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Let me tell you a story that will convince you that Royalty free music is by far the better option for using in your online video.

I posted a tweet recently that reminded me of a conversation I had not so long ago. My client, who  has given me permission to tell this story, purchased a royalty free music track from us to use in his promotional videos and he was very annoyed that he was having to do them all over again.

Yes, that is right. He was producing all of his videos for the second time, more precisely, he was paying his staff to re-produce and re-upload them. Quite simply he had mixed a mainstream music track behind his voice to give his video that extra bit of professionalism. They did sound good, but unfortunately he had no permission to use the copyrighted track.

Initially, this was not a problem for him as he saw that everyone else was doing it and getting away with it, however, not so long ago YouTube changed this when they introduced YouTube Content ID.

This is basically where a copyright owner can register their content with YouTube so that Youtube’s system will automatically recognise it as copyrighted material. The copyright owner can opt to block the content completely or to monetise it. I am sure you have seen those videos… the ones with no soundtrack or the ones with adverts displaying, well, that is the result of the content ID system.

Well, my client was upset as all of his videos had no soundtrack and he was now having to re-produce them with a royalty free track and re-upload them to YouTube.

In my opinion, this will become common place on other video platforms in the future.

If you are thinking of using copyrighted music, take my advice and invest in a royalty free music track today. It will save you loads of time / money in the long-run.

More about YouTube’s content ID

Related Articles on Others Blogs

• Bogus Copyright Claim Silences Yet Another Larry Lessig YouTube Presentation (Mike Masnick/Techdirt) (techmeme.com)
• Japanese Collection Society Wants To Charge You For Tweeting Lyrics (techdirt.com)
• Google shakes empty YouTube piggy bank (go.theregister.com)

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Time to funk it up a little with a cool, retro and funky royalty free jazz style track called That’s Cool, from Media Music Now’s funky groovy royalty free music category.

The electronic groove of the jazz organ and soulful sound of the sax create a hip, energetic and up tempo feel, making it suitable for television game shows, quiz shows, funky corporate videos and presentations.

If your production needs a theme that is fresh, fun and full of energy, That’s Cool could be the perfect fit to your production.

Let its funky rhythm and groovy beats give your project the cool confident edge it needs.

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If you would like to review a royalty free track from our royalty free music library, please contact us for more information.

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In this royalty free music review, I thought I would pay homage to those classic Hollywood adventure movie scores with an exciting and uplifting piece of royalty free orchestral music.

The track is called ‘Prince of Ponds‘, a happy and positive orchestral soundtrack suitable for family adventure films, Westerns or Disneyesque movie productions, any type of film or TV project that needs to create a sense of adventure, the great outdoors, big open landscapes and new frontiers to explore.

Give your production the Hollywood movie style treatment with ‘Prince of Ponds‘, the perfect big orchestral score without the need of a big budget.

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If you would like to review a track in our royalty free music library, please contact us for more information. Also, feel free to leave your comments, bookmark and ShareThis royalty free music review.

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As it’s Valentine’s, I thought it apt to review a royalty free music track that evokes emotions of love and romance. One track that certainly does this is Dream Zone from MediaMusicNow’s royalty free romantic music category.

Tender, gentle and loving, Dream Zone is perfect for a romantic production or project. An emotional teenage drama, television show or video that needs to portray feelings of love or perhaps daydreaming about that special someone, possibly an unrequited love. The track also has a nostalgic and heartening quality, looking back on fond memories.

Whatever the production, Dream Zone has the ability to enhance those romantic scenes and sentimental moments.

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Royalty free classical music as background music fits a variety of broadcast and media productions including movies, TV, Commercials, Exhibitions, Tradeshows and music on hold.

Classical music has often been used in films, for example, the opening fanfare of Richard Strauss’ ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ became well known for its use in the film ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and ‘O Fortuna’ and Carl Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’ were used in the movie ‘Excalibur’.

Other recognizable classical pieces used in advertising, television and film include Edvard Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King (from Peer Gynt Suite), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Pachelbel’s Canon in D. Classical music has even marked major sporting events such as Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s opera ‘Turandot’ as the theme for the 1990 World Cup.

Royalty Free Classical Music is perfect for professionals wanting to add striking and emotional background music to their project.

