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Using Royalty Free Music in Multimedia Projects: A Tutorial
When searching for music for film, video, and corporate projects, hiring
a composer to create custom tracks can be extremely expensive. Often times,
production companies do not have budgets big enough to accomodate composers'
fees. Additionally, licensing a popular song from the radio or a commercially
released album can be costly and confusing. This is why so many producers
turn to royalty free music and
sound effects for their soundtrack needs. Utilizing royalty free music
from a music library such as Productiontrax.com, producers of multimedia
can save thousands of dollars in licensing fees, and hours of legal and
organizational work. So how do you use royalty free music in your project?
This tutorial will show you how to find and then utilize the perfect track
in your next project.
Chosing the Right Music Library
Before you can find the perfect track for your project, you have to find
the perfect music library. A music library is a company that collects,
organizes, and then distributes (for a fee) music that you, the producer,
can then use in a film. Music libraries are businesses, and their primary
business activity is licensing music. A music library is very much like
a music publisher -- they have a roster of artists from whom they either
buy or license music from, and then they sell that music to you on their
behalf. Some music libraries are large, and some are extremely small. Chosing
the right library depends on your needs, and the type of music license
that the library offers.
For this tutorial, we'll use Productiontrax.com as
our primary example of a music library. Productiontrax is a large online
library that has nearly 15,000 royalty free music and sound effects selections
to choose from. They have a large roster, representing over 400 composers
and sound designers, including several major music libraries and publishers.
Other libraries online include the Music Bakery, Partners In Rhyme, and FilmTVTracks.
Google terms like Royalty Free Music, Stock Music, or Production Music, and
you're likely to find severall others.
Understanding the License - What is Royalty Free?
When chosing a music library, you will want to find the library with the
most convenient license for your project. The license at Productiontrax.com
is one example of a royalty
free music license. Their license allows you to use the tracks in a
project without paying extra fees for additional copies, distribution,
or project type. Just remember to read the license thoroughly so there
are no surprises. Productiontrax has a separate license for for-profit
and distribution projects (like a dvd release or a tv commercial) and not-for
profit private uses (like a school project or office presentation). We
like productiontrax.com's license structure because it is fair to the composers
and to the clients -- no one gets a bad deal.
A royalty free music license is a type of license that allows you to use
a song or sound in your project without paying per use. This means that
you can use it again and again without paying extra. Normally, royalty
free licenses contain several clauses about your rights to distribute the
music as part of your project (mechanical rights) and rules about synching
up the music to picture (synch rights). Look for a library like Productiontrax.com
that lets you copy and distribute your project, or else you could run into
legal trouble down the line.
So far, we've established the criteria for finding a great music library,
and locating a good source of royalty free music. On the next page, we'll
dive in to searching for the perfect track for your multimedia project.
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