Free CD-Quality Music 74
Scaife writes "I make a video project for school each year, and this year we want to produce it on DVD and sell it. The only catch is that we don't have the time or money to get copyright permissions for the 100+ songs we use for it. I'm wondering if there is a large repository of CD-quality royalty-free music somewhere. Whenever I try and take one of the royalty-free MP3s available on the web and use it on a DVD, the quality is awful as it pops and hisses. I suppose this is because of the lossy compression. Any ideas?"
pops & hisses? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:pops & hisses? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:pops & hisses? (Score:2)
Of course, I use Exact Audio Copy to rip and LAME to encode, so it's not like I'd run into that kind of problem.
Re:pops & hisses? (Score:2)
I miss OS/2 and Amiga. *sniff*
Re:pops & hisses? (Score:2)
Hey, I like Linux as much as the next guy, and played around (usually with Slackware) for over 5 years before admitting that it's just not what I want to do with my time.
So who's this next guy? Jim Alchin?
Re:pops & hisses? (Score:5, Interesting)
So it's definitely worth pipng the mpeg streams into a variety of decoders to see if the results improve.
Re:pops & hisses? (Score:4, Informative)
I've certainly heard Premiere 6.0 crack and pop sometimes when playing back mp3s on the timeline, especially if you have limited machine resources. Also, watch out for the sample rate - as the audio track on DVDs runs at 48KHz, you may want to do convert your audio to this rate in a tool like Sound Forge (or one of the open source equivalents), rather than leaving it to your NLE package.
Re:pops & hisses? (Score:1)
What type of school? (Score:2, Insightful)
Open Music Registry (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Open Music Registry (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Open Music Registry (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Open Music Registry (Score:1)
Re:Open Music Registry (Score:2)
make sure to convert to wav beforeimporting (Score:5, Informative)
Re:make sure to convert to wav beforeimporting (Score:5, Informative)
We have a voice over talent (who I've never met face to face) who emails all her VO work to us as mp3 files. We just convert to quicktime and it's fine. If the file sounds worse in your project than it does just playing it on your computer I'd suspect the problem is incompatibility between the mp3 and your editing software, not the file itself.
Re:make sure to convert to wav beforeimporting (Score:3, Informative)
Sure thing... (Score:1)
Hit up local bands (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hit up local bands (Score:1)
Re:Hit up local bands (Score:1)
73 DE VE3AIQ
Re:Hit up local bands (Score:3, Informative)
When I was in the local music scene a lot of bands actually put something like "Please copy this for all your friends" on their album labels, in the hopes that it would get more people coming to their shows. I'd be very suprised if you couldn't find several local or semi-local bands who would be thrilled to have their music used for something like this. Just make sure they get proper mention in the credits!
Just go to a show and try to talk to the band after they play.
Freeplay music on .mac (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Freeplay music on .mac (Score:5, Informative)
There are no up front fees.
They make their money from the ASCAP/BMI/etc.. royalties.
Take a look at their terms of use [freeplaymusic.com].
Royalty Free != free (Score:5, Informative)
With most royalty free recordings, of any decent quality, will certainly cost you a bit. The point of them being royalty free is once you've purchased it, you are allowed to use it how you want, for as long as you want (and that does include for profit). That's why its usually more expensive, because you're not just paying for the music, but the ability to use it how you want, without worry of lawsuits, fees, fines, paperwork, etc.
If you just take music that's royalty free, as opposed to free (as in beer), you're probably still violating copyright law.
I assume the exceptions to this is if you obtain the royalty free music from a place that has already purchased it, such as your local library. Your local college may also have a library of royalty-free music you can check out, especially if they have a decent-sized TV/Radio/Film program.
You could also try checking out some local musicians if their music fits what you're looking for, and try to make a deal with them. In that case, not only are you helping to support local talent (as well as possibly giving them some exposure if you give them a credit), you'll probably make off with a low-cost solution that will be mutually beneficial.
And as others somewhat mentioned above, check if there are any internet resources that will give you free (as in beer) music that also happens to be royalty free.
Re:Royalty Free != free (Score:2, Informative)
Just do a search for 'royalty free music' [google.com] on Google, and you'll see some vendors on the right hand side. The quality does vary a lot, but, if this is an ongoing project, it may be worth investing in a decent sized library (they vary from 1 CD to 20+ CDs), it should fulfil your current and future requirements.
Now, as you're doing this for your school, maybe it's worth getting the music department involved, and getting some home-grown content.
Re:Royalty Free != free (Score:2, Informative)
As for royalty free libraries, the CDs can cost anywhere from 5-50 dollars per. Its still cheaper then licensing. If there is some audio whiz floating around, have him write and use a good MIDI sampler. I did this and came up with some pseudo James Bond like themes that couldn't get tagged for copyright innfringment.
Easy peasy. (Score:1, Interesting)
"You know the part where that song
"No, it's that song by..."
"No way!"
Doesn't sound like an MP3 problem (Score:4, Informative)
Master Zap (Score:5, Interesting)
There are also tonss of college kids who make music with keyboards and PCs in their dorm rooms. I know of about 5 just in one or two colleges, I'm sure there are tons more elsewhere. Just find one of them and have them help you out. Even better, just head to a local dance club and talk to the DJ after he's done, if you like his stuff.
