Searching for a Soundtrack

There are a lot of misconceptions about the use of music for your videos.  Let’s start by addressing those, and move on to a list of options – literally about a million options – that may work for your particular project.  (And if you know of other resources, let me know and I’ll update the list!)

Myth #1:  “If I only use 30 seconds (or 10 seconds, or 1 minute) then I’m not violating copyright.”  This is a common misconception that is even being taught in journalism schools.  If I create and perform a piece of music, I automatically own the copyright – down to the last second.

Myth #2:  “If I’m not making money off it, it’s OK.”  Copyright is copyright, whether someone makes a profit off my creativity or not.  For a home video of your vacation that you’re going to burn to DVD and keep at home, no one is going to have an issue with it because they won’t know about it (though it’s still not legal).  If you’re planning to do just about anything else with it, you need permission.

Myth #3:  “I can use it because it’s in the public domain.”  Well…that depends.  Any musical work created before 1922 in the United States is public domain.  Depending on whom you ask, however, recordings of those songs are not.  And considering most recordings were done after 1922, it’s slim pickings anyway.  But if you want to give this a go, , check out PublicDomain4u, which also has links to other sites, or the Open Music Archive.  Know how to play an instrument?  Go crazy – check out this site to determine if something is in the public domain.

Myth #4:  “I can use it because I sang (played, whistled, hummed) the song myself.”  The tune itself is subject to copyright.  A performance of that tune is a separate copyright requiring permission by the composer.  And sound recordings by musicians – well, they’re extremely complicated because publishers get involved, rights are bought and sold…it’s a huge headache.

Myth #5:  “I can use Creative Commons or ‘royalty free’ music in a video contest.”  Typically, video contest organizers require you to hand over your work to enter – or to claim your prize.  Check their fine print.  A “Creative Commons” license almost always prevents you from doing this.  They’re sharing their music to support your creativity – not giving you the right to transfer ownership to a contest sponsor.  Same for licensed or “royalty free” music (which is also licensed, but for a one-time flat fee).  They’ve licensed you to use the music, but that usually does not include the right to transfer that license to a contest sponsor.

All that having been said, there are a number of options available.  For commercial works, fair use is a great loophole – although it is, legally speaking, poorly defined.  But there are a number of fair use options.  If you happen to catch your kids on video singing “Happy Birthday” or the TV/radio was on in the background and got on your video, that’s OK.  Parody is OK.  Using a piece for critique is OK.  And so are a surprising number of other cases.  Check out this web site to determine if you may qualify for a fair use exclusion for your video. It’s well worth the read.

You may also be a musician, or know someone – say, the high school band or a neighbor – who may be interested in collaborating with you.  Again, focus on public domain works or original composition.  Don’t know anyone?  There are lots of folks on the internet who would like to work with you – sometimes for a fee, sometimes just for publicity.  Or maybe you want to agree that any money or prizes are split 75-25, or 80-20:

– Undergunned Productions, on MySpace has a browsable ambient / rock collection and supports indie film.

– Settle the Score is for projects that are a bit more ambitious than a YouTube clip (no offense to YouTube), offering to develop music scores, such as for ad agencies or video.

– You could also collaborate with Moby (yes, that Moby) – he has placed a collection of music that is “free to independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short” (there’s a form to fill out).  If you want to use it commercially, your licensing fee goes to the Humane Society – how cool is that?

Free Music

If that doesn’t suit you, there are a number of folks out there who put out their music in one or another “Creative Commons” license, which is just fine for noncommercial work.  Be sure and check their license to ensure you’ve complied with its requirements – such as republishing under the same license, giving credit to them, whatever they ask:

– CCMixter is an awesome site whose subtitle reads, “Download. Sample. Cut-up. Share.”  A community of folks who share and remix samples, they offer both the samples and the resulting works created from them for re-use under a variety of Creative Commons licenses…again, read the fine print to avoid using original works inappropriately.  The site is very user-friendly.

– The Freesound Project, unlike CCMixter, focuses on individual sounds, rather than mixes.  A bit of work is required to assemble the sounds into soundtracks.  Again, check the Creative Commons license.

