---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 Ways to Find Legal Music for Your YouTube Videos |
A good soundtrack can make or break a movie. The same holds true for your YouTube videos. The right song can help convey emotion or add humor. However, you can’t simply pluck a song from your iTunes library. Using a song you don’t own the rights to can leave your video looking more like a silent film. YouTube’s Audio ID technology automatically scans and detects copyrighted songs inside videos and, depending on who owns the rights, disables the audio or serves additional advertising on the video that is paid back to the rights holder. |
So where does that leave the budding filmmaker? For most, jumping through the record companies’ hoops of acquiring rights isn’t realistic, especially for a video of your kid’s birthday party. YouTube’s enforcement means torrents are no longer the answer, and independent artists are looking for new ways to get their work heard. |
Consequently, a host of options have popped up for users looking to integrate original music into their memes-to-be. Here’s a look at a few of them. |
1. Creative Commons Licenses |
If “all rights reserved” is the last thing you want to see when deciding which music to use, then Creative Commons is a beacon of light. The non-profit organization of the same name is designed to let artists share their work with the public with the creator maintaining certain rights. This includes pictures from individuals on sites like Flickr, content from Wikipedia, and, of course, audio tracks. |
Not all Creative Commons licenses are equal. Artists can choose from four categories. The first, “attribution” (denoted as “by”), lets anyone share the work, provided they credit the creator. The “share alike” (sa) option lets others use your work, allowing they provide the same license for others to use the derivative works. “No derivative works” (nd) dictates the song can only be used verbatim. “Non-commercial” (nc) restricts songs to use in private videos, meaning companies or users looking to profit from advertising are out of luck. |
Finding free Creative Commons audio is pretty simple. Some individual artists have created sites, like Incompetech.com and Danodongs.com to share their work, though each appreciate donations. If their styles don’t suit your needs, you can search sites like Jamendo, which boasts more than a quarter of a million tracks. Each song clearly lists the type of Creative Commons license allowed. |
Stock audio libraries work just like stock photo libraries, allowing you to license music for a particular application. But just like stock photos, the license is subject to a lengthy legal agreement restricting use. That said, costs are reasonable with sites like iStockphoto offering music rights from $3.60 to $95 depending on the license selected and type of payment plan you choose. This may be the best option if you’re considering well-known classical works from famous composers or versatile sound loops. |
If you’re after a very specific sound, a more traditional pay-per-use license may be your best bet. Unlike the stock and creative commons options, most of the options are from professional, though not well-known, artists. Along with that may come higher prices. The costs depend largely on how specific your needs are, so if you need a specific song, expect to pay more. |
The RumbleFish Music Licensing Store offers a wide variety of styles, with pricing equally diverse. While the price is contingent on factors like the type and duration of use, single songs can range from $5 for use in a video blog to more than $6,300 for lifetime use as a recurring theme in an advertisement video series. While that sounds like a lot, keep in mind RumbleFish stipulates the license is good for all galaxies, which has to be worth a few thousand at least. |
If you’re fine with “in the style of” a particular artist, RumbleFish’s other site, Friendly Music, offers a great option at just $1.99 per track. Songs are indexed by genre, keyword, and even moods, like angry or optimistic. Independent artists can upload their work for a 50/50 profit share. |
For videos longer than just a couple of minutes, or to have a common theme across multiple videos in a series, there’s Primary Elements. Users can download full CDs of royalty-free tracks that share a common musical style. License options range from $19 to $189 depending on whether the songs will be used for commercial purposes and if you plan to credit the website. |
Copyrights don’t last forever, but that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to use recordings of the classics. While copyright protection expires 70 years after an artist’s death, that only covers the composition. Mozart died well before 1940, but that doesn’t mean you can use a recording of the “Magic Flute” from the New York Philharmonic. |
That means it’s time to dust off the piano and make your own recording. And if you auto-tune your version of the original, you can even file a new copyright for it. |
Have you used any of these ways to add a soundtrack to YouTube videos? What other resources have you used? |
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/i1fu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for reading! Now for your (legal) listening pleasure, some TopGun goodness:
Peter VanRysdam is the CMO of web design company 352 Media Group and the author of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World. Connect with him on Twitter @Peter352.
