Blog Post

Collaborative sharing on-line is often a useful tool to complete a project. I am experiencing more and more, an attitude of community within the creative arts. I wanted to celebrate the individual companies and people that I’ve discovered personally.

I really enjoy looking on-line for music that I can use in my work. Completely original and often made by artists that use the social media platform, just as I do, to promote work. Music licensing is a bit of a confusing minefield, so I’m always sure to read the conditions of a musicians license before I use the track. There are corporate sites that offer royalty free licensed tracks from £30 upwards, but over the time I’ve worked as an editor I’ve become increasingly more and more bored of the lack of choice and range of music on offer. So I went looking elsewhere.

When I’m editing work I always start with the audio. It will mould the pace and overall feel of the whole piece, so its important to choose the right sound. I have to feel excited about editing to the music I choose.

I was really happy to find an artist called Kevin Macleod, who works as a composer and creates scores for film work. I’ve never come across a musician who creates so much music, in such large quantities, to such a high standard, with such insatiably creativity. He runs a website called incompetech

The Website on first glance is of a basic design but the functionality is perfect. There are lots of tracks to choose from and from every genre and style.

Each track, by default, is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. To use this license,you need to attribute the music in your piece (website, film, phone system, etc.)

If you need to use a track and can’t give attribution to Kevin you can purchase a ‘No Attribution License’ and even this is easy and affordable at $30 a track, less if you purchase more than one.
There is a donate button too if you, like me, think that Kevin should be rewarded for his creativity.

This is from Kevin on his Philosophy and why he shares his music:

Why do you allow people to use your music and don’t charge for it?

“There are many reasons. The cost for me to share music is low, and the benefits are high. There are a lot of schools with no money, and plenty of film makers who want to have music – but can’t afford to clear copyrights from the existing systems that are set up. I believe that copyright is badly broken , so I chose a license that allows me to to give away the rights I wish to surrender. We really have no hope of overturning the existing copyright situation, but we can and are creating an alternate body of works that are able to compete with them. In time, I hope that Creative Commons (and similar alternatives to standard copyright) will be common and successful enough to be the dominant choice for artists’ new creative works. If you hold tightly to your creative works, they become impossible to share. If your art isn’t experienced by people, it serves no purpose in society.”

Vimeo music store launched recently and offers all its tracks for non commercial license and to just simply listen to. I really love the design of the site and find it easy to navigate and use. Personal and non creative music licenses are either free or $1.99. Independent or small business (earning less than $20 million) licenses are priced at $98. There are some amazing tracks on the site I recommend visiting. The Website is pretty too!

Finally here are some other noteworthy social music online sharing sites and the blog that lead me to Kevin Macloud: 10 Royalty Free Music Sites Every Online Video Creator Should Know