Buying music for use as production music for film, television and video projects, background music for various projects and companies, and music-on-hold for personal and professional telephone systems is a time-consuming and expensive endeavour. Also, many businesses do not have funds to spend on on-going music royalties, and many are turning to royalty free music free of charge libraries to fulfil their musical needs.
No doubt royalty free music is a convenient and inexpensive option for people who search for bulk music either for their restaurants, business projects or personal videos; however, all royalty free music is not equal. For instance, even though Award Winning Music is an affordable and premium choice for all professionals, but such music is incomparable with other royalty-free music. To put light on this, below are the critical five characteristics to consider in high-quality royalty background and production music, and music-on-hold to ensure it will enhance the mission of your venture and broadcast its purpose and style without reducing its value:
Royalty Free Music Is Not Free of Copyright
If you are planning to use royalty free music in your projects, then you must know this information. Firstly, under the copyright law, all intellectual property including music is automatically copyrighted upon creation which means the author need not obtain the official copyright registration through any government office. Generally, the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 50 or more years depending on the copyright law of a particular country. Therefore, you do not see any copyright-free recorded contemporary music out there.
However, you can find plenty of free music recordings under Creative Commons (CC) license, but even free music is technically copyrighted which means under the free license you only have the right to use the music under specified conditions. Secondly, the term ‘royalty free’ refers to another type of usage agreement between the copyright owner and the end user which means the copyright owner is giving up entitled royalties for the repeated use of his work under certain conditions.
Check the Sound Quality
The sound quality of the music is the first and most noticeable element. So, it is crucial to record music under optimal conditions to hear a perfect balance between bass and treble, consistent sound and texture regardless of the volume at which you listen to the music. That is why make sure whether the sound quality of your track is good enough to go or not. However, for more options, pick out the individual sounds of different instruments to create the desired piece of music.
Use Instruments Which Sound True-to-life
Similar to excellent sound quality, for the best royalty free music, you must ideally use real devices in spite of synthesised ones. Also, make sure if you integrate them, these instruments must sound like original instruments instead of hollow versions of themselves. Most people use instrumental pieces in the grocery store, elevator or as on-hold music for important occasions which sound no more textured than a sub-par demo on a low-end keyboard. Therefore, it is crucial for you to utilise the best royalty free music because only the best piece of music will have the depth to it and will demonstrate the capabilities of the musical instruments such as violins, strings, music, electric guitars, brass, and many more it incorporates.
Use Original Musical Themes Which Evoke Familiar Tunes
One of the benefits of royalty free music is it is an economic venture for film producers and directors to use original production music in their films, television programs and video projects. But, not all providers of royalty free music enlist the best composers and musicians to create their repertoire. First-rate royalty free music sounds original. Also, stylistically and technically, such music make sense to fit into the grand scheme of a project while making it unique. Therefore, such piece of music will not only have the rhyme and reason to it but also will sound as someone especially composed it for your film or project. Additionally, it will resonate in the mind and heart of every listener while creating a genuine emotional response.
Make Sure to Use Thoroughly Composed Music
As only thoroughly composed music by artists with real credentials has the power to affect your audience at a bigger scale so, it is crucial for you to use good soundtracks in your ventures. Also, not only great royalty free music sites provide credentials for the composers and performers they enlist but also their artistry shine through in the finished product. Additionally, the purveyor of beautifully and carefully crafted background music, on-hold music and production music can give you the history of the artists involved in the design and production of the music which will include collaborations with major artists in the genre of the type of music you desire to compose.
Look For a Diverse and Versatile Memory
Always search for a different but resourceful music library. To resolve this purpose, find out the best royalty free music because only excellent music can offer you with various styles which run the gamut of musical tastes. Multiple genres of music involve classical, jazz, different types of rock and roll, New Age and progressive techniques such as Hip-Hop and techno or dance music. Even you can make your selection from the traditional forms of music such as classical because nowadays classical music typically appeals more to younger listeners than modern musical tastes. Furthermore, within the more cutting-edge styles, you can discover pieces whom everyone can enjoy even people who usually do not listen to techno and Hip-Hop.
