Have you seen this video lately?
It was pretty hard to miss. It went viral in short order and the woman even ended up on the Today show. She was secretly recorded from what looks to be an office window gettin’ her groove on. To what song we don’t know, but the uploader added “Dancing Queen” as the sound track, and what could have easily been a really boring video of a woman dancing on the street turned into something you couldn’t stop watching.
I come from a news background. One of the rules when I was in the business was: don’t use music because it could influence the viewer towards one emotion or another. So when I migrated to the freelance world, all of a sudden I had some options!
Music DOES influence emotion, and that’s a good thing. For the same reason we use shallow depth-of-field shots to direct the viewers attention, we use sound tracks to help tell our story. I watch a lot of YouTube videos and a lot of videos on Vimeo as well. I like to see what songs people use, and how they use them. So I wanted to throw out some pointers for those that are looking for the next piece of music for their video.
First. DO NOT STEAL MUSIC. Lets clarify what stealing is. Did you get permission from the producers and the artists? No? Then you stole it. But you bought it on iTunes? Doesn’t matter. You HAVE to get permission. And permission usually runs a pretty penny. You can generally assume that you will pay anywhere from $1,500 to $20,000 for mainstream music depending on the music’s popularity. Do you remember this commercial?
That song used to run $1,500 dollars. But when the ad did so well and the song caught on, it sky rocketed to $20,000 for a one year, web-only use. WEB ONLY. That means no TV runs, no DVDs, no hard copies of any kind. I’m not saying that it helped sell millions of Kia’s, but the song had a huge impact on the audience.
Second. You can find cheaper alternatives, but don’t settle for something based on price. Just google “royalty free music” and you will find hundreds of websites dedicated to getting you cheap music for your videos. But as the old saying goes “you get what you pay for”. More often than not, you will end up hearing synthesized trumpets and strings and some really cheesy guitar loop. Not fun. Check out Marmoset for some great, affordable music. It leans a little more towards the folky side, but if you dig, you can find a great variety of music. The Music Bed is another great resource.
Third. Download previews before you buy. Seems obvious but I figured I would throw it out there. Nothing is worse than shelling out cash and then finding out your client doesn’t like the song. Now you are stuck with a song that you probably won’t ever use and you are out a couple hundred bucks. Previews are your friend.
Music Matters
Fourth. If you are looking for something a bit more mainstream check out ASCAP and do an artist or song search. You will find out all the pertinent info about who to contact regarding that song and then you can workout the details from there!
For me, picking the right song is a really fun part of the video-making process. And as stated, it can really hurt you if you choose the wrong song. But the right one can really knock it out of the park!