for ‘free’ from the buyers perspective? Because in reality he won’t receive any license agreement from Envato because we didn’t license it. :thinking: :thinking: :thinking:

Here’s an official statement from FAQ:

Do I need to buy my own file to use if for a client i.e. as part of freelance work?
No. Actually you’re not permitted to buy your own item under our Envato Market rules for authors. You can re-use your own item for your own projects and for your own freelance work without buying it. If you’re working for a client, they do not need to buy the item from Envato Market because you are the author and you are authorizing your client to use the item.


  • What if an author wants to directly sell an item to a client without licensing it via Envato? (for example, if a clients can’t use Envato for some reason but still wants the music). Here what we can find in FAQ again:

I’m an exclusive author. Someone has approached me to buy my item on different license terms. Can I do this?
No, if you are an exclusive author then please point the buyer back to the corresponding Envato Market site to license the item under the usual license terms.

So if you compare the second question with the first one you’ll probably get into some confusion about it as it seems pretty blurred.

What are your thoughts about it? Is it all clear for you? What do you think?

If someone from Envato staff can provide an answer to that with an explanation and eliminate the confusion that would be super cool!

Have a great May everyone! Peace out! :muscle:

-Olexandr

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The first question didn’t specify if the author is exclusive or not. I think the person who answered it, assumed that the author was non-exclusive. If he was exclusive, he wouldn’t have the right to sell AJ item outside AJ. So I think this part is for non-exclusive authors only:

You should mail to Envato. They should answer quickly. Let us know what was the answer, if you will contact Envato support.

In my opinion - analyzing first question and Answer - it looks like author can make a private deal “outside” the Envato. But is this profitable? Not really.

Second question is about different license terms, when using Envato Market. For example buyer wishes to buy standard license via Envato but he can ask author via mail for permission to use item also in single small-audience broadcast. Envato says: In this case author should say 'no, you can’t allow buyer to use item in different way than in license terms".

Of course I can be wrong. Especially, that Envato answer on second question is little confusing.

In one rules Envato says that:

Do I need to buy my own file to use if for a client i.e. as part of freelance work?

No. Actually you’re not permitted to buy your own item under our Envato Market rules for authors. You can re-use your own item for your own projects and for your own freelance work without buying it. If you’re working for a client, they do not need to buy the item from Envato Market because you are the author and you are authorizing your client to use the item.

In other Envato says:

I’m an exclusive author. Someone has approached me to buy my item on different license terms. Can I do this?
No, if you are an exclusive author then please point the buyer back to the corresponding Envato Market site to license the item under the usual license terms.

And what?

  • Client do not need to buy the item from Envato Market
  • Please point the buyer back to the corresponding Envato Market site to license the item under the usual license terms

What author must doing if client want using music from author’s portfolio? I can’t understand…

I know that in first FAQ statement there was nothing about non-exclusive account,but as for me it seems like they main difference in these two situations is exclusive and non-exclusive agreement with Envato.
As we all know exclusive means: customer can get item Only on Envato Market -> nowhere else
Non-exclusive: Customer can get item from a variety of places including getting it directly from author or other marketplaces.
So in first case we can read about non-exclusive account and in second about exclusive.
Still it would be great to hear the offical text from Envato.

But it would not be consistent…

Every exclusive author can become non-exclusive and every non-exclusive can become exclusive… Every author can remove his items from Audio Jungle and sell them in other places after that… Exclusiveness isn’t permanent.

So it’s logical that authors can sell items on freelance basis. Because why not?

And it’s logical that authors can’t allow to use licenses in different than ‘Envato-license-rules’ - when selling via Envato platform.

Of course I can be wrong.

Though I agree these two points seems to contradict one another, I think the difference resides in the approach. First point addresses the case where you, the author, offer the music as part of a freelance job. Second point addresses the case where someone heard your music on AJ and wants to buy it directly from you, bypassing Envato.

This is what I make of it. But it sure could use some clarifications.

I undestand you.I think you are right,but from Envato’s point of view it might look something like this:
1)Non-Exclusive We will give you 30% from each license sale and sell what you want and where you want
2)Exclusive We will give you 20% more ,so you will get half,but insted customer will get this track only from us,so market could get more income.
It’s kind of trade-off to me.
Classic bargain
And still…I want to hear Envato version :slight_smile:

But still it can mean logically that exclusive author can sell music only via Envato, BUT the only exeption is when author sells items as a freelancer.

The best answer can be only from Envato :slight_smile:

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In the United States, if a court finds that a contracts term(s) are ambiguous, the terms are construed against the drafter.

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Hi Olexandr.
I guess it might be as simple as you just deal with client and make own agreement (license in written form) then sign it with both sites and that’s it. No difference as here you don’t have certain documents which can represent and prove that you are the author of particular tracks and this market just believe and trust that all music is yours (without any author rights paper prove). Therefore you can make your own handle contract license with your client. But mostly it can be considered for non-exclusive authors i guess.

One day I also faced to this problem. And would like to get the answer from Envato team. Thank you @OlexandrIgnatov!

I see many authors will benefit from official clarification from Envato including myself. Hope to see a reply from them!

The differentiation, as I’ve always understood it, is that in the first example you’re working for the client to create an end product that is greater than just the file on its own. So for example, you might be making a promo video for your client and you edit your track to include in the video.

The second example, is you selling the file and just sending it over to them ‘as is’… so it would be no different than them just buying it from Envato.

The first example would be allowed, the second wouldn’t.