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Music for free use
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  • MirrorManMirrorMan

    As far as I know, music appears in every culture on the planet and is used for every occasion, just like food. One could still argue whether or not its as "essential" as food, but its certainly as prevalent. Wherever you find good food, you'll probably have good music. I wish people would stop framing the free/pay music debate only in economic terms, (as economics is looking more and more like a bogus science every day) and start thinking about it in much broader cultural terms.

    Anyway, back to the obtuse black and white modern world. For free stuff head over to: http://www.freesound.org/

    If you want good original music/scores, then pay good composers and musicians (or make it yourself).

  • CRFilmsCRFilms

    http://www.jamendo.com has a lot of free creative commons music and you can search by cc license and music style. The problem isn't finding free music...it's finding the RIGHT music for the scene or video. You can easily spend twice as much time trying to find a right music choice as it took to edit the video.

  • KihlianKihlian

    @CRFilms Really true!

  • Sephiroth7of7Sephiroth7of7

    @CRFilms, @MirrorMan- Do you all have a clear understanding of the various creative commons liscensing terms? Specifically, when they state 'for non-commercial use'.

    I have been tasked with creating a video for my company, which is entirely informative in nature- it doesn't sell a product or a service at all; rather, it increases awareness of some internal capabilities that we have (these capabilities would not lead to increased sales or anything, either). However, my company definitely is a 'for profit' entity; as such, I am not sure that using any soundtracks labelled as 'for non-commercial use' would be legitimate just based on who would be using the material.

    Anyway, if either of you knows any more details/has any experience on this front, I would appreciate it. If I could have a corporate video that says "Soundtrack by Trent Reznor" at the end, I would be able to die happy.

  • bostonmikebostonmike

    I used two Jamendo tracks for a short film I did. Each artist has their own type of licensing guidelines..the tracks I used were awesome, sounded like something you'd hear on a major radio station. I used them for free because their licensing said as long as you're not going to make a profit it was okay to do so and credit them..the tracks are only about $25 each anyway even if you do have to pay.

  • MirrorManMirrorMan

    @Sephiroth7of7 I would read through the Creative Commons licensing terms. I believe 'for non-commercial use' means that the material does not end up in a commercial product of any sort.

    Of course it never hurts to contact the author directly. Anyone can make exceptions. I personally would not mind if some of my recordings were used in educational products.

  • ahblezaahbleza

    Here's another musician who is offering his work for free in return for credit and maybe a donation. Some quite interesting stuff.

    http://soundcloud.com/missingpluto

  • cbdphilcbdphil

    I was looking at this site because I like his music and have bought his CDs before. The 'Royal-Free Music' heading caught my eye and I downloaded and paid the two bucks because I know I can use it sometime. At this price, you can afford to build up a library. It is all his own work and superb quality. I emailed Al Marconi and suggested if he put more music like this on, then perhaps a great many video guys would buy it on spec! He may even get some soundtrack commissions out of it. Beautiful work and he deserves encouragement - http://www.almarconimedia.com/royalty-free-music.html

  • robertGLrobertGL

    Go troll through youtube and soundcloud and you'll find some great talents. I'd say give them a message and maybe work something out. I've come across a few great talents that just make music for fun.
    With cinema music you have the option of using as little or as much as you want. repeating cued themes are common, but so are long evolving motifs. I'd say it's a better overall option than canned music - not to say that it's bad, but you generally want to use something totally new and original

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