Uncopyrighted songs

[Youssef Abdelmohsen]

Hey guys I wanted to get some criticism, my small fan base on youtube is always giving me really lovely compliments, and I love it. However, I want serious criticism. I went out to film the Milky Way this month. I went to the middle of the desert. I live in Egypt. I am 16 years old. Here is my film : bit.ly/zThviF

I regularly make these montages. However this is the most focused one I've done.

NOW - I also want to transition into using uncopyrighted songs! I am hoping to become a Youtube partner someday but I need GOOD uncopyrighted songs, or creative commons license. I need them to be as good as copyrighted ones like the ones I choose for these videos. Please help me! I really need a website or a source I could get this music from but also good music.

[Tony Koretz]

Hey guys I wanted to get some criticism, my small fan base on youtube is always giving me really lovely compliments, and I love it. However, I want serious criticism. I went out to film the Milky Way this month. I went to the middle of the desert. I live in Egypt. I am 16 years old. Here is my film : bit.ly/zThviF

I regularly make these montages. However this is the most focused one I've done.

NOW - I also want to transition into using uncopyrighted songs! I am hoping to become a Youtube partner someday but I need GOOD uncopyrighted songs, or creative commons license. I need them to be as good as copyrighted ones like the ones I choose for these videos. Please help me! I really need a website or a source I could get this music from but also good music.

 

 

I presume you want uncopyrighted songs because you don't want to pay for the use of them. Any composer worth their salt will have their songs copyrighted. Even music that is given away freely is still copyrighted. Much of the free music out there is pretty poor quality too. However, there is some public domain music that is good. The copyrights to the compositions are often long ago expired, if the songs are very old. Mostly old standard songs. There are also royalty-free music websites around that sell licenses to use music at a small cost for home non-commercial users. Our website is like that. It has a few totally free songs for download, and also a large number of royalty-free songs where a small license fee applies for non-commercial use.

http://rocksuresoundz.com

[Ted Marcus]

Try googling some more info on this. Don't use just anything, because you don't want to deal with any issues later on. With youtube some people say noting somewhere in the description or in the actual video that you do not own the rights to the song and state who owns them is good too. that is of course if you choose to use a copyrighted song. Research it a bit more. YouTube help/info would be a good place to start on their website

[Rex Orwell]

The internet is truly a wonderful thing.

 

I'm not sure what your individual tastes are. If you want to overlay major artist's music over your film it's going to cause you problems. My advice would be to source music you like from unsigned artists and approach them directly. I'll be honest often the best music is unsigned. Ambience and minimal would be fruitful.

 

I'm fortunate in that I have a background within music and so obtaining music that would suit my personal taste rights-free wouldn't be a problem, but this is always dependant on the mood or the circumstance of the film in terms of what I would want to use. If I wanted to use Philip Glass I'd have difficulties.

 

I remember being a fan of Dustin O'Halloran quite early on in his career and he was an approachable guy I communicated with him a handful of times. I would have foreseen no major problems asking him directly a few years ago if he would allow me to use his music for film. He's a bit more tied-in now.

 

For the musician it can often mean more exposure and help further their own career.

 

Often people frown at file sharing because it’s easy to get caught up in the misconception that record companies and copyright are there to protect the artist. Almost a decade ago I ran a blog that supplied visitors with links to download full albums in MP3 and underneath links for outlets through which to purchase wax (vinyl). You’d be surprised by the notoriety of some of the actual artists approaching me directly thanking me for uploading their music so that others could download it for free, I certainly was. The site is still visited and I've forgotten the admin passwords so can't administrate or post not that I have the time, but it's on upwards of 4,000,000 views.

 

Incidentally from what I can gather from some 'Youtube Partners' who achieve in excess of 100,000 views, those views equate to pennies / cents, possibly a small number of dollars. I have videos (unrelated to filmmaking) upwards of 50,000 views and have been approached by Youtube to become partner, but I've read about the difficulties and disappointments people have had and have ignored their approaches (usually I get an automated email every 5,000 or 10,000 views). In addition one of the requirements is that you allow for there to be advertisement banners at the foot of your film.