Looking for great music for your latest movie but don’t have the budget to hire a composer? You’re in luck because there’s actually a lot of great royalty-free or public domain music out there that could work perfectly for your next movie. Whether you’re a professional filmmaker or a novice YouTube video maker, having a quality soundtrack behind your visual masterpiece will make a world of difference.
There’s nothing more frustrating than sifting through link after link of MPEG or WAV files in search of a good moody piece of music, only to find poorly recorded garbage. The good news is that there are some sites that offer great songs with quality arrangements that were recorded in a professional studio. These sites have their music sorted by genre to help you weed out the stuff you’re not interested in, so you can get to the gems.
I’ve compiled a list of the key things to consider 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 junk once you’ve found a site. You will be looking for sites that offer the best music and are easy to navigate. Also look for professionally built sites equipped with streaming players to sample songs. You’ll want an instant download button to copy the songs directly to your computer. The most important thing is to find a site that is safe and offers your music for free.
Remember, if you’re using the music for something other than personal, say uploading a video to YouTube, you’ll still need to put an attribute on your finished work. In some business cases, you’ll need to pay a one-time license fee of maybe $25 or $50, but that’s about it.
Here is my list of the top ten things to look for in royalty-free music websites:
1. Free downloads
Look for sites that offer free downloads of their music. If they are asking for money up front, go to the next site.
2.Real time player
A good site will have a built-in music player so you can easily try out a song with a single click. You’d think this is a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised.
3. Easy to navigate pages
You want to find a site that has their music classified by genres or music styles.
4. Sound quality
What good are a thousand songs if they all sound like shit? Listen to a few selections and you’ll know right away if the music was recorded in a professional studio or in someone’s bathroom.
5. Licensing 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, they will need a Creative Commons license. Also, a quality site will offer a standard license for filmmakers and other commercial applications.
6. Vocal and non-vocal mixes of each song
Being able to mix 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 end credits of the movie. It’s a classy Hollywood trick used by top filmmakers. Do you remember the Titanic?
7. Visual representation of each song
Some sites offer a photo or image as a representation of how the song will ‘feel’. It’s a great tool for quickly browsing song titles.
8.Limited quantity
Bigger is not always better. Some sites offer an overwhelming selection of music. Sometimes, less is more. Who wants to search through 10,000 songs?
9. Search function
Some sites offer a search function to narrow down the results. For example, you can type in a particular mood or other key characteristic to find songs that interest you.
10. Personalized music services
Some sites have music producers for hire who can create a song or an entire soundtrack for those movies or commercial projects looking for unique and original music.
Speaking of originality, how can you tell if the song you want has been used many times before? Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing how many thousands of people have used the same song that you want to use. Perhaps it’s better to take the road less traveled and choose smaller, lesser-known websites. If you do a little research, there is a lot of great music out there that is copyright-free.
