For years I've been a videographer in a very small pond, sharing documentary-style videos with a circle of friends and acquaintances, and I've blithely used music from various CDs. Well, I'm now emerging into a slightly larger pond, where my stuff may show up in broader venues, and those darned musical rights issues must now be dealt with. I haven't much explored royalty-free music options yet; I prefer the "sync-rights" route of previously recorded commercial music (not big pop tunes, mind you--just a bit of classical here and there, etc.) , but find a myriad of staggering complications and procedures --so, I'm curious how anyone here, whatever their level of exposure, does with music. To me music is everything, transforming images and creating moods beyond measure. I want to do as much as I can the way it should be done through proper channels, though it's still a very limited kind of world I operate in--we're not talking commercials or films here! Anyone have experiences that may prove instructive and enlightening?

There are a couple of sites on the web like mp3.com that offer
music artists to expose their work. Usually it is quite cheap (or
free) to buy interesting music from them. I myself know a couple
of people that can make me some music, that always helps as
well!

Acid Music 3.0.
I also use the acid loops directly in Vegas for basic music and F/X.

http://www.freeplaymusic.com is pretty cool. Very reasonable licensing requirements.