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Recommendations on royalty free songs

directorik

directorik

IndieTalk's Resident Guru
indiePRO
I'm looking to buy some royalty free songs. I've found plenty of places offering music libraries, but very few that offer songs. I'm putting together 15 promo clips like this for a startup company, but clearly can't use that song.

I've the only one I can find is stockmusic.net. Anyone have any places they have looked at or used?

-rik
 
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SmartSound, maybe?

Either standalone, or a plugin. Select music style, and dial in the duration you need. :cool:

I've used an older version of it... came with a fair amount of music styles, plus as well you can also pick up extra discs from a lot of new material they've added over the years.

Only two drawbacks:

1) Almost entirely instrumental only.

2) You'll never be able to watch a local-cable tv advert again, without recognising what track they used.
smiley_suicide.gif


Anyways... might be what you need... maybe not.
 
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JES 47 said:
Try http://magnatune.com
Have not used it myself, but there is a wide range, and I think you can buy single songs.
good luck!
Click to expand...

I've purchased three albums from Magnatune and I have a sync license for one from there for my vampire flick.

They always offer the best music at very competitive prices and they're very indie-film friendly. I highly recommend them.
 
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Thanks guys.

I'd never seen SmartSound or Magnatune. SmartSound doesn't have songs, but I really like their music tracks - I may buy some stuff from them. Magnatune is exactly what I'm looking for, but their commercial/promo licenses are way more than I can afford - about $1000 per song.

I'm getting the impression that royality free songs is a very limited market.
 
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knightly said:
However, then your piece has to be CC licensed as well to be able to be used in whole or part as a derivative work.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. The license I've chosen (out of many combinations) states that it is free for personal use, no derivative works are to be made and no free commercial uses. This way, I can legally give it away free for personal use, but all commercial entities must PAY. Play with the "license your work" link on the CC site to find what works for you.

A lot of people mistakenly believe that CC is like public domain where you lose all your rights. Actually, CC complements copyright by allowing the artist to control how copyright is used on their work. It's all legal, too. :)

I can see many instances where CC outright DOESN'T work... like a commercial film, but if you want internet distribution, CC is something to consider while keeping all your rights under copyright.

It's an "add-on" for copyright, nothing more. It's not for everyone.
 
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You're right Robert, a CC license isn't for everyone and it's not what I'm looking for. I need the songs for clips that will promote a new company. The songs will be for commercial use so I will be paying for the licenses. I have the background music I need - now I'm looking for songs. This is the first time I've ever done this and I'm surprised how difficult it is to find royality free songs.

AudioSparks has some great songs and many of them in the $30 to $75 range. Thanks Jes!
 
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Thanks again guys. I bought 5 from Audio Sparks and 10 from StockMusic.net - they have a special 10 for $200 and that made me look good to the client.
 
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If you need instrumental music of all different varieties then FreshMusic.com is the way to go. Otherwise if you need regular band music with vocals. companies like NOMA Music in LA will do a royalty free buyout for a price for a song. Publishers who license music from indie artists understand that indie features don't make much money and so they'll license music for a one time fee.
 
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