If you want rock, find a place with a live band. Or find one of those shitty cover bands and have them play shit for you. They'll do anything for a little bit of green.
sounds like a dot com biz plan (Score:2, Funny)
2. ???
3. profit
Re:sounds like a dot com biz plan (Score:1)
2. Sell DVD
A few thoughts (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A few thoughts (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A few thoughts (Score:1)
Yeah you might have to use more songs but this will save you from having to get copyright licenses.
And anyway, people watching might get bored listening to a whole song, they would probably prefer to hear the start of the song instead.
Just an idea.
44.1 to 48khz (Score:2)
Re:44.1 to 48khz (Score:2)
Case in point: esd (aka eSound), a soundserver common on Linux boxes. esd SUCKS if it needs to do samplerate conversion. 48 kHz MP3s sound HORRIBLE on any system I've used if played via esd.
Same goes for trying to play a 44.1 kHz file at 48 kHz.
I think sox has a decent converter, so do most sound editing programs. Heck, depending on your school you might even be able to use Matlab. (It's not intuitive by any means, nor is it fast, but you'll learn a LOT about audio processing in the process.)
And yes, I've processed audio files in Matlab, mainly at a time when I was playing with some DSP tricks for amateur radio use.
i was thinking something diff (Score:1)
What about... (Score:3, Informative)
The other option would be my favorite
-- www.acidplanet.com (yeah they may all kinda sorts sound alike, but it is still fun)
You may even be able to get permission from some of the old skool MOD authors at www.modarchive.com for their MODs
Another option may be to use a MIDI file with a real good sound bank.
Fair use (Score:2)
My highschool video yearbook project used plenty of mainstream music, but did not use more than 30 seconds or so from a song at a time. The "fair use" reason was what our video production teacher claimed.
It's strange how our society works; in that we are not taught the laws, but often rely on what our acquantances tell us or common sense, 8^)
Re:Fair use (Score:2)
How to get rid of the pops. (Score:3, Informative)
Importing an mp3 directly into, say, Final Cut Pro, or DVD Studio Pro, will cause pops and hisses, I think it has something to do with the fact that it has to convert from mp3 to wav and from 44.1khz to 48khz at the same time, but it always screws things up. I know it sounds like I dunno what's causing the problem, I don't; I only know how to fix it.
Convert the mp3s to wav using an mp3-to-wav converter of some sort (Quicktime Pro will do this) BEFORE importing them into the project. Then import the wav instead. If you can, create 48k wavs instead of 44.1k wavs, that'll make it easier.
100 songs? (Score:4, Informative)
It's very difficult to know what to suggest, since we are given no clue as to what kind of music is required, and why there is such an extaordinarily high number of songs involved.
There are 2 people who you have to pay to legitimately use music, the performer and the composer.
So, if you are looking for specific songs, you are out of luck, as you would still have to pay the composer of the music even if you do find a 'free' performance with no mechanical rights fees to pay.
Classical music is (usually) out of copyright because it is long enough after the composer's death, but you still have to pay mechanical rights for the particular recording you are using, you can usually cheat your way past that by fending off anyone chasing for money by saying it's not their recording you used - a defence that would be almost impossible to deny if there are dozens of recordings of the work in question.
I would suggest getting the school music department to come up with something for you.
Re:100 songs? (Score:2)
at least in europe..
those recordings tend to be on clay and a bit hard to come by sometimes though.. but at least in my country the national radio has big enough archive of those.
anyways, if i had to do something like this(look for royalty free music), i would a) check out local bands, probably some are even in the school, local artists, hobbyists doing some tracking at home and people like that, and second b) look on the net for some demoscene composers and ask permissions directly from them, there's surprisingly good music available this way(good enough that if recording industry died overnight i wouldnt miss them for a second).
Re:100 songs? (Score:1)
Free Live recordings (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Free Live recordings (Score:1)
check the rights (Score:3, Informative)
Free - for sale? (Score:1)
How is it that you don't want the various artists to get paid but you want to sell their art? Shouldn't the people who produced the art get a 'taste of the gate' or do you think we should all work for free and just pass the fruits of our labor around for others to make money off of?
Nice work when you can find it, I suppose. No wonder the courts are backlogged.
Money for nothing and chicks for free... Send me some free chicks while you're at it. Seniors only, please.
Re:Free - for sale? (Score:2)
I think the original poster did when he said: "I make a video project for school each year, and this year we want to produce it on DVD and sell it.
Re:Free - for sale? (Score:1)
Re:Free - for sale? (Score:1)
From the original: "this year we want to produce it on DVD and sell it." So how is your reading comprehension?
Re:Free - for sale? (Score:1)
Re:Free - for sale? (Score:1)
HE said he was selling it, if you had bothered to read his minimal letter. It was only a few sentences after all. He wanted to accumulate free music for a school project that was to be used as a fund raiser.
You must have been a real hit with the ladies in school, toad, have you ever had a date? With your conversation skills I'd say 'just with your mother, and she went home early.'
Try fresh air and sunshine a few days a week, it would do something for your, for lack of a better word, personality. Try a walk in the park. Talk with people, but go slow, you might get arrested otherwise. You might even develop a social skill beyond ridicule and blind hatred.
Get a life.
Pay the royalties. (Score:2)
Uhh, pops and hiss? (Score:4, Insightful)
If your video/audio editing software was decent, it should have done this for you automagically.
Does it have to be popular music? (Score:3, Informative)
muzak (Score:1)