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Music License resources (other than The Music Bed)


Jonesy Jones
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I have always loved The Music Bed, but that is over. Their tracks are absolutely top of the line, but they have become too expensive and the licenses are cumbersome. They have lost the vision that they started with, to help filmmakers with affordable music licensing. 

So, will you help to put some pressure on The Music Bed, or support other services that are doing it right. Please list other services you are aware of and a brief description. I will update this post with links and info as the recommendations come in. 

I'll start with this EOSHD resource by @Eric Matyas. - Music is free. I've listened to a some of these tracks and they're great. I hope Eric keeps up the good work. Talented and generous guy.

PS. - I think it would be cool if this, or a thread like it were stickied. Music is critical component to nearly all films.

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EOSHD Pro Color 5 for Sony cameras EOSHD Z LOG for Nikon CamerasEOSHD C-LOG and Film Profiles for All Canon DSLRs

Not keen on musicbed. Spent £70 on a '5 times use' track for weddings but only got one time use. Somebody said that you just download the four other licenses as and when you need them, but I couldn't see how to do that without paying another £280.

 

The site is an absolute mess and leaves you guessing. The FAQS also are vague and leave you guessing as to what their 'answers' mean.

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3 minutes ago, Davey said:

Not keen on musicbed. Spent £70 on a '5 times use' track for weddings but only got one time use. Somebody said that you just download the four other licenses as and when you need them, but I couldn't see how to do that without paying another £280.

 

The site is an absolute mess and leaves you guessing. The FAQS also are vague and leave you guessing as to what their 'answers' mean.

Ok. Good to know. So let's begin to fix this problem. What are your new go to sites for music licensing?

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Just now, Jonesy Jones said:

Ok. Good to know. So let's begin to fix this problem. What are your new go to sites for music licensing?

Just premiumbeat - there are (according to my taste) around five good tracks on there for weddings. I have bought them all and can use them as much as I like.

I have twenty other tracks for various moods but no good for weddings - unless the couple are into weird music.

The production values are nowhere near as good as musicbed's, mind. 

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I like pond5. Can't compare them to musicbed as I haven't used that site. But I've found a range of good stuff on pond5 after a little bit of clever searching. I like to search for a specific artist that I want something to sound like, rather than general tags which are overused. 

For example, I've searched for "Bon Iver" rather than "folk", with good results.

Also, has anyone checked out this:

http://www.dvinfo.net/article/post/first-look-music-vine-a-fresh-new-music-licensing-platform-for-filmmakers.html

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4 hours ago, hyalinejim said:

I like pond5. Can't compare them to musicbed as I haven't used that site. But I've found a range of good stuff on pond5 after a little bit of clever searching. I like to search for a specific artist that I want something to sound like, rather than general tags which are overused. 

For example, I've searched for "Bon Iver" rather than "folk", with good results.

Also, has anyone checked out this:

http://www.dvinfo.net/article/post/first-look-music-vine-a-fresh-new-music-licensing-platform-for-filmmakers.html

Brilliant find. Just listened to a few cinematic tracks - worked flawlessly on my mobile - and liked what I heard. As close to Tony Anderson as I have heard.

The prices look reasonable.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hey Guys,

 

I am creating a music licensing website that will be just like The Music Bed but WAY cheaper.

You can apply here as we will offer the first users a very good deal for the first 12 months.

Just need to answer three short questions here: https://goo.gl/forms/JXFC1FR43gAdt7iD3

We also currently offer a service that allows you to find specific songs through our network. You can access that here: http://www.gnarles.com/

 

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Filmstro (https://www.filmstro.com/) take a different approach. They have 'themes' - loads of them - that you can match to your footage and then alter things like momentum, power, volume, depth etc. You pay $9.99 - $49.99 (depending on the kind of usage) a month for unlimited use and tracks. They seem to add lots of new music every month too. It's all instrumental, as far as I can see, and I think 1080p support is upcoming (but you can get around that by arranging the track, then exporting just the music track and adding it in your NLE). It's not for everyone, but I imagine for personal project use, corporates, weddings etc it could be ideal.

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6 hours ago, silvertonesx24 said:

As a former composer, this thread makes me so happy that I did something else...

Musicbed "too expensive" lol

So you're right, $200-$300 a track is not really that bad. But let's face it, I bet we all have clients who are spending further out of pocket for video in the first place than they can really afford. Add to that a few extra hundo for music and it's too much for them. But this isn't really even the issue.

What if your client was hoping to launch a radio campaign? See if you can even get a straight answer from The Music Bed.

What about a burgeoning filmmaker who wants to sell his DVD? The Music Bed will tell him to bend over. I literally had a Music Bed rep tell me in person that they wanted 10-20% of my revenue... for each track used. Now that's worthy of an "lol".

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6 hours ago, silvertonesx24 said:

As a former composer, this thread makes me so happy that I did something else...

Musicbed "too expensive" lol

I definitely hear ya, I feel bad for composers. It sucks all around, everyone deserves to be paid for their artistic efforts but unfortunately the people who should be paying (clients) seem to want everything for cheap/nothing. Perhaps I need better clients. 

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I use to use Music Bed all of the time, but this year I had an employee contact me. She was asking me if I could help out by telling her more about the project that I was working on. The musician that wrote the track I used wanted more pieces to show their music with. So I told her about the project. She started investigating into employee counts etc... Anyhow, it turned out that I had the count wrong so I owed another 100 or so dollars. It was my mistake, but I found it very sinister and devious the way she approached the whole thing. It left a bad taste... 

So that being said, here are the places that I have been using every since:

https://www.pond5.com
http://www.art-list.io/
http://www.premiumbeat.com/
http://freemusicarchive.org/
http://www.epidemicsound.com/

And I also hire musicians to create custom tracks or contact people directly about licenses.
 

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