Looking for these essential characteristics when shopping for royalty free music will not only help you discriminate professionals but also you can select the perfect production music, music-on-hold or background music to suit your particular projects. Since you have acquired much information about the basic tips to consider in royalty free music free of charge, now let us discuss the steps to chase to create a budget-friendly soundtrack for your film:
How to Create a Pocket-Friendly Soundtrack for a Movie
Surely you hum your favorite song while thinking of your favorite movie. Great music not only plays a vital role in the success of a film but also leaves an impression on your mind and heart. So, the film industry pays top composers a tremendous amount of money to create a perfect and catchy score. If you also need music for your new movie, you can hire a composer to write music for every scene, but it will strain your budget more. Is the music budget worrying you as well? If yes, then need not worry now because you can find great and original music on the web.
The best thing about this music is most of it is free or available for a meager price. However, the million dollar question arises how it is possible? It is possible with Royalty free music free of charge. For instance, if you Google royalty-free alternative music, then you will find pages of websites which either offer alternative rock music for free or for a small licensing fee. However, to search the piece of music which fits the mood of your movie, you have to do much digging. Let us figure out what are the various ways to create a cost-effective piece of music for a film:
Prepare a Rough List
The best way, to begin with, is to create a rough list of the songs you need. Perhaps you desire a quick up-tempo rock song for the opening credits, but for steamy scenes, a slow blues number will work nicely. So, once you have the necessary ‘music outline,’ start your search for the appropriate royalty free music. Similarly, you can make a plan to shortlist music for short films or personal YouTube videos.
Search for Sites Having Categories
To do your job easy, look for sites which have categorised their royalty free music and are easy to navigate. Also, no one is willing to waste hours of time clicking on song titles, wondering what you will hear next. The best royalty free music sites possess easy to navigate categories such as Progressive Rock, Symphony, Blues or Country Music which makes your task of finding the suitable music much more comfortable in comparison to sites without divisions.
Listen to both Vocal and Non-vocal Versions of a Song
One feature you must find precious is the vocal and non-vocal versions of a particular song because this feature helps you develop a recurring ‘theme’ for your movie. Therefore, many soundtracks use the non-vocal version of the song to create a recurring mood for a few scenes and then during the closing, hit the audience with the vocal version. Also, do not be afraid to use the same song in many scenes because sometimes the same song is suitable to create a significant impact on the viewers.
Use a Standard or Creative Commons License
The best way to save your work is to either use a standard or creative commons license. Even though the music is royalty-free, you still need to credit the owner by using a creative commons license. If you do not want to credit the owner, then purchase a license which gives you the right to use the music for a commercial application.
Check the Sound Clarity
Before finalising the music, make sure the music has a clean and professional sound because it is easy to tell whether you recorded this track in a professional studio or it is straight from a Casio keyboard. So, test the music on a quality sound system where you can hear the dynamics of the music.
Customise the Soundtrack
After finding your favourite songs, customise the soundtrack to fit your scenes. You can use plenty of sound editing software programs such as Avid Pro Tools, Logic Pro X, and many more to enable you to fade in, fade out, alter the timing and manipulate the music. If the music you need is not available from a royalty-free site, then consider a discount composer.
Use Social Media to Connect with Musicians
To promote your content on a bigger scale, you must connect with musicians on social media platforms such as SoundCloud because it is an excellent tool for independent filmmakers. Also, on this platform, numerous musicians post high-quality copies of their songs for downloading. However, the good thing about this platform is along with top-notch tracks; you will find most of the artists unsigned. So, you can also engage an artist through this platform if your self-imposed track lacks in props, artificial lighting, and, especially, music.
Also, as long as the track is original, with no samples, you need not go through either music supervisors or labels and can directly negotiate with the concerned musician. Furthermore, without having an account, you can look around and search by keyword to see the tracks of your interest. Once you choose the soundtrack, then it is only a matter of sending the musician a message for which you need to create an account.
Conclusion: To conclude, the above are the convenient solutions to produce an economic soundtrack for a picture. Also, not only these steps are easy to implement but also these tips let you create a mind-blowing soundtrack that too in a budget of your choice.
Author Bio: Jean Jennings is the content creator of “Soundwhich” which is an online music portal, and with a vast collection of royalty-free music provides a comfortable, affordable, flexible and creative pace to its users to customise soundtrack for YouTube videos, ads, TV programs, and games.
