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Free CD-Quality Music

Posted by timothy on from the get-yourself-a-foley-box dept.

Scaife writes "I make a video project for school each year, and this year we want to produce it on DVD and sell it. The only catch is that we don't have the time or money to get copyright permissions for the 100+ songs we use for it. I'm wondering if there is a large repository of CD-quality royalty-free music somewhere. Whenever I try and take one of the royalty-free MP3s available on the web and use it on a DVD, the quality is awful as it pops and hisses. I suppose this is because of the lossy compression. Any ideas?"

4 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. Open Music Registry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Open Music Registry might have something you could use. Mp3.com might too, depending on what you consider to be "CD quality".

  2. make sure to convert to wav beforeimporting by andy2kxp · · Score: 5, Informative

    another problem is that, i don't know if you do this already, but it is a good idea to convert to wav with a good mp3 decoder before you import it into your video editing program, because they usually don't have the best mp3 decoders built-in.

    1. Re:make sure to convert to wav beforeimporting by MalachiConstant · · Score: 5, Informative

      I would second this. I don't know what software (if your editing digially) you're using, but I do my work in Final Cut Pro, and if you just dump an mp3 onto the timeline it sounds very nasty. Pops, skips, noise, it's totally useless. But if I convert it to a quicktime file in sounds perfectly smooth.

      We have a voice over talent (who I've never met face to face) who emails all her VO work to us as mp3 files. We just convert to quicktime and it's fine. If the file sounds worse in your project than it does just playing it on your computer I'd suspect the problem is incompatibility between the mp3 and your editing software, not the file itself.

  3. Royalty Free != free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't confuse royalty free with free.

    With most royalty free recordings, of any decent quality, will certainly cost you a bit. The point of them being royalty free is once you've purchased it, you are allowed to use it how you want, for as long as you want (and that does include for profit). That's why its usually more expensive, because you're not just paying for the music, but the ability to use it how you want, without worry of lawsuits, fees, fines, paperwork, etc.

    If you just take music that's royalty free, as opposed to free (as in beer), you're probably still violating copyright law.

    I assume the exceptions to this is if you obtain the royalty free music from a place that has already purchased it, such as your local library. Your local college may also have a library of royalty-free music you can check out, especially if they have a decent-sized TV/Radio/Film program.

    You could also try checking out some local musicians if their music fits what you're looking for, and try to make a deal with them. In that case, not only are you helping to support local talent (as well as possibly giving them some exposure if you give them a credit), you'll probably make off with a low-cost solution that will be mutually beneficial.

    And as others somewhat mentioned above, check if there are any internet resources that will give you free (as in beer) music that also happens to be royalty free.