License-Free Background Music

March 7, 2007 7:53 AM

I'm looking for free and license-free background music.

I create small video and audio clips (just for fun, so far) and post them to Spymac.com.

There are some Examples here

I'm looking for fairly short music, most of my videos are less than a minute. I'd like to have access to a variety of styles, all instrumental. I have no problem with attribution, but I get little or no pay for these, so I can't afford to pay for licensing.

I can build something OK with Apple's GarageBand, but it takes me an hour to build something a minute long (not my area of talent or expertise).

So, Hive Mind, any good sites for cheap/free license-free background music? Maybe something with Creative Commons licenses?

Thanks,

PS: bonus points for some new rimshots.

posted by davereed to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

Huh. This is a good question. There is definitely a lot of free-license music out there, I just don't know if its readily available on the internet, and easily sortable.
posted by phaedon at 8:28 AM on March 7, 2007

Googling "royalty free production music" comes up with quite a bit.
posted by Merdryn at 8:39 AM on March 7, 2007

Why, the Podsafe Music Network, of course!

...okay, that may be just a little bit of a self-link there (it's my page on the site), but there really is a whole lot of creative commons music from many artists in many genres, all searcheable.
posted by SampleSize at 8:41 AM on March 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

Give archive.org a look-see.
posted by 10ch at 8:42 AM on March 7, 2007

We have used pieces from Magnatune for podcasts before. We have also had a little luck with Rumblefish - I think we paid $5.00 for the piece we got and we can do whatever we want with it as long as there is attribution (so far as I recall).
posted by Medieval Maven at 9:17 AM on March 7, 2007

Check jamendo. Lots of CC licensed stuff there.
posted by devbrain at 9:21 AM on March 7, 2007

Seconding Magnatune. I'm a musician with music there and they are very artist friendly (if that factors into your calculus). Some music is free (considering your usage) and you can purchase other licenses online, too.
posted by GPF at 1:27 PM on March 7, 2007

Response by poster: I like the Podsafe Music Network, but I'm NOT a podcaster. That makes signing up a little tricky.

Is there a way to use the music without a podcast? I mean, I suppose I could create a podcast via feedburner, but it seems like cheating...
posted by davereed at 6:51 PM on March 7, 2007

Im not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but TheFreeSoundProject
has sounds and so does FindSounds

Also Animal Sounds has... recordings of animal sounds.
posted by victorashul at 6:19 PM on March 8, 2007