Whether you’re an aspiring DJ or VJ, a professional or amateur sound technician, a video newbie or a professional, one thing is certain. You have a never-ending need for hot, fresh, cool background sounds.
Background music is the key to many successful video projects. It sets the mood and exposes the many emotional underpinnings of your artistic work.
If only finding really great background music were easy… not to mention free.
Believe it or not, there are several ways to get really great, high-quality background music for your project absolutely free. Of course, there are a few hoops to jump through, but you’ll find it well worth the trouble. Before you set out to find the next great background track, remember a few rules of the road.
1) Never (ever) give out your personal information to access a “members area” of a website which claims to be free. It’s highly unlikely that there is any real content to be had by giving this information out.
2) Never (ever) (ever!) give out your credit card information to a website which claims to be free. Ask yourself, “Why would they collect my credit card information if it’s free?
3) Read all of the information provided by the website regarding licensing. I know it’s very boring, but it’s worth your time to understand what you can and cannot do (legally) with the content you’ll download.
4) Remember, all music is created by some artist (or artists). Just like your art, theirs deserves respect. Plagiarism or artistic theft is serious business, so be courteous to your fellow artists.
Now for the good stuff. Here are a few places to go if you’d like to find great background music for free.
Freeplay Music – www.FreePlayMusic.com
Freeplay Music is the very best source for free background music on the Internet. Whether you’re looking for a solemn march or a lighthearted “feel good” soft rock track (or anything in between), you can find it on Freeplay Music.
Freeplay is searchable by keyword. You may also browse according to feeling, genre, and album. The advanced search feature on Freeplay makes finding the perfect background track a cinch.
As with any website of this nature, read first. Freeplay Music has very specific guidelines regarding the use of their free background music tracks. For more information about these policies and conditions, please visit www.FreePlayMusic.com.
The Internet Archive – www.Archive.org
Have you ever visited your local library and rifled through the CD racks trying to find the one decent CD in the collection? That’ sort of what it’s like using The Internet Archive.
While it’s not the easiest thing to find, there is a lot of free music to be downloaded from the archive.
The easiest way to find the music you’re looking for is by performing a search. Browsing through The Internet Archive will not likely give you very good (or fast) results. Try searching for specific sounds, like “soothing piano,” or “upbeat rock.” These searches will likely provide you with the best results.
The best part is that the information, pictures, music, ebooks, podcasts, videos, and multimedia content of all kinds on www.Archive.org are all available to the public free of charge. There’s no sign-up required, and you will be surprised at how much good content is available from The Internet Archive.
Free background music abounds on the Internet, but it takes some perseverance to find the perfect track sometimes. Hopefully these tips help point you in the right direction.
