Retrosnipes
Member
Thanks!
Place to get unlicensed music to use in videos?
- Thread starter Retrosnipes
- Start date
You might want to give a few more specifics. What's your intended use? Corporate? Educational? Promotional? Indie film?
Are you looking for generic music beds, or are you wanting to use popular music?
Any music you use has to be licensed. Some of it comes in royalty-free buyout libraries, meaning that you buy the library and the license comes with it that allows you to use that music in any production, as often as you like, without having to pay any other fees (usage must be within the specified license agreement, of course).
There are buyout libraries from Killer Tracks, Digital Juice, Manhattan, 615Music, and many more. All price ranges, some are hit-and-miss in terms of music quality.
For popular music, you need to go through a licensing agency... and expect to pay out the wazoo to use it.
Are you looking for generic music beds, or are you wanting to use popular music?
Any music you use has to be licensed. Some of it comes in royalty-free buyout libraries, meaning that you buy the library and the license comes with it that allows you to use that music in any production, as often as you like, without having to pay any other fees (usage must be within the specified license agreement, of course).
There are buyout libraries from Killer Tracks, Digital Juice, Manhattan, 615Music, and many more. All price ranges, some are hit-and-miss in terms of music quality.
For popular music, you need to go through a licensing agency... and expect to pay out the wazoo to use it.
Steve House
Veteran
Taking your topic literally, the only music you can use without securing a license is music you write and perform yourself or that you hire a composer to write for you as a "work made for hire" and then record yourself. ALL other music you use must be licensed from the copyright owner(s). C2V said the rest.
Retrosnipes
Member
Wow. Great responses! Anyways, how about music for videos that you intend just for youtube. I want to create a reel and need some music in the background without it getting flagged for copyright purposes.
unclebob6958
Well-known member
Your best option has already been given by C2V - get royalty free music from an accredited vendor. Many websites offer downloads by-the-song.
Using any type of copyrighted music without proper permissions can lead to - at the least - the video being pulled from YouTube and - at the worst - a lawsuit from the copyright holder.
Of course, nothing may happen at all, but then again there may be some law student or young attorney that would pick your vid just to make just to make a name for himself.
Using any type of copyrighted music without proper permissions can lead to - at the least - the video being pulled from YouTube and - at the worst - a lawsuit from the copyright holder.
Of course, nothing may happen at all, but then again there may be some law student or young attorney that would pick your vid just to make just to make a name for himself.
edit: Never mind. It appears very few audio recordings are truly public domain because of the stupidity of copyright law in the USA.
However, there are songs licensed freely under Creative Commons licenses, for example some may be used even for commercial purposes, the only requirement being a specified attribution. I'd suggest looking for those on places like www.archive.org.
Another edit to add: another place to look might be the large number of public domain movies. Their soundtracks are also considered to be in the public domain, IIRC.
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Steve House
Veteran
YouTube, SchmooTube - it doesn't matter where it's going to be seen. If you show it publically anywhere for any purpose you must have permission to use the song. And anticipating a likely question, there's no cutoff amount under which you don't need the license - even one bar can be sufficient to require licensing.
For your purposes, cuts from a royalty-free library are the only practical solution. The SmartSound SonicFire library is good, the clips can be auditioned online, and come with software that lets you tailor it specifically to time, mood, and mix. Another excellent source with reasonable licensing fees is Magnatunes.com. Also check out the DeWolfe library. And there are tons of others, some really good, some not so hot.
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Steve House
Veteran
Just to be clear, there are virtually no public domain recordings. There are actually two copyrights in force on a music recording - there's the copyright on the words and tune and with music first published before 1922 those copyrights have generally expired and the songs are in the public domain. But when a song is recorded, another copyright comes into play that is completely separate from the copyright on the music itself. Thus a recording of a public-domain song is still copyright. Because of the different rules governing music and recordings, there are essentially no public-domain recordings and I believe the earliest date any of their copyrights expire is 2065. There are a handful that have explicitly been put in the public domain at some point in time by their owners so if you can content yourself with some music originally recorded on Edison Cylinders you might be okay - anything else is going to require a license.
Yeah, that's what I was referring to. I find it pretty ridiculous that there are 100 year old audio recordings still protected by copyright. No copyright should ever last that long, unless the original creator lives 100 years past the creation date. It's so blatantly obvious why and how copyright has gotten so ludicrously long lived in the USA, and it has nothing to do with encouraging creative people and protecting their rights. It's an abominable situation which is only getting worse.
On another note, it appears there may be some music after 1972 but before the Berne convention stuff went through that is in the public domain. Good luck trying to figure out which ones though.
On another note, for film use, magnatunes is really expensive. As in, for what I was interested in, it would have been cheaper to hire a composer to score the entire film for me.
Here's a source of public domain music:
http://www.musopen.com/music.php
These are new recordings of compositions in the public domain, generally specifically made to be put into the public domain..
Steve House
Veteran
Magnatunes is expensive???? Just what do you consider within budget?
I just checked again, and I don't know how I did it, but the first estimate I got was over $20,000 per track. Must have selected the wrong budget.
Still though, for what I'm looking at (worldwide DVD released film), it's over $2000 a song according to their estimator thing.
The prices to use them in a youtube video, etc, are EXTREMELY reasonable though, that much I agree.
Michele Seidman
Well-known member
OK..I am all for having your music scored for you if at all possible. I think it makes for the best possible outcome.
However, if you have little or no money...here is a site I found that has some nice options.
Soundsnap
www.soundsnap.com
They have more than 100,000 sound files and the vast majority have great quality. It does not hurt that some folks who have scored for feature film are contributing members either. They have everything from music to FX sounds, foley, etc etc.
There are also some folks on there who will work with you once you connect. I am on there as MicheleMidnight to get sounds for my fun youtube videos. I am not in the same league as most of you but I have made some of my stuff look higher quality thanks to Soundsnap.
It is very low cost too. Yearly memberships range depending on how much you want to download. Unlimited download range from $29 a month to $149 a year for ALL the sounds you want but there are lower memberships if you just want to grab a few at a time too.
Say I sent you...who knows...maybe I will get some extra sounds out of it!
However, if you have little or no money...here is a site I found that has some nice options.
Soundsnap
www.soundsnap.com
They have more than 100,000 sound files and the vast majority have great quality. It does not hurt that some folks who have scored for feature film are contributing members either. They have everything from music to FX sounds, foley, etc etc.
There are also some folks on there who will work with you once you connect. I am on there as MicheleMidnight to get sounds for my fun youtube videos. I am not in the same league as most of you but I have made some of my stuff look higher quality thanks to Soundsnap.
It is very low cost too. Yearly memberships range depending on how much you want to download. Unlimited download range from $29 a month to $149 a year for ALL the sounds you want but there are lower memberships if you just want to grab a few at a time too.
Say I sent you...who knows...maybe I will get some extra sounds out of it!
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David G. Smith
Steak Knife Member
The problem is that the Disney Corporation is never going to let Mickey Mouse go into the public domain.... and since we have the best government money can buy, the House that Walt Built (who has more money than god), is gonna keep that mouse under copyright (and stifle the creative re-use of intellectual property) forever!
Steve House
Veteran
Is it realisitic to expect DVDs of your film are going to be in distribution and on the shelves of video stores world-wide? Not saying they won't, just saying it's easy to get overly optimisitic.
Steve House
Veteran
The problem is that the Disney Corporation is never going to let Mickey Mouse go into the public domain.... and since we have the best government money can buy, the House that Walt Built (who has more money than god), is gonna keep that mouse under copyright (and stifle the creative re-use of intellectual property) forever!
In this situation Sonny Bono had more influence than Disney
David G. Smith
Steak Knife Member
RIP Sonny (yeah, gravity never sleeps). Disney's got the ball now, I'm sure.
I'm not at all expecting major distribution (I'd be shocked if I got it), but I'd like to be able to self-distribute online world wide via DVD. That's all. In any case, even just the rights for DVD distribution domestically were about $1200ish. Pure theatrical rights were still $600ish. And that was a single track. I've seen other music libraries where you could buy a CD with similar rights in the $150 range.
For example, the Fresh music library charges $89 for a full CD and has more-or-less (ending on death of the licensee) unlimited synchronization and duplication rights.
http://www.freshmusic.com/royalty-free-music/content/prices