Finding music for a feature film

James Riggs

James Riggs

New member
Does anybody know of a site where you can download/purchase old (good) film scores that are now in the public domain?

I have searched internet archives and couldn't come up with much. We are in the middle of a low/no budget feature and are hoping for something better than Audiojungle-type sites.

Anything helps, as I am pretty new at this! Ha

James
 
Hi, James.

There are places that can offer decent material on a budget. Not sure you’re going to have much luck looking for any old film scores in the public domain, though. They’ll be quite dated.

We have a sticky in this forum that points to several great resources for every budget:

Legally-licensed music, or, "Yes! You CAN license music for your video!"

When it comes to content creation, music and copyrights raise some challenges. On one hand, film makers and video producers need music to enhance their content. On the other hand, the music most folks like (mainstream, popular music) can be difficult or expensive to license... but perhaps...
www.dvxuser.com
 
I just finished a short and found quite a variety of music here: https://pixabay.com/music/search/movie cue/.

I used one cue from them for one part of a scene. It was a very sad and beautifully played piece called "Crying Cello". So good stuff is out there.

For the rest, I tried hiring recent music composer graduates. I found it not to be a good experience. I asked two of them to do a sample for a short clip from the movie, with disappointing results.

I ended up doing the music myself (traditional orchestral), except for the credits, which a friend, who is a hard-rock guy, did a wonderfully moving orchestral piece.

Then I found out a good composer was available to me (for free) though a chance conversation, but I was already done. So there is hidden talent out there if you ask around.
 
What you could do is post the video and see if anyone fancies producing the music for you. I seem to remember quite a few folk here do produce music, but it rarely works using library music because it doesn't match the visuals. Epic orchestral or big soundscapes? So much variety. If it's my sort of project, I might be able to compose something for you, but I'm uninspired by some things so hopefully it is something that matches me? Feel free to send a private link to it if you like. I appreciate you might not want it public. Can't promise but you never know?
 
Thank you.
We are currently in the process of getting a contract with another composer for our music. I appreciate the offer.

Here is a link to the trailer, though, if you would like to see it. ThisGeneration.net
 
Paul F said:
I just finished a short and found quite a variety of music here: https://pixabay.com/music/search/movie cue/.

I used one cue from them for one part of a scene. It was a very sad and beautifully played piece called "Crying Cello". So good stuff is out there.

For the rest, I tried hiring recent music composer graduates. I found it not to be a good experience. I asked two of them to do a sample for a short clip from the movie, with disappointing results.

I ended up doing the music myself (traditional orchestral), except for the credits, which a friend, who is a hard-rock guy, did a wonderfully moving orchestral piece.

Then I found out a good composer was available to me (for free) though a chance conversation, but I was already done. So there is hidden talent out there if you ask around.
Click to expand...
Nice resource there! I looked around thinking there MUST be a fee for at least some of these but apparently not according to the terms of use page.
 
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