Royalty Free Music

mb72378

mb72378

Well-known member
Im not sure where to put this post but seeing as how this is the "audio" channel Ill try here first. I am looking for good webistes to purchase Royalty Free music. You know, for one fee you download the song then you can use it however you want. Anyone have any good ideas? Freeplaymusic.com is good if you want to pay out the A@# for the music. Any others?....
 
mb72378 said:
... if you want to pay out the A@# for the music...
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There are plenty of cheap libraries and downloads out there and they sound, well, cheap. You are going to have to pay for quality. Hey, these aren't iTunes downloads for 99¢ that sell 200,000 copies, these are niche market products that, at least for orchestral and true instrumental tracks, are expensive to make. A top orchestra in a top studio with a talented conductor is $7k per hour (studio time + paying the musicians, etc.). Figure an eight hour day, that's $56k. Out of that eight hour day they will get, let's say, 150 minutes of usable music. That's roughly $375 per linear minute of music; and that doesn't include mixing/mastering, marketing, maintaining the database, paying for the server, employee salaries, etc.

Also keep in mind that the biggest target market are post houses who buy these music libraries and use them over and over again, so for post houses these libraries are very cost effective in the long run, plus the fact that music libraries are a business expense which is tax deductable and that it is marketing ("we have thousands of music tracks and beds..."). I purchase sound effects libraries and yes, they are a bit pricey initially; but after a while I recoup my investment. And for things that don't normally come up I can always purchase by-the-sound, and they also remain in my library if I ever happen to need them again.

Thirty years ago these were needle-drop libraries - literally, as they were on vinyl - and you had to pay royalties. Or, of course, you could hire the studio, the conductor, the musicians...

In the new digital age (I came up recording music to magnetic tape) you have enormously greater assets available to you for a relatively low cost. So don't go griping about how expensive it is just because it's more than you budgeted for. After all, in a couple of years you will hopefully be working at a level where you are getting paid for your time, effort and expenses, and you in turn will be outraged when someone wants to pay you half or less of what you are really worth.
 
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Well first of all Bob I wasn't complaining or griping about anything. I was asking for a less expensive option to freeplay music. Not everyone can spend thousands on music. While you do have the right to your own opinion, I was asking for suggestions on where to go to find royalty free music, not a lecture on the price of such!
 
mb72378 said:
Well first of all Bob I wasn't complaining or griping about anything. I was asking for a less expensive option to freeplay music. Not everyone can spend thousands on music. While you do have the right to your own opinion, I was asking for suggestions on where to go to find royalty free music, not a lecture on the price of such!
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lol, good comeback
 
mb72378 said:
Im not sure where to put this post but seeing as how this is the "audio" channel Ill try here first. I am looking for good webistes to purchase Royalty Free music. You know, for one fee you download the song then you can use it however you want. Anyone have any good ideas? Freeplaymusic.com is good if you want to pay out the A@# for the music. Any others?....
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The Smartsounds library and their associated SonicFire Pro software that allows you to rearrange cuts to length, remix, etc is a good value and has some excellent music. They have lots of sales and specials all the time and you can search and preview all the cuts online in the software before purchasing.

Magnatunes is another site that has excellent music in a variety of genres that are offered with quite reasonable licensing fees.
 
Thanks steve Ill check that out. I used to use Aodbe Audition when I worked on the PC. And with that cam a huge Loop library. Im missing that right now. Im still trying to feel my way through soundtrack pro so for this project I was hoping to get finished tracks of audio.
 
I'll second the SmartSound stuff - once you've used it, it's hard to use anything else. The control and variety you get with each song is outstanding.
 
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