To watermark or not to watermark, that's the question!

Envato allow AJ authors, exclusive and non-exclusive, to sell their music on platforms like iTunes, Google Play, Amazon MP3, etc. for personal listening purposes and encourages them to direct potential customers back to AudioJungle in case authors get a request to license their music. We all know that on that marketplaces we don’t find watermarked music! On Youtube, as well as on their own websites, most production music labels like Audiomachine, 2 Steps From Hell and son, never watermark their promotional tracks for a good reason. The same happens in some top RF music libraries (that I can’t mention here to don’t break the rules). Of course everybody finds watermarked music to be annoying and it will never ever will help to sell music or licenses anywhere, by the contrary.
So, the question is: what’s the point to watermark our music previews on AJ, personal websites, social media, etc. if everybody can buy one of our non-watermarked tracks for €0,99 on iTunes and use it on a Youtube movie or a website without buying the license? Does the annoying watermark will protect an author selling their tracks on that platforms from being stolen? Well, I don’t think so and I think this is a contradiction, I’m sorry!

This is why ContentID exists to recoup, albeit small, revenue.

So, what’s the point of watermarking tracks?

At best it can also help to determine where the audio came from. Why do people place watermarks on images when Photoshop can get rid of a lot of things. Why are there YouTube videos demonstrating certain techniques to rid embedded audio watermarks. Digital fingerprinting is a safeguard at some level. Why do we hope to generate income from Envato by hoping people will be kind enough to license a track. SafeguardSafeguardSafeguardSafeguardSafeguardSafeguard.

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What’s the point?

  1. Authors can find watermarked usage and ask for license. It’s strange but not every illegal “user” is removing it.
  2. Not everybody knows how to remove them
  3. It’s psychological thing. If there would be no watermarks, a lot of people would ignore buying…
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I’m so sorry guys, I forgot abt PRO registered music. It only makes sense if your music is PRO registered. You’re completely right, and actually I’m a nuts specimen! :stuck_out_tongue: