License Modifiers
Modifiers add requirements or restrictions on top of a base license tier. They’re optional — a tier can stand alone (e.g., FM:Remix with no modifiers is valid). When multiple modifiers are present, they always appear in this fixed order:
Credit → Royalty(n%) → ShareAlike → NoAI
Credit
Section titled “Credit”Attribution required. The derivative work must credit the original creator.
How credit appears depends on the context — liner notes for a release, description for a stream, tracklist for a DJ set. FreeMix handles attribution automatically through the remix tree and attribution chains on the platform.
Key rules:
- Attribution must include the artist name and original track title at minimum
- Credit cascades through the full remix chain — if the original license includes Credit, every downstream derivative must attribute the original creator, no matter how deep the chain goes
- Credit flows downstream from the point it was introduced, not retroactively upstream. If Artist A releases without Credit, and Producer B remixes it adding Credit, Producer C (remixing B) must credit B but has no obligation to credit A
Royalty(n%)
Section titled “Royalty(n%)”Revenue share. The original creator receives a specified percentage of gross revenue from commercial sales of derivatives.
- The percentage is set by the creator (1%–50% range) and is immutable once set
- Royalties are calculated on the gross sale price before deductions
- Royalties only apply when money changes hands — free distribution incurs no obligation
- Incompatible with FM:NC (no sales = no royalties)
- Not available with FM:Samples. Samples are a bare tier and carry no royalty in any form
- Not available with FM:DJ (no source redistribution = nothing to cascade from)
The Royalty Cascade
Section titled “The Royalty Cascade”Royalties flow through the entire remix tree using the halving rule. Each level in the chain can set a maximum royalty rate equal to 50% of the rate set by the creator directly above them.
Example: Artist A sets 20% royalty.
| Creator | Max Rate | On a $10 Sale | Seller Keeps |
|---|---|---|---|
| A (original) | 20% (their choice) | $2.00 | $8.00 |
| B (remix of A) | 10% (half of 20%) | $0.80 | $7.20 |
| C (remix of B) | 5% (half of 10%) | $0.36 | $6.84 |
| D (remix of C) | 2.5% (half of 5%) | $0.17 | $6.67 |
| E (seller) | — | — | keeps $6.67 |
The halving rule ensures royalties converge naturally — no hard cap needed. Each creator can set any rate up to their maximum, and the series always adds up to less than 100%.
ShareAlike
Section titled “ShareAlike”Viral, and it reaches off-platform. ShareAlike is a lock on derivatives of this work: any remix, edit, or mashup must also carry a FreeMix license. You can add it even if the track you built on didn’t carry it — the lock can begin anywhere in the tree, and no one downstream can remove it.
- Direction of travel: derivatives can tighten these terms, never loosen them. The derivative must carry the same tier or a more restrictive one, and must preserve ShareAlike itself.
- The off-platform half: the FreeMix-license requirement is the one term that reaches beyond FreeMix’s own systems — it keeps a downstream work licensed even when it’s released elsewhere, like Bandcamp or SoundCloud. Enforced by the license terms, not a technical lockout.
- What carries down the chain: NoAI is preserved when it travels with ShareAlike. Credit cascades on its own, with or without ShareAlike. Royalty is not preserved — it is halved at each generation under the halving rule.
- ShareAlike With Stems goes one step further: remixes must also share their stems. Those stems seed new works, which share their stems in turn — ShareAlike is a forward ratchet, and the stems layer makes it a cycle.
Tier restrictiveness order (least to most): FM:Open → FM:Remix → FM:Stems / FM:DJ → FM:Samples → FM:NC
A derivative of an FM:Remix · ShareAlike track must be at least FM:Remix or more restrictive (FM:Stems, FM:DJ, FM:Samples, or FM:NC).
No machine learning training. The licensed material may not be used as training data for generative AI models.
What NoAI restricts:
- Using the audio as training data for AI music generation models
- Feeding stems or samples into AI training datasets
- Any automated content synthesis from the audio
What NoAI does NOT restrict:
- AI-assisted production tools used by humans (AI mastering, stem separation, pitch correction)
- AI-powered search and recommendation of NoAI tracks (metadata use, not audio training)
- A human producer using AI tools as part of their creative process
The distinction is between AI as a tool in human hands (fine) and AI consuming your audio as training data (not fine with NoAI).
Compatibility Table
Section titled “Compatibility Table”Not all modifiers work with all tiers.
| Modifier | FM:OPEN | FM:REMIX | FM:NC | FM:STEMS | FM:DJ | FM:SAMPLES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Credit | — | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | — |
| Royalty | — | Yes | — | Yes | — | — |
| ShareAlike | — | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | — |
| NoAI | — | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | — |
FM:OPEN and FM:SAMPLES are the two bare tiers — they accept no modifiers and always stand alone.
FM:NC is incompatible with Royalty — no sales means no royalties.
FM:DJ is incompatible with Royalty and ShareAlike. It forbids source redistribution, so there are no derivatives for ShareAlike to attach to and nothing for royalties to cascade from.