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Are you looking for great music for your new movie but don’t have the budget to hire a composer? You’re in luck because there is actually a lot of good royalty free or public domain music that could work just fine for your next movie. Whether you are a professional filmmaker or a novice YouTube video maker, having a quality soundtrack behind your visual masterpiece will make a huge difference.
There is nothing more frustrating than selecting link after link of MPEG or WAV files looking for a good song in a bad mood, only to find junk and poorly recorded files. The good news is that there are a few sites that offer great songs with great arrangements that have been recorded in a professional studio. These sites have their music categorized by genre to help you weed out the things you are not interested in, so that you can access the gems.
I’ve compiled a list of the key things to look for when choosing a royalty free music website. I think these suggestions will help you find the music you are looking for. Keep in mind that most of the time the hardest part of finding great music is sorting through the trash once you’ve found a site. You’ll be looking for sites with the best music that are easy to navigate. Also, look for professionally designed sites that have real-time players to sample songs. You will need an instant download button to copy the songs directly to your computer. The most important thing is to find a safe site that offers their music for free.
Remember, if you are using the music for anything other than personal use, say to upload a video to YouTube, you will still need to place an attribute on your completed work. In some business cases you will need to pay a one-time license fee of maybe $ 25 or $ 50, but that’s it.
Here is my list of the ten key things to look for in royalty free music websites:
1. Free downloads
Look for sites that offer free downloads of their music. If they ask for money in advance, go to the next site.
2. Real-time player
A good site will have a built-in music player so that you can easily sample a song with just one click. You would think it was obvious, but you would be surprised.
3. Easy to navigate pages
You want to search for a site whose music is classified by genres or musical styles.
4. Quality sound
What good is a thousand songs if they all sound like shit? Listen to a few selections and you’ll know right away whether the music was recorded in a professional studio or in someone’s bathroom.
5. License options
The best sites offer their music to the public for free, but for those who want to use the music for YouTube videos or Facebook posts, you will need a Creative Commons license. A quality site will also offer a standard license for filmmakers and other commercial applications.
6. Vocal and non-vocal mixtures of each song
Being able to mix up your soundtrack by introducing a recurring theme is a great option. You might want to start with the instrumental version of a song and then use the vocal version during the closing credits of your movie. This is a stylish Hollywood trick used by top filmmakers. Do you remember the Titanic?
7. Visual representation of each song
Some sites offer a photo or picture as a representation of what the song will “feel” like. It is a great tool for quickly browsing song titles.
8. Limited quantity
The bigger is not always the best. Some sites offer an impressive selection of music. Sometimes less is more. Who wants to browse 10,000 songs?
9. Search function
Some sites offer a search function to refine your results. For example, you can enter a particular mood or other key characteristic to find the songs that interest you.
10. Personalized music services
Some sites have music producers for hire who can create a full song or soundtrack for those movies or commercial projects that want unique, original music.
Speaking of originality, how do you know if the song you want has been used several times before? Unfortunately, there is no way to know how many thousands of people have used the same song that you might want to use. Maybe it’s best to take the road less traveled and choose from smaller, lesser-known websites. There is a lot of good royalty free music out there if you do a little digging.
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Source by Rick F Costello
