Royalty Free music recommendations

[WaveRiderXIX]

Well...

I thought I hit gold with http://www.freeplaymusic.com/search/category_search.php?sindex=21&i=21&t=s
Read their FAQ
I downloaded maybe 100 songs. Awesome quality..
Then I read their licensing terms.
And I qualify for nothing free.

Anyone know of "completely" free royalty free libararies out there?

If not... know any good ones in general I can purchase?

I wasn't too fond of the Digital Juice Libraries for the price they sell em'.

[Shane Realm]

i love this site. http://www.sounddogs.com

[J.R. Hudson]

Hi Wave

Same here; great great site; unfortunately our films seem to be in the middle of everyones terms; I'm making 5 to 10 Minute shorts but cant justify hundreds of dollars for a 1 minute drop.

Ive been using Aciplanet at the artists community site; if you find something you like send an email to one of them and ask to use it; be specific in your goals and usage. Ive had several say "Sure!" as they are tunes made from Acid Loops and Beats.

Worth a try

[Terry_Lasater]

I've recently purchased CDs from Notepad and I'm happy with their license.

Here's what they say on their website:
When you purchase a CD it is licensed to you, not just your current project, so you can use the same CD on as many productions in the future as you like. Buy the whole music library and never pay any music licensing fees again! So many styles are covered including everything from a full symphony orchestra, to jazz, rock, pop, MOR, acoustic to name just a few.

http://www.notepadmusic.com/

[Nirimba]

Have a look at SmartSound from Sonic Desktop. Buy the program & CDs it lets you taylor the length of of your audio to your clip & no more to pay.

[Terry_Lasater]

Digital Juice has a similar system.

http://tinyurl.com/7y5gq

[WaveRiderXIX]

Hey thanks for the tips guys.

I was looking at notepad and saw this
http://www.notepadmusic.com/npcd18.htm

now... I have some of these tracks on different CDs which I purchased. Does that mean I can just use the ones I already have? Because I don't see the difference between the CD I purchased with these songs... vs. their CD with the same song on it? I'm confused.

Or does old music have no official copyright owner such as classics?

[scharky]

Another thing you could do is find a local college with a music program. Petition the students with your plan for your film. Many students do excellent compositional work and will do it for free, just to gain experience and get their names out there. I currently have a fellow student composing all of the music for my short film awake. The great thing is, it is all liscened to you, just make sure that they sign a contract.

[Flintstone]

Digital Juice! Their first Backtraxx series is basically crap... sorry, I mean cheezy music... Well 80% of it anyway. There are some good music tracks in it that I did use in some projects.

I've been using sounddogs for 2 years now, more for sound effects then music though. I agree with John about music prices, they are quite high for very good pieces, but they do have a good selection. I find most of their samples are too compressed though, so it's hard to make out if the stuff is good quality or not. Kind of a gamble at times.

I've started to dabble with making my own music with GarageBand and Soundtrack on the Mac. Nice stuff. I believe Logic Pro is their upscale product. On the PC side, Sony Acid Pro is probably THE product to have. But if time is not on your side, then forget making your own soundtrack. Unless you have someone that can do it for you.

[Terry_Lasater]

There is a big difference between Digital Juice's BackTraxx and StackTraxx. BackTraxx (I believe) is your basic cuts on a CD, while StackTraxx is more of a loop program that has multitrack cuts that you can control each instrument, set keyframes for levels, etc. Kinda like SoundTrack, except they have complete songs you can dismantle or build up.

[Terry_Lasater]

Hey thanks for the tips guys.

I was looking at notepad and saw this
http://www.notepadmusic.com/npcd18.htm

now... I have some of these tracks on different CDs which I purchased. Does that mean I can just use the ones I already have? Because I don't see the difference between the CD I purchased with these songs... vs. their CD with the same song on it? I'm confused.

Or does old music have no official copyright owner such as classics?

If I'm understanding you correctly, you're wondering why you can't use someone else's copy/version of the same songs that are offered in the royalty free CD.

The basic answer is 'cuz whoever recorded the non-royalty-free CDs aren't offering you a license simply for purchasing their CDs. The Notepad CD has been recorded with the intent of licensing it's use to producers/directors.

[tomjcom]

Check out twistedtracks.com -- Great stuff, good prices.