Does anyone know where to get copyright free music?

[mecg]

I'm making odds and end DVD's from captured tapes and images. Does anyone know a good source for copyright free music for the background?

[NightWing]

Grab an issue of DV or any mag covering video creation/editing. Usualy in the back ad's are places selling catalog you can buy that are not needle down.

Just read the find print and try the sample before diving in.


Else there are "non human" music generators out there. The problem is basically "no soul" to the music but these days sounds like the top 40 is the same way! Even MS had one in Visual Studio 97 that generated Midi songs. Was fare. These are good for "cheep" and odd size length.

Acid is one and I think Pinnacle Studio 7/8 has one built in.


PS: In music someone always owns it...

[rude_skankin]

@mecg

A friend of mine owned a coffee shop and always had run ins with the RIAA. They randomly and frequently visit stores to see if they are playing music in their shops without paying royalties to them, even from the radio! So of course he looked for a alternative source for music that didn't involve the tyranical RIAA. So he found a source of public music that can be played without having to pay for any rights to play the music, since the copyrights have ran out and are now considered public property. Though most of it is older music, and if I remember correctly mostly jazz. So if you like jazz and older music then this is perfect for you. I have no idea where he found the music, and I am not able to ask him at the present moment, (Since I'm about 8,000 miles away). I suggest doing a search for free public music on the net and see what that turns up. If you can't find anything post a message here and I will send him an email to find out where he got his music from. Hope this helps.


Anthony

[NightWing]

Yes there is public domain stuff but that stuff usualy dates back 50+ years. And not sure if that is not back under covered of some copyright since they changed the laws a few years back.

Note that Acid and the rest have some intersting demos.

[Cornucopia]

Copyright used to be (Pre-1928) just 25-50 years, then 75, then author's lifetime+50, now in US it's something like author+children's lifetime +75 years! One of the authors of the most recent law (Sonny Bono's wife) actually wanted it to be "Forever", but then thought that might be too much and then asked for "Forever minus 1 year". They compromised a little from that, but it's still way too much. Part of this march of of copyright length is greatly due to one Disney corporation ("Mickey Mouse" ).

If you're stuck, you could always do what the RIAA says you should do--Make it Yourself.

Scott

[housepig]

I have to agree...

If you want to be safe, pick up a copy of Acid or one of the Magix knockoff products. You can find some of the less popular Acid packages, like Acid Latin, dirt cheap. Once you get them, you can load them with any samples you like.

The net has wads of free samples. I would suggest hitting the forum at forum.midiaddict.com and searching the posts, or posting a request for links to sample sites.

Some of the Magix software, like Magix Music Studio, have Acid-style loop music creation facilities, and most come with a cd or three of samples and loops. I've seen some of the older versions (6 and earlier) for between $5 and $10 at my local Micro Center computer warehouse.

And if you are savvy enough to do dvd authoring, you've got the skills it takes to load up a sample and play around... you could whip up some basic background music 15 minutes after you started running the software.

And it'll be that much more satisfying, to say "oh yeah, I did the background music too..."

Download a demo from the net, give it a try - worst case scenario, you totally can't do it - well, you've wasted a half hour.

- housepig

[Jolard]

A friend of mine runs the Open Music Registry (www.openmusicregistry.org) which is a place for people to post music that is free for download. Go to the site for more info, but they have quite a lot available.

[DVDDude]

As Housepig suggest, Acid is a great (and fun) way to cook up some music. There's even a free version on Sonic Foundry's homepage, Acid Xpress ... check it out http://www.sonicfoundry.com/download/freestuff.asp