– Audiofarm is a bit experimental, and some searching is needed to find something useful.  You could spend a lot of time just browsing and listening, and if you’re looking for something quick to complete your project, this may not be the best place to start.

– Jimmy Gelhaar is an aspiring musician whose work I have used quite a bit.  He has a selection of pretty well-done pieces for different moods, you just have to register to use them.  He just wants to be credited in order for you to use his work.

– Derek Audette hosts a couple dozen creative commons tracks on his site, with descriptions, for download.

– Kevin MacLeod has collected a variety of creative interests, including an extensive music collection, on his site, Incompetech.com.  Some of his stuff is a bit whimsical, but his detailed search function (search by mood and genre) make his site useful to find something  for your video in relative short order.  He lets you use his music for just about anything, as long as you give attribution.

– Taylor Hayward is a software designer and pianist who loves to compose and play music, and offers “ambient classical music” tracks, completely free, no strings attached.

– Dan-O at Danosongs has a variety of vocal and instrumental tracks he has made available for free use (with attribution).  You can even sign up for a “free download of the week” notification by email.

– Internet Audio Guy has about a dozen tracks for free, as publicity for his main site.  It’s not much, but it may be what you need – and you can always check his main site for more (paid) options.

– Mp3Free offers a lot of his/her own songs for free (creative commons) use (attribution).  The only weird thing about it is that nowhere on the site is an actual name listed.  I guess you just credit mp3free.com.  Also links to other free sites.

– Sonnyboo offers 20 tracks for free download, no strings attached.  He calls it royalty-free, but in actuality he has donated them to the public domain, in exchange to crediting John Scott Ross for the piece.

– RockProper digitally distribute free music from a number of different artists.  The music may be downloaded freely, but be sure and check out the licensing requirements for each musician – most of which is Creative Commons (but there are different types and requirements)

– Dogmazic is a similar service as RockProper.  They boast nearly 40,000 pieces of music.  Much of their site, however, is in French.  They have a variety of search options, though I was unable to browse (listen to) music directly on the site for some reason.

– OpSound is a large collection of music contributed under Creative Commons – share alike (meaning your derivative work must carry the same “copyleft”).

– Free Music Archive is a collection of tens of thousands of quality music pieces, hosted by public radio station WFMU (and joined by a host of other curators).  Each song has its own track page that explains how you can use it and how you need to credit the owner.  The search function is pretty good to, and lets you filter by “sync to video”.  And listening and downloading are simple as well.

– Human Workshop is another such site – with, from what I’ve listened to, some unique and quality music.  The web site says it’s all licensed via a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license; if you want to use it commercially they give you a form to fill out.

– You can use the files at Free Production Tracks for any purpose – commercial or noncommercial.  They ask that you refer back to their site in your credits.

– Royalty Free Music hosts 12,000 audio files for licensing ($9.95 per track, $99 per CD), but they also offer different kinds of audio tracks, beats, samples and effects for free use in nonprofit work.  They rotate which files are free, so keep checking back – and ask that you credit their main site.

– Soundclick hosts just shy of an amazing 400,000 pieces of music.  You can search by genre and get commercial licenses for between $10 and $50, or select “creative commons” from the pull-down menu at top left, and filter for free music (again checking attribution requirements for each you use).

– the Internet Archive is a project to preserve all kinds of audio files, including live performances by well-known artists.  If you absolutely want to use a big-name piece of music but don’t want to track down who owns the rights, this is the only way I know of that you can do it.  These archive files are only for noncommercial use – check the individual file information to determine further requirements and/or limitations.

Free Sound Effects

– For sound effects – completely free – check out Universal Soundbank.  The French version claims 20,000 sounds (the English claim of 12,000 is probably out of date) – and they’re all listed alphabetically by category.

– Pacific Digital Video mainly offers sound effects, but also a handful of completed music tracks – as well as lots of links to other resources.  Use their sounds in exchange for a link back to their site.

– Music for Video offers both music and sound effects – but the music requires an annual fee of 1400 euro for permission to use all their music.  The sound effects, however, are free. They just ask that you link back to their site if you use it on the internet.

