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Sound Library Licensing Agreement

This End-User License Agreement explains how purchased recordings may be used in productions while protecting the original recordists and their work.

Last updated18 August 2026Applies toAll paid sound libraries sold through The Great Indian LibraryRead Terms & Conditions

1. Agreement and parties

This agreement is between the purchaser or authorized license holder (“you” or “Licensee”) and The Great Indian Library or the rights holder identified on the relevant product page or purchase receipt (“we”, “us” or “Licensor”). It applies to every sound library and audio file supplied with your purchase (“Library” and “Sounds”). By purchasing, downloading, installing or using the Sounds, you accept this agreement.

A purchase gives you a license to use the Sounds. It does not transfer ownership of the recordings or underlying intellectual property.

2. License grant

Subject to payment and compliance with this agreement, we grant you a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual and royalty-free license to use the Sounds in synchronized media productions. The license is for one named user unless the product page, invoice or a separate written agreement states that a multi-user license was purchased.

3. Permitted uses

You may edit, layer, process, mix and synchronize the Sounds with other creative elements in productions including:

  • film, television, documentary, animation and trailers;
  • advertising, branded content, websites and social media;
  • podcasts, radio, music and live performance;
  • video games, applications, interactive installations and immersive media; and
  • client work created by you, provided the client receives only the completed production and not the raw Sounds as a reusable collection.

You may keep reasonable backup copies and install the Library on devices used solely by the licensed user.

4. Restrictions

You must not, without a separate written license:

  • sell, share, upload, sublicense, rent, lend or redistribute any Sound in raw, isolated or substantially similar form;
  • include the Sounds in another sound-effects library, sample pack, production-music stem collection, preset, template or stock-media product;
  • make the Sounds independently extractable from a product, website, application, game, soundboard, toy, hardware device or authoring tool;
  • claim ownership or authorship of the Sounds, remove embedded ownership notices, or register the Sounds themselves with a content-identification service;
  • use the Sounds, metadata or derived audio to train, fine-tune, evaluate or improve artificial-intelligence, machine-learning or neural-network systems or datasets;
  • use the Sounds to create a competing sound library or a product whose primary value is the playback of substantially unaltered sound effects; or
  • share one single-user license across a company, team or group of collaborators.

Contact us before any use that may fall outside the permitted uses. Enterprise, multi-user, educational, broadcast-network and custom licensing may be available.

5. Client work and collaborators

You may provide mixed or synchronized production files to a client. A client or collaborator who needs access to the raw Sounds must obtain their own license or be covered by a valid multi-user license. Temporary access by a contractor is allowed only while that person is working directly for the licensed user, only for the relevant production and only if the contractor deletes the raw Sounds when the work ends.

6. Ownership

The Licensor and credited recordists retain all right, title and interest in the Libraries and Sounds. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. No public-domain, copyright-transfer or trademark license is implied.

7. Termination

This license ends automatically if you materially breach this agreement and do not correct the breach after receiving reasonable notice where correction is possible. After termination, you must stop new use and delete all copies of the affected Library. Completed productions lawfully created and distributed before termination may remain in circulation unless prohibited by applicable law or a court order.

8. Warranties and responsibility

We warrant that the Licensor has authority to grant the rights stated here. Except for that promise and rights that cannot legally be excluded, the Sounds are supplied “as is”. You are responsible for deciding whether a Sound is suitable for a production and for complying with laws, platform rules, union requirements, privacy rights and clearances that apply to your finished work.

9. Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, neither party is liable to the other for indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss arising from the Library. Our total liability connected with a Library will not exceed the amount paid for that Library during the twelve months before the claim. Nothing in this agreement excludes liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

10. General terms

You may not transfer this license without our written consent, except as part of a lawful transfer of your entire business where the recipient accepts this agreement. If one provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue. This agreement and any product-specific written license form the complete agreement for use of the Sounds.

This agreement is governed by the laws of India. Disputes are subject to the courts of competent jurisdiction in the place where the Licensor is established, unless mandatory consumer law requires otherwise.

11. Contact

Questions about licensing, additional seats or a custom use may be sent to hello@thegreatindianlibrary.in.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Great Indian Library?

A growing collection of authentic sounds recorded across India — from forests and villages to busy streets, trains, festivals, wildlife and everyday life.

Think of it as India, in WAV format.

Why create another sound library?

Because India is not just one place — it is thousands of places, cultures and sound worlds.

India has 22 constitutionally recognized languages, 121 languages recorded in the Census, and thousands of documented mother tongues. From Kerala to Kashmir, Rajasthan to Assam, the way people speak, travel, celebrate, work and live can change dramatically from one place to another.

Every place has its own acoustic identity.

We want to document those differences properly and make them useful for films, sound design, games, music and more.

Why are there more recordings from South India?

The library started here, so naturally that’s where we’ve recorded the most.

But the goal isn’t to stop at South India. We’re gradually expanding across different regions and hope to build a network of recordists documenting their own parts of the country.

The map is still loading.

How big is the library?

You haven’t seen most of it yet.

We currently have a backlog of around 50,000 recordings waiting to be properly catalogued, tagged and added to the library.

So what’s online right now is really just the beginning.

Our hard drives know things the website doesn’t.

Can I use these sounds in my project?

Yes, according to the licence provided with each library.

The recordings are intended for real production use — films, games, documentaries, podcasts, music, installations and more.

Can I contribute recordings?

That’s the idea.

India is far too big for a few people and a few microphones.

We want to bring together field recordists from across the country and build something that eventually represents India in all its beautiful, chaotic, noisy glory.

The Great Indian Library

Original Indian field recordings for production.

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