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If you would like to review any classical pieces from our royalty free classical music library, please contact us. Also, feel free to bookmark and ShareThis royalty free music review.

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An uplifting and positive pop rock track is the subject of today’s royalty free music review.

The track is called, ‘Take Me Higher‘ from MediaMusicNow’s royalty free rock music category. Although a rock track, it has pop elements to it and is perfect for any corporate production that requires bright and optimistic background music.

This includes motivational seminars, corporate presentations, music on hold, corporate video projects and any production that needs to inspire and motivate.

This light and inspirational rock-pop track will compliment and add energy to the overall impact of the production.

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Feel free to comment or bookmark this royalty free music review and if you would like to add your own review of a track in our royalty free music library, please contact us for more information

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Also, I am looking for a mic that has a USB interface. Basically a plugin and record solution.

Anyway, during my research I found this great video that compares several microphones ranging form very expensive mics to the cheaper Rode Podcasting Mic

The video also contains good information about vocal processing, although it does assume you already understand a number of advanced audio production techniques. The video host is clearly an experienced engineer as he exhibits the ability to adjust controls and achieve optimum results without giving the parameters of the processors any real thought. It is all achieved with experienced ears!

A great video in my opinion, and speaking as a fellow audio producer a joy to watch.

Feel free to leave comments about your microphone preferences and experiences… enjoy!

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With winter on its way and the Christmas TV commercials promoting the holiday season, I thought it would be a good time to review a collection of festive holiday music from our royalty free Christmas music category.

Whether involved in film, television or any other type of media project, you will find an excellent choice of royalty free music perfect for corporate and commercial promotions during the Christmas holidays.

Add some holiday cheer to your music on hold production or give your Christmas holiday film or television program a festive soundtrack with some beautiful arrangements of traditional Christmas Carols including Silent Night, Jingle Bells, O Holy Night and lots more.

Also in our royalty free Christmas music are original music pieces composed for the holiday season. Your project may be a Christmas promotion, TV commercial or film project in need of some musical originality and what better way to add that festive cheer than with some original royalty free Christmas music.

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Looking for Christmas music for your own listening pleasure?

One of our composers ‘Christopher Page’ has his own beautifully recorded and produced Christmas album ‘The Greatest Christmas Cd Ever!’ available for personal listening from Amazon MP3 Downloads.

Click here to listen to Christopher Page’s Christmas album at the Amazon MP3 store.

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Many independent composers earn money from royalty free music licensing, but many also register with a performance royalty organisation so that they do not miss out on any potential royalty from their music being broadcast on TV or Radio.

The performance royalty organisation (PRO) is primarily concerned with collecting royalties (charging licenses) to venues and broadcasters who use mainstream music. This makes sense as mainstream music is big business, however, the problem arises when music is being played that is not recognisable as mainstream. The PRO still has an obligation to charge a venue / broadcaster a license fee on the assumption that the music being played may be registered with a performance royalty organisation.

So, what does this mean for you?…

When you use royalty free music there is always a chance that a PRO may try to charge you an additional license if the music can be heard by the public, for example, music on hold, at trade shows, online use etc. For these types of uses, the composer receives a payment from their royalty free music distributor and would not benefit from this additional PRO license. PRO’s pool license fees for public performance and payment to composers is worked out statistically, which means that independent composers usually get little or nothing.

It should be sufficient enough to tell an enquiring PRO that the music was acquired on a royalty free license and according to the lawyers I know, the PRO would have to prove that is in their database. Obviously, if they can recognise it as mainstream music you will have to pay the license fee, whereas, if it is an unknown original piece of music, PRS don’t have an obvious reason for asking you to pay a license.

Typically, an issue arises when a PRO is given the track and composer name and finds it registered in their database. At this point, they will insist that the music user has to pay them a license fee to continue using it.

It is worth noting that when a composer joins a PRO, some of the PRO’s small print has a clause (dating back to the 1920’s) that means the composer signs away some of their copyrights over to the PRO. Technically, this means that a PRO could take this kind of licensing issue to court, but, it is yet to happen. Could you imagine it?… the very organisation whose purpose it is to collect revenue for composers would be suing the composer!

Usually, if the PRO can establish that the music is royalty free and that the composer has been compensated accordingly, they exercise common sense and pursue it no further.