Music for a fee (licensing)

If you’re looking for a broader pool to choose from, check out these web sites that specialize in licensing music and sounds from a large number of contributors:

– Music2License offers a license for 40 Pounds Sterling, regardless of what the music is used for.  They have a wide variety of music styles and offer a number of different search options.

– The Blue Mask offers BIG sounds composed by Simon Wilkinson for (all prices in pounds Sterling) 0.99 for the mp3 plus 9.99 (noncommercial) or 49.99 (commercial) licensing fee.  Fully searchable and browsable, the only downside is that the previous include a woman repeatedly saying “the blue mask dot com” which can get irritating.  Probably he knows I own AudioRecorder Pro (see below).

– SmartAssMusic offers a variety of services, including music licensing, most commonly for $20 per track.  They also span the gamut of music styles.

– FreePlayMusic has about 6200 pieces of production music, indie music, and sound effects you can license.  The production music is the kind of stuff you’d have difficulty finding elsewhere, but you’re also going to pay $25 to $75, if not more (less than $10 for sound effects).  It’s free for in-home or educational use; however, I had trouble previewing files – it uses Media Player, and it kept freezing up.

– Jamendo offers 30,000 “free and legal” music albums for download and use for private projects; but if you want to share your video, they’re not free – but in many cases, nearly so.  Select your song, specify its use and the license term, and you’ll be given the licensing cost – often as little as $3.  You can also “go pro” and get access to everything for an annual fee.  The cool thing about this site is it’s a community – meaning the tracks and albums are sorted by popularity.

– Citybus Productions as a smallish (but growing, I presume) collection of production tracks you can license for about $25 bucks (web site, amateur video) or more for broader uses; and a list of sound loops for producing your own music.  You can search by category, but their tracks are not tagged for other search options.

– Rumblefish hosts 30,000 pieces of music for licensing, and I particularly like them because of their user-friendly search function that allows you to search by mood, and the fact that for a YouTube video or a vlog piece, they only charge $5 (though the price increases for other, more commercial uses).  They have a good working relationship with YouTube, and if you use their work it will immediately be flagged on YouTube.  They won’t deactivate your audio, but if you want your video to be ad-free, dispute the copyright and put your invoice number on the form – it’ll be cleared up within a day or two.

– SoundSnap offers an amazing 100,000 sound effects and music loops (for use in a music editing/production program) at reasonable pricing depending on how many you buy (from $1,80 per sound to $249 for an annual unlimited subscription) and they are working on plans whereby you can contribute your own sounds for revenue sharing.

Other stuff

Also intriguing is Hobnox, a Germany-based sharing platform of sorts (in public beta testing).  They offer users 2 GB space, and the ability to upload and share (and download) all sorts of content.  They claim to be a forum to facilitate collaboration between creative types, so you may find someone there with similar interests to work with. In addition, they have a somewhat limited but extremely user-friendly, cloud-based AudioTool to create your own beats (here’s a sample of what I did in 20 minutes – gaps are due to my bandwidth) Check out their “what is Hobnox” link for more.

Along similar lines, New Grounds is a sharing and collaboration platform – a social networking site for creative types.  In addition to music, they have flash video, gaming and other collections/sharing portals.  Each uploaded music piece comes with its own copyright information.

Niklas Aman specializes in music for video, and has a fair number of pretty good tracks for different moods.  He charges by the second and is very responsive to requests.  Check him out on Twitter.

DIY Tools

If you want to take a shot at producing your own audio, the simplest option is to record it with your camcorder, import it to your editing program, delete the video, and edit away.  You can also record directly to your computer – but I’d advise against using your computer mike.  I’ve had pretty good results with the USB mic that comes with the RockBand video game.  A couple of programs you can use to record are Audio Recorder Pro, for $39.95 which I’ve used for years with great success, or WireTap Studio for $69 – which I haven’t tried.  Of course there are plenty of other programs, including the option to just use Windows MovieMaker directly.

Have I missed any?  Send me an email and I’ll add to this list!