I've been going through royalty free website after royalty free website and I'm about to lose my mind. 95% of it is like porn music, or like that moment in an 80's movie where the main character has to go drive or walk the streets at midnight and recollect himself for some great feat to come... anyway... I'm dying here.

I know what the problem is... the composers go a little TOO bonkers with effects... it's like they just got their first casio keyboard or multi effects pedals for the guitar and they want to use it all at once....

Aren't there any royalty free songs out there that are more like REAL bands? With guitars and drums and bass?? and no wikki-wikkki-wah-wah stuff??

My friends I am on a pilgramage to find or create music myself for everyone to use...

PS - Musicbakery.com has some good stuff.... and Stock20.com is really close to having some good stuff... I'm currently searching there with hope...

STOCK20.COM! has some really good stuff!! pulse is coming back down to normal... wooooooo saaaaahhhhh!!

FYI for those who are searching as well...

Matthew,

You can give it a shot at this site (http://www.microfilmmaker.com/Links/linkmus.html).

There is no fee unless the film picks up distribution. Not sure of the quality (I'm a musician so I fortunately use my own music), but it could be worth a look.

Todd

Matthew, there is a difference between royalty free and cheap royalty free.
Stock20 has some really good stuff, there are also a few dozen links to places I've used that can be found HERE (http://www.vasst2.com/search.aspx?text=royalty%20free)

thanks guys for the information... I'm in the process of checking this all out...

I have no problem paying for good royalty free stuff... I've been paying around $40 per song... and if I can just find one or two more great one's I'd pay a lot more...

Since I'm doing every bit of this film myself... the budget is all for music...essentially, and it's pretty important.

thanks ya'll!

Try this as well
http://www.music2hues.com

yea, music2hues.com is alright as well...

I've just been listening to www.royaltyfreemusic.com and their stuff is pretty good as well.

or a lot, but try http://www.firstcom.com

Jim

What styles are you looking for Matthew?

There is a lot of good royalty free stuff around now but there is still a lot of tat out there too. Part of the problem is that a lot of the sites allow anyone with a keyboard or a stylophone to upload their stuff.

Take a look here (http://www.2b-royaltyfree.com) or let me know what it is you are looking for - I do a lot of TV work myself, as well as sourcing tracks for broadcasters.

The tracks at Stock20 are very good and ridiculously cheap in my opinion, there's just not a lot of it. In fact I was talking to the owner this week about perhaps sub-licensing his catalogue in the UK.

The Music Bakery are also very accomplished and there is some good material to be found on ProductionTrax too but you have to work quite hard to find it.

Keep us up to date with your findings.

Cheers

Colin

http://www.omnimusic.com

thanks everyone for your responses, and for the links... this has been very helpful.

Colin -

Specifically I'm looking for a some contemporary rock, but every now and again, I venture into the techno, or world beat with hopes of finding something, but to no avail... Music Bakery is very good... Stock20, is extremely cheap for the music they're putting out compared to the others...

Firstcom, I've only begun to look at, but from what I've heard so far there is promise... I'm a musician, but by no means a professional, but my biggest critism is:less is more... there are so many songs out there that are almost good, but 1 minute into it the pet monkey gets on the casio and starts ripping out some random melody... and then I'm like, "almost...dang... NEXT!"

I guess I'm looking for something that sounds like what we normally listen to on the radio... whether it's rock, country, blues, etc... but I guess the people that can get stuff on the radio aren't going to be selling it on the internet right?

I'm finding some decent stuff... it's just very difficult, and I really appreciate this website and all the people who are submitting comments to help me...
thank you! I'll keep posting if I find anything else good...

I'm a musician, but by no means a professional, but my biggest critism is:less is more... there are so many songs out there that are almost good, but 1 minute into it the pet monkey gets on the casio and starts ripping out some random melody... and then I'm like, "almost...dang... NEXT!"

You and I think exactly alike. I like to create simple stuff that gets the idea across without competing with the visual. Less is more. Listen to a lot of the background stuff in drama and crime shows. Often times it's down to a simple cello sustaining on a note to create tension.

-gb-

Right on Greg! You're exactly right there.

A little update for everyone interested...

Firstcom.com has some really good stuff... I sent an email to the info address about getting licensing rates, and it kicked it back... I'm going to try a phone call...

I'll let you know.... When you have to ask for rates...it's going to hurt... but hey....

I know exactly what you mean. I was reviewing a guy's tracks the other day and much of it was really very good but he had a monkey too! As soon as the monkey interfered it was time to switch off. There must be a book for composer's out there somewhere called 'How To Ruin A Perfectly Good Track'.

I've been guilty of it too at times though. A lot of it comes down to the fact that clients want music to sound like it's come off a record but they don't want vocals (or an unrecognisable vocal performance would screw it up). Therefore you're left with this big hole in the mix which quite often you feel needs to be filled with something. It's easier to avoid when you are writing to picture but if you're not, you have this compelling urge to complete the picture yourself.