In summary, there is a potential problem with using royalty free music that can be heard by the public, but it never seems to have amounted to more than a grey area in copyright law and an inconvenience to the composer, distributor and end user.

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I am interested in hearing your views and opinions on this topic so please feel free to leave a comment.

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The original audio books were only available on audio cassette and for the benefit of younger readers, the audio cassette was a magnetic tape sound recording format. Here is a picture of an audio cassette courtesy of wikimedia.org.

For more information on cassettes see the Wikipedia resource link at the end of this blog post.

Audio books on cassette tape required turning over midway as each side was typically 30 minutes. Not a format I was particularly fond of.

CD Audio Books

Audio Book CD format is a vast improvement lasting up to 74 minutes and at digital quality standard. However, you will find that some large CD audio books run across many CD’s, the biggest I produced was a total of 13 CD’s.

Also, it does require that you sit listening to it on your home stereo system or your car CD player. I suppose you could also listen to audio books on CD Walkman, although I am not sure many people use these in 2009.

MP3 Audio Books

MP3 players have revolutionised audio consumption and mp3 audio books are my favourite. Most inexpensive players can easily hold a high quality audio book that you can listen to anywhere. Additionally, the mp3 format is flexible and can be played on most computers and mp3 players, including iPods.

MP3 audio books are easily available to download and can also be sold as an MP3 CD. This is basically a CD ROM that contains the whole audio book in a folder. Unlike a CD audio book, you don’t have to keep changing CD’s to listen to the whole book. The MP3 CD saves me lots of time and is my second favourite format.

If I do have to buy audio books on audio CD, the first thing I do is convert the files to mp3 and add them to my MP3 player so that I can listen whilst on the move.

My favourite little MP3 player is the Sansa Clip from Amazon – click here to see a selection of Sansa Clip MP3 Players

iPod Audio Book format

This format provides one or two benefits over mp3 audio books, in the fact that chapters can be saved as a single audio book file, whereas mp3 chapters tend to arrive as many separate files. Despite the benefits, I don’t like this format as it restricts you to using an iPod and most MP3 players don’t play the .m4b format that is used by audio books downloaded from the Apple iTunes store.

Audible Audio Books Format

I am a subscriber to Audible UK as they seem to be the only serious downloadable audio book seller that I am aware of in the UK; however, I am not a fan of their proprietary format .aa.

This format was created by them to stop file sharing using strict DRM (Digital Rights Management). Without going off topic, DRM in my opinion hinders the honest buyers of audiobooks and music as it makes the file unplayable until you verify your account. I could share many stories about DRM validating errors and know numerous people who have bought files that they can no longer play… but that’s another topic altogether.

Needless to say, Audible’s audio book format is my least favourite, but until a better option comes around, I will stick with it, plus they do have one of the UK’s largest selections of audio books online.

Click here to view and browse downloadable audio books on Audible’s UK site

Click here to view and browse audio books on Amazon.co.uk

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References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Cassette

Are you an author or publisher looking to transform your book into an audio book?… Click here to find out more about our audio book recording  and production services

I am always interested in hearing your views and opinions so please feel free to add your comments below.

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Halloween is just around the corner and for those of you looking for spooky background music to add chills to your Halloween production may have just found the right track in today’s royalty free music review. The track is simply called ‘Halloween’.

‘Halloween‘ is a creepy track with lots of haunting and scary sound effects; a menacing laugh, thunderous lightening, a werewolf howling and church bells striking, There’s a graveyard out there with ghosts and ghouls at play.

The big church organ and thumping percussion also add to its unsettling and disturbing feel. This spine-tingling and menacing royalty free music track has all the chilling sounds needed for your haunted Halloween production.

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In the computer game industry, these stems are custom written by a composer to give the game a unique soundtrack. The music is composed to work as a complete piece, but is also separated into many layers of audio files so that elements can be dropped in and out in reaction to the game play.

I know that many audio producers often find frustrating limitations using off-the-shelf royalty free music. These frustrations could easily be overcome if royalty free music was available in stems and layers.

Limitations that I often experience…. Sometimes I sync a piece of music to a video and end up realising that in order to make the scene work well, I need a few more seconds of introduction before the melody starts. In this case, a precise and time-consuming splice of a wave form is required.

