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20. February 2021, posted in Audio / Music, General, Video, Video ProductionWhy you should consider a music licensing provider for video production

Why add music for video production?

If you’ve ever made an image film or any video at all, you probably thought about adding music or sound effects.
An audible component can add emotion to your work and emphasize your message. It can also help you find a rhythm to cut to, or lift your creativity.
It’s just a little more fun to work on a video that contains music and sounds.
That’s why today’s blog is about music for video production and sound effects.

An example of the impact of music on a video

So where can I get those things?

The answer to this question seems simple. “I just go on YouTube and download whatever song I want!”
But as you can imagine, it’s not that simple and to be honest, that’s a good thing. If everyone could just use any song they like in their video productions without paying for it, the music industry would become even more screwed up than it already is. At some point, a lot of bands would just stop bothering to make music and quit for good.
So, back to the question: where DO you get music and sound effects for your projects?

Where do I find sound effects for video and audio production?

My first go-to website for sound effects has been freesound.org for many years. It’s a collective of people who upload all kinds of sounds, some music, ambiance, recordings, whatsoever in different types of licensing. Some files are licensed under an attribution agreement (it means you have to provide a link and/or name of the creator to your project), others are attribution noncommercial and some are creative commons 0 (my favorite license) and therefore free for commercial use!
As great as all of this sounds, there are some downsides. As I mentioned before, freesound is a collective and every user can upload audio. This provides you with a great variety of sounds, but most of them are basically unusable. It takes time to listen through sound file after sound file and reject most of them because of poor audio quality. Also, since the sound files come from different people, you can’t expect a constant sound/recording/audio quality. But if you stay on track, you definitely can get lucky. And don’t forget, a freesound profile is free of charge, so you have nothing to lose.

Where do I find music for video production?

Finding music free for commercial use is a different chapter.
I used to type “music free for commercial use” in google and scroll through dozens of pages to find free music for my video projects. And by free I mean free. I did not want to pay for a single-use license. Not because I did not want to support the artist, but because my budget did just not cover the cost. Music licenses can be pretty expensive.
It was not long ago since I first discovered a flat-rate music licensing provider. The company I talk about is Artlist and I’m confident you’ve already heard of them. The idea is simple. You pay 200 bucks a year and you can download any song in their library together with the necessary license.
Shortly after I learned about Artlist, I found other subscription-based music licensing platforms. Now, there’s a lot of them and they differ in music, price, licensing, and whether they offer sound effects or not. Some of them guarantee you hassle-free YouTube monetization, others lifetime use of their license or new uploads on a daily basis, and even free trials.
Epidemic Sound, Uppbeat, Music Vine, and Artlist are just a few to be mentioned.

How choose the right music library?

As stated before, some of these libraries offer you free trials, so you can try them before you buy them. However, you can also just browse through their music and sound effects and listen to what they have to offer and whether you like their range or not.
They all have their upsides and downsides, but there is one thing that connects them all. They are subscription-based. If there is one thing I hate, it’s fixed costs! As a freelancer, I have to keep my fixed costs as low as possible, for I rarely know how much money I’m gonna make next month. Seven bucks a month don’t sound like a lot, but if you count in every single subscription, they add up to a solid amount. So keeping them low is very important to me.
This is where my music licensing provider of choice comes into play.
I’m talking about Audiio.

Why I chose Audiio as my audio library

I learned about Audiio on Instagram, as they ran an ad: “Lifetime Music Membership”. They had my attention.
I surfed through their library and instantly found tracks I wanted to use in my video projects. Their search engine is similar to others; you can browse by genre, mood, energy, vocals/instrumental, and more. You pick a song you like, choose a fitting license, download it and you are good to go.
A few months ago, they even released their SFX library, also as a perpetual license, so I instantly bought that one too and I am happy with it. My browsing time for sound effects has decreased immensely and my video projects, as well as my audio projects, have increased in quality since.
They are constantly adding new music and new sound effects to their library.
Once, I needed a powerful soundtrack for an image film – preferably punk or metal, but I could not find a fitting piece, so I contacted customer service.
They replied quickly with an apology and assured me, they would expand their library in this direction. They even asked me for specific bands I hoped to find. So that’s pretty cool customer service, I’d say.

Here is a short animated intro I created by only using sound effects from Audiio and a vocal sample:

SincereTV! Live Sessions Animated Intro

Conclusion

There’s a lot of audio libraries out there and all of them have their pros and cons. My advice: go and check out different companies to see if they can offer you the versatility and pricing you expect and then choose one. Or more.
If you think Audiio is the right choice for you, you can use my
affiliate link (← click here) and this discount code to save an extra 10% on any subscription plan (lifetime music/SFX/annual) “SincerePromotions10

I hope I was able to help!
If you liked this post, feel free to leave a comment!
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You can use our contact form for questions of all kinds.

written by Benjamin

One Reply to “Why you should consider a music licensing provider for video production”

  1. I must thank you for the efforts youve put in penning this site. I am hoping to check out the same high-grade blog posts by you in the future as well. In fact, your creative writing abilities has motivated me to get my very own blog now 😉

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