It also depends very much on how the music is being used. In production library music the composer can only go on instinct. One client may want the track for backrgound use, whereas the next wants it more upfront for a theme or highlights reel. That's why some libraries offer underscore mixes of every track and other pieces are written with an underscorey section in the middle of the track (sometimes referred to as a 'doughnut').

No doubt you've found out already but Firstcom is a 'needle drop' production music library. Very high quality and a stunning array of styles and tracks to choose from but you'll be paying per 30 seconds of use. As with everything in life, you pretty much get what you're prepared to pay for.

Anyway, back to contemporary rock...just out of interest, what do you make of these?
To Freedom (http://www.2b-royaltyfree.com/sample-audio/ToFreedom.mp3)
Stringed Groove (http://www.2b-royaltyfree.com/sample-audio/StringedGroove.mp3)
Bang Your Brain (http://www.2b-royaltyfree.com/sample-audio/BangYourBrain.mp3)
Big Ideas (http://www.2b-royaltyfree.com/sample-audio/BigIdeas.mp3)

Let rip. Don't hold back. I'm keen to know where these stand in terms of quality and usefulness for you guys.

sonicfire-smartsound is a great product with huge library of music.

I put my stuff on Revostock (both video/audio).

Here's some music in the rock vein.....

http://www.revostock.com/FileCloseupAudio.html?&ID=16647

harder rock vein

http://www.revostock.com/FileCloseupAudio.html?&ID=15083

incredibly long song vein....great for editing :)

http://www.revostock.com/FileCloseupAudio.html?&ID=16649

country....if you like cows

http://www.revostock.com/FileCloseupAudio.html?&ID=16648

or more orchestral like....

http://www.revostock.com/FileCloseupAudio.html?&ID=15069

BTW....there are a lot more songs to search through from this site...all searchable by mood/keywords/styles.

Hope that helps.

I have a few sites listed on my audio page that might interest you.

http://www.stevengotz.com/audio.htm

If anyone finds it interesting and/or inspiring, can use my music wherever you like. Nothing really great but have it in mind just in case...
Music is allways giving inspiration when it comes to video editing.

http://www.archive.org/details/mmoomm_1

http://www.archive.org/details/fri038

feel free
;-)

Vasilis,

I love your music! Great stuff - thanks for allowing people to use.

This has turned into an awesome thread for me! I've gained a lot of information from it, and have found what I was looking for and more...

James... thanks so much for your links at revostock... that's the ticket! Great stuff! It's just what I was looking for...

Vasilis, man, your stuff's greatness! Thanks for sharing that with everyone here... the compositions are very well put together, and they don't go overboard... well done!

you can also monitor myspace profile where I often upload new tracks at first.
http://www.myspace.com/mmoomm

my little contribution to the digital video community
;-)

I've been trying to find some stuff for a martial arts throwback video I'm doing. I wanted to get some of the cheezy music from the 70's flicks, as well as sound effects and such but haven't turn up anything. Anyone know of any resources for that?

I advise www.jamendo.com,
all music there is creative commons, and you can adjust the search options to show you only music that can be used in derivative works.

I've found some really excellent bands there, and most of the music is good.

try
http://www.magnatune.com
There is some very good material there (some not so hot of course).

thanks again to everyone who responded to this thread... it was a huge help!

thank you!

Matt Jackson

Matthew, there is a difference between royalty free and cheap royalty free.
Stock20 has some really good stuff, there are also a few dozen links to places I've used that can be found HERE (http://www.vasst2.com/search.aspx?text=royalty%20free)

Anyone know where that info went? He says:

We’ve had a royalty-free resource page up for a while, but lots of people have asked about this, so I’ve popped it in as a tutorial rather than a link, so it’s found more easily.

It would be nice if they linked to the free "tutorial". :(

Just to sum-up the suggested links:

Royalty Free Audio
With copyright concerns always at the fore, royalty free music is a great way to go when you need good tunes but can’t license what you want.

http://www.2b-royaltyfree.com/
http://www.archive.org/details/opensource_audio
http://www.firstcom.com/launchpage/FirstCom/
http://www.flyinghands.com/
http://www.freshmusic.com/
http://www.iamusic.com/
http://www.jamendo.com/
http://www.magnatune.com/
http://www.microfilmmaker.com/Links/linkmus.html
http://www.music2hues.com/
http://www.musicbakery.com
http://www.omnimusic.com/
http://www.opuzz.com/
http://www.revostock.com/
http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/
http://www.smartsound.com/sonicfire/
http://www.sounddogs.com/
http://www.stevengotz.com/audio.htm
http://www.stock20.com
http://www.uniquetracks.com/
http://www.vasst.com/

Music Bakery has some great selections, but just now when I tried to check out my cart, a dialog box came up that said "Revocation information for the security certificate for this site is not available" and that stopped me in my tracks...no pun intended. :-) Any thoughts on this??

The problem is that there are a lot of compositions that can be used. However, it is nicer sometimes to have vocals as well. Is there a site with songs i.e. singers and not just a composition ?

Look at Sony Cinescore

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/cinescore

Magnatunes has some vocals in their library and their licensing fees are quite reasonable, considering.