How to Secure & Buy Music for Your Film

There are different options for obtaining music for your film. The most common options are:

1. Getting music composed specifically for your film
2. Getting music that is already completed and using it in your film
3. Getting royalty free music that gives you non-exclusive rights to use a song in a particular fashion.

These three options make up the main paths for obtaining music for your films. The first option of using music specifically composed for your movie can be beneficial because you could have shot your video first and then you can ask a composer to create music that fits the pace of your film, rather than trying to pace your film to fit the music.

Getting music composed specifically for your film could be done through your own connections and arrangements. For example, maybe you know local musicians who would like to get more exposure to their work. If their music will play a big role in your film, you might ask them to compose music for you and in return you could include their name in the opening credits. Alternatively, you could give them “points” (to be discussed in another blog post) which would act as money, but only if the film makes money. If you have the money, another option is to buy the rights to their music and negotiate a deal where you can use their music under certain conditions (i.e. amount paid, position in the sequence of opening and / or closing credits, what the distribution limits are, etc).

Buying pre-recorded music

Another option at your disposal is to buy the rights to music that has already been composed. For instance, you my like a specific artist and may think their music has the right tone to work with your movie. To do this, you will need to find the person that owns the song (it’s often not the artist). Start by looking up the production company or the distributor on the CD cover.

Generally speaking, securing the rights to use a certain song in a film can be quite expensive and a complicated legal process (i.e. the rate will change depending on your distribution, you may not be able to use the song for overseas distribution, you may be charged a per second fee which will allow you to only use part of a song etc etc).

Buying popular music can be very expensive so we’re not going to focus much time discussing it.

Royalty free music

As independent filmmakers, your best bet for music is through your own connections, or soon to be made connections with local music talent.  Alternatively, you can order “royalty free music”.

If you buy music from a pre-recorded CD you will likely have to pay “royalties”. This means that the more times you show your film using their music, you’ll need to pay the owner of the song more money. There will be different costs depending on if you showcase their song once versus 100,000 times.

However, royalty free music allows you to play the song as many times as you like for the same price. Better yet, there are many new businesses which are now working towards making royalty free music even more affordable and accessible to filmmakers. The music for a recent short film I shot with very limited distribution only cost $40 (two songs were used which were purchased at $20 each).

The downside of this method is that these companies are trying to turnover as many songs as possible. This means that these songs (due to their accessibility) may be used in countless productions. At student film festivals, it’s not uncommon to hear the same music being played in different films with different casts and crews, so while these songs are great for setting the tone of a film, they will not help you stand out as original. That being said, they offer a great selection of songs and composers are adding new songs all of the time. Often, there are also “download counters” which show you how many people have downloaded a particular track. As a filmmaker you will choose songs based on the following factors:

1. The number of downloads (you may want to find less downloaded songs)

2. The length of the song (some songs are 30 seconds long, other 10 minutes long)

3. The type of music (rock, hip hop, classical, film score)

4. The sound quality and format

If you think royalty free music will help add production value to your film then you might want to consider the companies below

www.revostock.com – $10 – $20 / song (Highly recommend. We have used them in the past and they offer a great service)

http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/ – Varies but about $60 / song

http://www.beatsuite.com/ – $60 / song

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