The Music! Where is the GOOD music!
 

I've been going through royalty free website after royalty free website and I'm about to lose my mind. 95% of it is like porn music, or like that moment in an 80's movie where the main character has to go drive or walk the streets at midnight and recollect himself for some great feat to come... anyway... I'm dying here.

I know what the problem is... the composers go a little TOO bonkers with effects... it's like they just got their first casio keyboard or multi effects pedals for the guitar and they want to use it all at once....

Aren't there any royalty free songs out there that are more like REAL bands? With guitars and drums and bass?? and no wikki-wikkki-wah-wah stuff??

My friends I am on a pilgramage to find or create music myself for everyone to use...

PS - Musicbakery.com has some good stuff.... and Stock20.com is really close to having some good stuff... I'm currently searching there with hope...

STOCK20.COM! has some really good stuff!! pulse is coming back down to normal... wooooooo saaaaahhhhh!!

FYI for those who are searching as well...

Matthew,

You can give it a shot at this site.

There is no fee unless the film picks up distribution. Not sure of the quality (I'm a musician so I fortunately use my own music), but it could be worth a look.

Todd

Matthew, there is a difference between royalty free and cheap royalty free.
Stock20 has some really good stuff, there are also a few dozen links to places I've used that can be found HERE

thanks guys for the information... I'm in the process of checking this all out...

I have no problem paying for good royalty free stuff... I've been paying around $40 per song... and if I can just find one or two more great one's I'd pay a lot more...

Since I'm doing every bit of this film myself... the budget is all for music...essentially, and it's pretty important.

thanks ya'll!

Try this as well
http://www.music2hues.com

yea, music2hues.com is alright as well...

I've just been listening to www.royaltyfreemusic.com and their stuff is pretty good as well.

This may hurt a little....
 

or a lot, but try http://www.firstcom.com

Jim

What styles are you looking for Matthew?

There is a lot of good royalty free stuff around now but there is still a lot of tat out there too. Part of the problem is that a lot of the sites allow anyone with a keyboard or a stylophone to upload their stuff.

Take a look here or let me know what it is you are looking for - I do a lot of TV work myself, as well as sourcing tracks for broadcasters.

The tracks at Stock20 are very good and ridiculously cheap in my opinion, there's just not a lot of it. In fact I was talking to the owner this week about perhaps sub-licensing his catalogue in the UK.

The Music Bakery are also very accomplished and there is some good material to be found on ProductionTrax too but you have to work quite hard to find it.

Keep us up to date with your findings.

Cheers

Colin

thanks everyone for your responses, and for the links... this has been very helpful.

Colin -

Specifically I'm looking for a some contemporary rock, but every now and again, I venture into the techno, or world beat with hopes of finding something, but to no avail... Music Bakery is very good... Stock20, is extremely cheap for the music they're putting out compared to the others...

Firstcom, I've only begun to look at, but from what I've heard so far there is promise... I'm a musician, but by no means a professional, but my biggest critism is:less is more... there are so many songs out there that are almost good, but 1 minute into it the pet monkey gets on the casio and starts ripping out some random melody... and then I'm like, "almost...dang... NEXT!"

I guess I'm looking for something that sounds like what we normally listen to on the radio... whether it's rock, country, blues, etc... but I guess the people that can get stuff on the radio aren't going to be selling it on the internet right?

I'm finding some decent stuff... it's just very difficult, and I really appreciate this website and all the people who are submitting comments to help me...
thank you! I'll keep posting if I find anything else good...

You and I think exactly alike. I like to create simple stuff that gets the idea across without competing with the visual. Less is more. Listen to a lot of the background stuff in drama and crime shows. Often times it's down to a simple cello sustaining on a note to create tension.

-gb-

Right on Greg! You're exactly right there.

A little update for everyone interested...

Firstcom.com has some really good stuff... I sent an email to the info address about getting licensing rates, and it kicked it back... I'm going to try a phone call...

I'll let you know.... When you have to ask for rates...it's going to hurt... but hey....

I know exactly what you mean. I was reviewing a guy's tracks the other day and much of it was really very good but he had a monkey too! As soon as the monkey interfered it was time to switch off. There must be a book for composer's out there somewhere called 'How To Ruin A Perfectly Good Track'.

I've been guilty of it too at times though. A lot of it comes down to the fact that clients want music to sound like it's come off a record but they don't want vocals (or an unrecognisable vocal performance would screw it up). Therefore you're left with this big hole in the mix which quite often you feel needs to be filled with something. It's easier to avoid when you are writing to picture but if you're not, you have this compelling urge to complete the picture yourself.

It also depends very much on how the music is being used. In production library music the composer can only go on instinct. One client may want the track for backrgound use, whereas the next wants it more upfront for a theme or highlights reel. That's why some libraries offer underscore mixes of every track and other pieces are written with an underscorey section in the middle of the track (sometimes referred to as a 'doughnut').

No doubt you've found out already but Firstcom is a 'needle drop' production music library. Very high quality and a stunning array of styles and tracks to choose from but you'll be paying per 30 seconds of use. As with everything in life, you pretty much get what you're prepared to pay for.

Anyway, back to contemporary rock...just out of interest, what do you make of these?
To Freedom
Stringed Groove
Bang Your Brain
Big Ideas

Let rip. Don't hold back. I'm keen to know where these stand in terms of quality and usefulness for you guys.

sonicfire-smartsound is a great product with huge library of music.