Also, I sometimes find myself wanting to use a track of music without the instrument solo or random instrument that obscures the section I want. Although using quality royalty free music is a great way to minimise expense, there can be many compromises if you are trying to get a tightly synchronised video soundtrack. Sometimes the video frames have to be synced with the music to avoid this.

Can you imagine if every royalty free music library offered music in stems and layers. How great would that be?

If this concept could be borrowed from the computer / video games industry and adapted by composers, it could become a new era in royalty free music. Just a thought!

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I am interested in hearing your thoughts so please feel free to add your comments. Perhaps you are a composer experienced in writing music this way?

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For today’s royalty free music review, I have picked a happy and positive track, aptly named ‘Happy Moments‘.

This royalty free music track has an acoustic sound with a country-style feel and it just can’t help but make you feel good. I think it would work well in any film or TV production to highlight scenes of uplifting and happy moments.

With its country-style tones, I could see it being used in a Southern-set sweet romantic comedy, one for all the family, much like the film ‘Sweet Home Alabama’.

Also, this track would be ideal for any up-beat advertising and television projects such as commercials, sitcoms and programmes for all ages.

If you are looking to create a positive, uplifting and happy mood in your media production, then ‘Happy Moments‘ could just be the perfect fit.

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As always, feel free to leave your comments, bookmark or ShareThis royalty free music review.

Interested in adding your own review? If you would like to review royalty free music from our music library, please contact us for more information.

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Well, the track in today’s royalty free music review certainly is.

The track is called ‘Up to the Challenge‘ from Media Music Now’s corporate motivational music category. This royalty free music track is great for inspiring synergy, building confidence and creating a positive attitude.

You may have a powerpoint presentation or corporate video that needs to be uplifting and inspirational; a corporate training event, trade show or seminar where you want to motivate and energise your audience or perhaps you are looking for a piece of background music to blend in perfectly with your on hold production.

The answer is simple, ‘Up to the Challenge‘ is the perfect choice of background music to liven up your project.

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Because of its huge presence and fast moving pace, this track is ideal for use in any number of high impact TV, Film and media productions.

As already mentioned, this is a dance anthem in itself so it would fit right into a travel show promoting a summer destination that will be appeal to young adults or an ‘Ibiza Uncovered’ style show.

Also, the sheer drive and energy that emanates from this track make it highly suitable for portraying the intensity and excitement felt in the world of extreme sports such as, sky diving, hang gliding, motor racing or any sport that induces a rush of adrenaline.

If you want to create an energising, exciting and gripping production with lots of attitude, then ‘Energy of the Night‘ can give your project all the attitude it needs.

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Please feel free to add your comments on this track, bookmark or retweet this post. Also, if you would like to review a royalty free track from our music library, please contact us for more information.

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If you are hiring a voice over or company to record and produce your audiobook you should make a point of confirming the copyright status of the finished book. Who owns what and what can be done with it?

Whilst the author of the book owns the copyright of the content being narrated, there will be other aspects that need consideration.

Music and Sound Effects

If you are using music and sound effects you will need to clear the rights before distributing the audio book and if you are going to make a CD version of the book, all good CD pressing plants / duplicators will require licensing documentation before they create any copies.

Using royalty free music in your audio books is often a good and affordable option, but make sure you have confirmed that there are no limitations on how many copies you can make. Most royalty free music agreements will have limitations that require you to purchase an extended license option for mass duplication.

The Voice Over Recording

The voice-over may claim copyright ownership on the voice recording. This aspect of copyright is not often discussed or considered at the time, however, unless it is clarified you can not assume that you own the recording. A work for hire agreement can negate potential conflict in the future.

The recording and production will also carry a copyright that is automatically owned by the producer. Again, there can be a work for hire agreement, but more commonly there will be a license agreement where certain terms are defined. For example, how long the production can be used for, how many copies can be made, whether any royalty is due to the publisher etc.

Audio Book Publishers

Just as the music industry has publishers, the audio book industry has publishers that produce and sell audio books. This industry is still relatively new, however, audio book publishers continue to work on an historic business model. This model carefully controls all aspects of copyright based on the publisher taking a royalty on every sale they make, as well as there being an initial production fee to record the book. It is also worth mentioning that some publishers restrict the countries the audiobook can be sold in.

