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Where did you find your music for your film?

I'm curious where filmmakers found music for their films and how much some of it cost. Did you license ready made music or did you have someone custom write and record it. If custom made, how did you find them? How much time did they spend creating it and how much did you pay them?
 
Although they were not my projects, I often acted as music supervisor. I would put out a call for composers (and/or contact ones with whom I was familiar), listen to demos, and pick what in my opinion were the better ones for the project. My criteria were composing ability, variety of styles and technical presentation. I would then send the demos and other info of the best eight or so to the director and producer. On feature projects the composer generally had about two or three months to complete composing and recording the score. Sketches and preliminary mixes are due in about one month. I like working with the composer so that the score and sound design work together instead of fighting each other. Final score mixes are due four weeks before the final mix of the film is due. Depending upon the project the composer worked for copy and credit all the way up to a fairly substantial fee, sometimes with a budget for real musicians, the contract negotiated directly between the composer and the producer.

For source music, I generally go through MySpace and a bunch of other sites in my search for suitable songs. The criteria here is style, lyrics and technical presentation. The artist/band signs a festival use contract and gets copy/credit, sometimes with a token appreciation fee. If possible I like to get an instrumental mix and, very unusual these days, a mix that hasn't been compressed to death.

I have also done projects with exclusively library music and source music.
 
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I'm pretty fortunate. I live in a college town with one of the biggest Recording Industry programs in the world. The university has world class facilities. What that means is you can't swing a dead cat in this town without hitting a band doing original music. They are EVERYWHERE. My sound recordist and co-executive producer has the facilitiies to record them. So I have multiple options to find guys to write incidental music, and for soundtrack I just go to one of those bands I like with a "hey guys, we'll give you a pro level recording session for free in exchange for the non-exclusive movie rights to the song".
 
I have friends who are in a few different bands, i tend to get them to record stuff for me because i do not need to pay them for the copy right, also it expands their name......

if you are really finding it difficult to find music go to your local college or school and speak to people in the music department, you will be suprised at the amount of people who will help you if you offer them a credit.
 
Yes, there seems to be an abundance of young(ish) composers who are willing to work for free.

If you want pop/rock music it's best to trawl through MySpace and send nice messages to little bands that you like. Most will work for credit, because any exposure is good.

I suspect you are also interested in getting 'recognisable' songs. This is not easy and very expensive and frankly not worth the bother.
 
Blade_Jones,

I recently licensed music for a short (~7 min.) documentary. The publisher initially wanted $300 for this track, but since it was more of a tribute video (totally non-commercial), I was able to get it for $150.

For the short I'm working on now, I plan to license a track from a relatively well-known musician, and it will run around $500 for commercial use.

Prices vary, but I wanted to share some actual figures to give you an idea.

P.S. This is the publishing company for artists under Sounds Familyre, Great Comfort Records, Asthmatic Kitty (Sufjan Stevens), etc. I would imagine the mainstream publishers are more expensive.
 
Thanks for the info FrankLad. Do you have any links to these songs? PM me if you can. I am curious as to the quality of the songs as well as the production quality of the songs.

A few years back I licensed a song with vocals from a small publisher. The song had been released by an 80's metal band that was signed but never really "made it". I am VERY familiar with 80's metal but I had never heard of this particular band. Nevertheless I had to pay the publisher $600 for this song for my indie feature. Apparently the publisher split the profits 50 / 50 with the band. It's very hard to find well written songs that sound professionally produced. If you can find and negotiate with a band directly then you can save $$ I'm sure. I was able to license some other songs of equal quality for $400 by dealing directly with the bands. There's lots of bands that spend lots of money recording demos in pro studios but they never get signed. The hard part is just finding good songs. 99% of the music out there is crap.
 
There are plenty of places with quality music out there, and plenty of us composers out there too. If you can't afford to pay the fees of big name composers, then there are a number of good production music libraries out there, and if you search the net you will find some good links to individual composers too. Royalty free music libraries are a good option in many cases because the cost is usually very reasonable with most of them. I hope I don't get shot down for mentioning the site I am involved, with but it seems a number of others here have done that, so here it is. http://rocksureoundz.com . However, if you want to keep the music close to home and in context with your film, a good option may well be to search out musicians in your circle of friends that are prepared to let you use their music for the exposure they gain. Many are only too willing to do that.
 
As for the how and where, coming at this from the reverse side of things, when I started focusing on scoring, I put some flyers up at the local film school (here in Pittsburgh). I hooked up with a team for the 48 hour film project to refine my skills (this will be my third year doing it) and did as many student films and small projects that contacted me. An actor on one of those projects was editing another film, and he liked my work so he called me, leading to my first full-length. As far as time, it took me about 3 months to do over an hour of score and two 5-minute songs (though I was given little-to-no direction, tempscore or supervision other than getting approval for drafts). I'm sure future projects will be faster (and I do work a full-time job, so a full-time composer will be a little faster than that).

As far as costs, that's usually VERY negotiable. Many composers like myself are starting out and will work for peanuts (and portfolio pieces!) but good music is a LOT of work. Like anything else in life, find good people and treat them as well as you can. If I feel Director A is taking advantage of me, I won't be encouraged to work with them again. But if director B is paying me much less but treating me much better, I'll want to work on future projects, with the knowledge that if there IS money to be had in the end product, they will do well by me and send some my way.
 
I wrote the musical score for Adam Funn using Logic Pro. It was four terrifying months of self-doubt, late nights, and gallons of Red Bull putting that blasted score together.

Pros: More fitting than pre-recorded music. Cost after software purchase: $0
Cons: Terrifying. Did I mention the self-doubt?
 
I cant work out how to place a post on indie talk (clear as mud) so Im using this comment to post it .(Apologies)
I am about to make my very own 1st film .It will be a little bit different .It may not get past my sitting room but what if it did go Viral??
I dont want to do anything wrong so I need advice.please...
I will use about 20 seconds of music from a big Rock band from thier album in 1968. as intro and finish,
Later I will have a scene of an audience watching a concert which is a DVD of an American Folk singer in a concert in Sweden in 1966.
Do I need to get permission to use this music? If so, from who do I get it.(in Australia)
Do I have to pay for the use of it? If so how much do they charge to use this music..No one around me seems to know anything and I get heaps of conflicting advice from heaps of different people who say they are making films.... I wouild Grateful for some constructive advise in this area.
Thanking You ,
Silverbird.
 
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