In this brief post we'll cover the basics of stock music, how to find it and when it's a good idea to use it.
Before we tackle our topic, let me first explain & then tie in the concept of stock photos. These are photos that can be bought and used in your newsletter, brochure or other media project. Many in media have used stock photos for a long time.
However, the concept of stock music, at least as we know it today, is new in some ways. You see, there's always been a need for music that could be licensed for video games, TV commercials, and other media. However, many of those music tracks were priced too high for smaller projects. It's hard to justify the cost of a higher-profile music track that may have been composed for wide-scale distribution when your given project may be smaller in scope and budget.
Enter stock music, which is the audio equivalent of affordable stock photos. The recent explosion of new media has created a demand for lots of new music. And because there's a growing need for new, original music that is free of copyright hassles, we now see an abundance of web sites that offer royalty-free stock music. The concept is rather simple: Once you hear a music track (or sound effect track) that you'd like to use, you can either buy a copy of that track (usually at a low price) for immediate download, or you can opt to license that same track, depending on the need. I'll save the whole licensing side of things for another post. But for now, know that most stock music sites will make a distinction, helping you know which pricing level or purchase vs. licensing is best for you.
The downsides to stock music are few: the music could be bought and used in someone else's project, meaning that you could hear it somewhere besides in your project; because the music wasn't composed specifically for your project, there may be some adjustments needed to make things fit just right. Otherwise, using stock music makes a lot of sense for certain projects. There are lots of stock music sites out there, and a simple web search should get you started.
More posts to follow!
In the meantime, I'd love to have you drop by a couple of websites that feature my music. There you'll find some free sample tracks and some for purchase. And it's all royalty-free!
Also feel free to email me if you'd like, at drtimwaters @ gmail.com.
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