Poll about free music

Anyone think a website with hours of royalty free music would attract your interest?

  • Yes

    Votes: 9 75.0%

  • No

    Votes: 1 8.3%

  • Not for me, but would be useful.

    Votes: 2 16.7%
  • Total voters
    12
M

mooquu

Just getting a feel for things, does anyone think a website with hours of 100% TOTALLY FREE,royalty-free music, stingers and sound effects of very high quality, all created by several trained film composers and sound designers would attract your interest?

If so, what are some features you would like to see? what would would make it the best experience possible?

Thanks guys, looking forward to what you have to say!

-Spence
 
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I don't use them myself, but I know several people who regularly buy songs & sound effects from the many existing sites that offer the same services you described.
 
You may be better off licensing the material to another vendor like Sound Dogs or someone similar. If you have a quality product you'll get a lot more exposure and make more money faster than if you do it yourself.

Folks like myself have accounts with a few vendors and go to them first and dive into the new releases when we get there. It is only after that, if I don't find what I want, that I will go to another site. It's going to take quite a bit to get you to the top of the Google search, so I probably wouldn't get to you if I'm in a hurry, which is usually the case.
 
I think the difference I didn't make clear, was that the music would be totally free :)

you would also have the option of purchasing an exclusive license so the track would be yours and yours alone.
 
I, too, like the idea.

So you would offer an exclusive license? Once a piece has been
licensed it is removed from your site? Forever? Seems like an
unusual business plan and not too profitable. Most places that
offer royalty free music license each piece over and over. That's
how they earn their living.

I agree with Alcove. Most producers and directors and audio designers
have their "go-to" places - and their are some really good ones out
there already - so you would have your work cut out for you.

But I'm sure there is room for another one. With a lot of advertising
and marketing I suspect you will find plenty of filmmakers willing to
use your music, stingers and sound effects for free.
 
Of course such a website would be extremely welcome.

Similar websites already exist. For me, the main problem of such websites is search.

Let's say you like a commercial piece of music but can't afford the licenses. You want to find something similar. How would you do that?

Search by keywords has reached a pretty satisfactory stage thanks to algorithms like Google's. But describing music with words is inadequate. Ideally you would want to use the music itself as the input for the search. Then the algorithm would match it to other pieces of music based on rhythm or melody or whatever. That's non-verbal search. It's a lot harder than search based on words.
 
Just be sure to have a SOLID, easy to understand and complete ROYALTY free license. None of this "less than 2000 copies" no royalties, but after yes, .. any limits make it impossible to use for us noobs who have no idea about this stuff. Check the stock20.com royalty free licenses for what I mean. Simple, clear etc. Complicated licenses means Ill pass every time.

Ill pay good money for the right track, but only if its truly royalty free. As I get "in the know" Ill probably lighten up on this stance, but for now, complicated schemes are noise I dont need.
 
I would be interested in it too, but Wheat makes a great point. None of this "It's free EXCEPT:" followed by myriad of conditions that as he said noobs (and non noobs) aren't wondering what's up.
 
Thanks for your feedback!

yes, you will be able to purchase an exclusive license, meaning you own it, its taken down forever and belongs to you. An exclusive license definitely isn't cheap though, it runs just a little bit cheaper than having a custom track written, probably a few hundred dollars. Many royalty free music sites have this offer as well, and is also much more expensive. This option would be most suitable for say a very large-budget game publisher who wants exclusivity.

I'm considering also offering a "premium" section, where a few bucks you can download an ultra-high resolution version of the track, also with the option of all instruments broken up into separate tracks so you can play with the arrangement (i.e., leave the drum track out until the big action scene then bring them back in)
 
That is a great point and i REALLY appreciate that input!!

I will definitely keep that mess out of the equation. No limits, download it, use it for whatever you want :)
 
mooquu said:
yes, you will be able to purchase an exclusive license, meaning you own it, its taken down forever and belongs to you. An exclusive license definitely isn't cheap though, it runs just a little bit cheaper than having a custom track written, probably a few hundred dollars. Many royalty free music sites have this offer as well, and is also much more expensive. This option would be most suitable for say a very large-budget game publisher who wants exclusivity.
Click to expand...

Ok, so how does this work though if a track is initially free for anyone to use? You post it on the site, 100 people download it and use it in their videos, I come along and purchase an exclusive license - what happens to the 100 people who already used it? If they can continue using it, it's not exactly exclusive, and if they can't then it means your music is really only free to use until someone else buys it.
 
ItDonnedOnMe said:
Ok, so how does this work though if a track is initially free for anyone to use? You post it on the site, 100 people download it and use it in their videos, I come along and purchase an exclusive license - what happens to the 100 people who already used it? If they can continue using it, it's not exactly exclusive, and if they can't then it means your music is really only free to use until someone else buys it.
Click to expand...

yea I was wondering how I would do that... any ideas? I guess the only real way would be to have some that are exclusive to buy in a premium section

maybe it could be exclusive to buy for like a month at first before anyone else is able to use it, then if no one wants it, free for everyone! that sound good to me, what about you?
 
Royalty Free doesn't mean "free" it means that once I buy it, I can use it however I like (within expected norms) So you still make money.

Id just do exclusive stuff on a contract basis, if someone REALLY like an existing tune, you can work up a new similar arrangement. As your are the composer, I think that constituents a new work and can be sold separately, exclusively if you like.

You should check out stock20.com. Check out how the do the "preview" when you buy a song, you get 10, 15 different length versions\arrangements.
 
wow thats a great idea, thats super easy to do too... you just make the full track, then cut it at certain lengths and write like 2 bars to end it

yea maybe exclusive stuff should be commission only.... to keep things simple.

My vision is just free music. You are a film maker, you need some music, come to my site and download it. Use it forever, no worries, no special conditions, or anything. I think thats how music should be and I would like to find a way to give that to people in the best experience possible.

{EDIT} I also make pretty good sound effects, I will also make a bunch of these. Eventually I will open up a "composer submission" option to let other composers submit music. The tracks will be rated by popularity/vote and the best ones will be "featured" composers on a dedicated page with links to their website and other things.
 
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Dont sell your self short. $20 aint much for the right track. People don't value whats free as much as they pretend to. Offer a discount section, or maybe, shorter or less full arrangements for a lower price etc.

How about charge per instrument? Piano only. $5. For the same song with some pads, the price is $10, for full orchestration $20. and so on.
 
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