A Fresh Approach

Media Music Now is not a publisher, but is a producer of audio books. Our philosophy is to charge a fee based on the initial work involved in recording and producing the book. We provide the client with a license that allows them to sell copies in any country they choose and on any format. We also factor in a threshold of sales before we expect any royalties.

Most of our clients are authors, small book publishers and small businesses. To make this service accessible, we charge a reasonable one-time fee for the audio book recording and production with a generous royalty term that only kicks in after a high volume of sales. This prevents any ownership / revenue disputes from any party involved should the audio book become a huge success. We expect the client to profit from selling a few thousand units each month, however, should we produce an audiobook that becomes a massive hit, we would expect to receive a fair share from royalties.

Can you imagine landing the job of turning Harry Potter into audio books!? Well, it has already been done, and with the book version reported to sell over 4 million copies, the audio book deal must have been lucrative.

Conclusion

There are numerous payment models for this type of product so my advice is this. Understand the aspects covered here and expect to see them detailed in any quote you receive. If the information is not clear about any limitations, it is not good enough to assume there are none. When your audio book starts selling in the millions this is usually the time that copyright owners start to think about money. Sad, but true!

Make sure all terms of the audio book production are discussed and document it before the project starts. This will avoid any unexpected surprises in the future.

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If you have any questions or wish to enquire about recording and producing audio books, please fee free to contact us or leave a comment / question below. Also, more information can be found on our website under audio book production.

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With many things in life, you kind of know what price you need to pay for things, for example… a sandwich, a new TV, a new car etc. The competitive market and laws of supply and demand make this information easy to find for many types of products and services as there are usually many companies offering the same or similar product.

With voice talent, the price varies considerably as each voice over has their own unique characteristics and industry experience. As a rule of thumb, you would pay much more to hire a known TV celebrity voice over than you would to use the services of a lesser known voice talent working in their home studio.

As the entry to market is now much lower for voice overs to kit out a home studio, there are more voice-overs looking to win pitches than ever before. Many voice over jobs are on a quote by quote basis and there seems to be little in the way of price lists for having a voice over recording made. Information on where to go and who to trust for prices is increasingly difficult to discern from web searches.

Like everything in life, you get what you pay for. You can get a quote from numerous reverse auction style sites, where you get hundreds of voiceovers pitching for the job… but at the end of the day, reliability and quality should be more important than price in my opinion.

Voice over quotes are often defined by various factors including whether they use there own studio or hire one, whether they are delivering a raw, dry or fully produced audio with music and sound effects or their position and experience in the voice over industry… for more information on this topic please see this previous post >

Also, are you asking per page, per word count or by the finished duration of the audio? All very difficult to gauge and difficult to quantify.

OK, here is my really simple secret to pricing voice over jobs.

Personally, I like to be able to calculate the cost from the number of words in the script. Granted, I am not a voice-over, but I do work with a team of professional voice overs and I like to work on a win, win, win basis.

• The client needs to get a fair price – Win
  
• The voice over needs to be paid fairly – Win
• The audio producer needs to receive fair pay for the editing and production – Win

Saying it will last about 20 minutes, or it is 10 pages is not very useful. Pages can have anything from 300-700 words on them depending on font size and margin size. And the duration of the audio can vary depending on the editing and the speed of the narrator. Also, the narration of a page can take anything from 3 – 7 minutes depending on the content.

I find the best way is to quote based on seeing the script and word count. This way you should always get the job done to the quality you expect and for the price you expected to pay. Likewise, the voice over and audio producer will be happy with their share of the income. Win, Win, Win!

With the exception of 30 second adverts and very small jobs, I think it is always a good idea to send your script or at least provide a word count for an estimated price.

This is based my experience, but perhaps you have had experience with this too? I look forward to any comments you wish to share.

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If you need any help with a voice over job, please feel free to have a look at our voice over section or contact us directly.

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Nowadays, the thought of editing in this way is alien to most people, however, this was the way it had to be done at one time. Imagine the amount of time it must have taken to edit or remix a song.

The process involved the audio engineer physically locating the point where a cut was required, before precisely cutting out that section of audio with a razor blade and cutting block. It was then rearranged and stuck back together using splicing tape (posh sticky tape). There was no cut and paste and no undo function.

This video illustrates it very well. At the start, you can see the splices, however, you can only appreciate the true art of this when the tape is played at normal speed. Enjoy

Have you ever edited tape?

The Splicing Process

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