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What's missing from production music?

The Tune Peddler

The Tune Peddler

What do you feel is missing from royalty free music sites overall?
  • What are some features or genres of music you would love to see but never do?
  • Is there a website feature that would make your film making life 10x easier, but never see it?
  • What about releasing a song at multiple tempos and with different mixes (without drums, no orchestra, etc) to give you more freedom when editing?


Mods - I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, if not please move it to the appropriate forum. Thanks
 
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First and foremost what is missing is quality.

As far as the website feature? A really good and very simple tag system - Sounds Like, Instrumentation, etc.

I would also like complete stems by instrument and/or category, perhaps complete construction sets.

I also hate it when the tracks are dripping in reverb; gimme DRY, DRY, DRY!!! It's really easy to add 'verb, but impossible to remove.
 
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What I find most annoying is people making music for the music business but selling it or themselves for use in film/TV. This results in: Music in the wrong format, compression or worse limiting or worse still over compression/limiting, completely wrong levels, no consideration of how the music can be used incidentally with dialogue, etc!

Submixes are more work but good!

G
 
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I don't quite understand what goes into the music making process, but from most of the royalty free music I've sampled, most of it is rather dull, boring or unemotional. Action music lacks tempo and is more likely to send the audience into a coma, romantic music that makes you feel like a pet rock, suspense music that the only suspenseful part is waiting for the end.

I do admit that I've only listened to maybe a little under a dozen packs or sat down to sample a wide selection on a websites preview.

While I do hear the occasional piece that I'd consider using once in a while, most I wouldn't use it unless I had no other choices.

What APE and Alcove may have some of the reasons why this is so?
 
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I really enjoy the way Extreme Music is moving towards having downloadable stems and also build your own mixes.
I also really enjoy the quality of Extreme's library.

But then, they're not royalty free, so I guess it might be hard to compete. I do think there is a lack of high quality royalty free production music..
 
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Of course it's bland and emotionless. What do you expect? It's functional music, not artistic music. That's why I hate it so much and why I avoid it.
If you want those things in your music you should have it made specifically for your project. That way the composer will be able to connect with your idea and really put into it what is needed.

Production music is lacking because it is not art, it is technique, philosophical opposites.

P.S. Sorry but I have a very harsh view on this kind of music, I'm sure lots of the people who do it are capable of great work if put in the right environment, it's the process that is the problem, not the people doing it.
 
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"Is there a website feature that would make your film making life 10x easier, but never see it? "


A description of the mood/tone that the selected song would evoke, or specific types of scenes that it would work best with

(But if I'm not mistaken, your site already does that)
 
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Sweetie said:
What APE and Alcove may have some of the reasons why this is so?
Click to expand...

jax_rox said:
I do think there is a lack of high quality royalty free production music..
Click to expand...

There's also a lack of high quality free 4k cameras, Ferraris and houses! Creating really high quality music takes knowledge, skill, a great deal of talent and high quality (expensive) equipment. Those with really serious talent and skill charge a great deal of money, by the time you get down to the bottom of the business, royalty free, well ... you get what you pay for.

G
 
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I've been "digging deep" for quite a few years; the really good stuff is expensive! Maybe we just have different opinions on what constitutes "very high quality."

Or maybe you just have more time than I do.....


The best music is music that is scored specifically for your project.
 
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i agree with you on that, Alcove, as well as the fact that i've dug deeper. i used to have my wife look for good music when i gave up... there isn't a whole lot of it, which is why i'll only use a composer for big projects
 
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AudioPostExpert said:
There's also a lack of high quality free 4k cameras, Ferraris and houses! Creating really high quality music takes knowledge, skill, a great deal of talent and high quality (expensive) equipment. Those with really serious talent and skill charge a great deal of money, by the time you get down to the bottom of the business, royalty free, well ... you get what you pay for.
Click to expand...

I completely agree, which is why I steer clear if I ever need library/production music. Comparing a library like Extreme's to any of the 'royalty free' libraries is like comparing apples and oranges, and there's good reason for that.

Realistically though, the question was about royalty free music, and royalty free doesn't necessarily mean free.
As well, there's some great Creative Commons music floating around, just often not on the actual 'royalty free' sites.
 
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Royalty-free just means you pay once, up-front for a license. I don't know where the "free" conversation came from. Creative Commons doesn't automatically allow for commercial use either.

As for useful features - "Sounds Like" would be good but only for small libraries since on a large and un-monitored scale it would be abused. "Instruments" is a good one, as is "Tempo" (slow, fast...) even if that's relative.
 
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MetalRenard said:
Royalty-free just means you pay once, up-front for a license.
Click to expand...

Even Royalty Free doesn't always mean Royalty Free; there can be additional charges once you reach a certain distribution level. One library starts charging you when you reach 100,000 units and the rate gets higher with each additional 100k; or they get an amount equal to increments of 100k if it is used in a film that achieves major release/distribution. Always read the fine print carefully.

This is one reason that you don't hear "library" music in major films; it costs about the same to clear a "real" song.

MetalRenard said:
As for useful features - "Sounds Like" would be good but only for small libraries since on a large and un-monitored scale it would be abused. "Instruments" is a good one, as is "Tempo" (slow, fast...) even if that's relative.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but it needs to be fairly specific; Sounds Like - Maroon Five, or Mozart, or Marvin Gaye.... - and a very limited number of Sound Likes.

Tempo should be listed in BPM, not just fast, moderate, slow.
 
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As a pretty big fan/user of your site, I think the best addition would be stems of songs. Keep the whole track for sure, but by offering stems we could really tailor the energy of the track to the video we're working on, bring in drums as it get's bigger, fade out the lead/melody when there's a voiceover etc.
 
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Oh, and tempo and key and timing would be cool too. Make it easier to match pieces, especially as your library goes.

Keep up the good work man, love that you're accepting audience feedback.
 
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