-
Royalty-free music for pole videos
I know this causes dancers a lot of grief – putting together a nice video only to have Facebook, YouTube or some other strip out the music and send you a stern warning about whose music rights you just violated.
I thought I’d let you guys know about the Creative Commons search engine. Creative Commons is a different kind of rights-licensing model often used by indie or small-time artists who publish their work for free to the internet. Materials with Creative Commons licenses may be used and published by other internet users (following certain rules – sometimes you have to give credit, sometimes they don’t allow you to do any modification, sometimes you have to ask permission, etc.). I use this service a lot when I look for stock photos for my blog and for flyers, etc. (Because I’m too cheap for iStockPhoto.)
Basically, go to http://search.creativecommons.org/, put your search term in the top field, and select one of the libraries below to do your search. There are three on there for music, Jamendo, CCMixter and Soundcloud. You can listen to each track from the results page and see what the rules are for that piece.
Now obviously only certain music falls under Creative Commons, so this isn’t a sneakaround for when you want to use a specific song from a big-time, big-label artist. But if you’re just looking for royalty-free music to use in the background of a practice clips compilation or something, this is one source you can use to find some. I just did a search for “dubstep” as a test and found a lot of remixes and originals to choose from.
I have NOT tested at all whether this still trips the automatic YouTube alarms. I suggest it because under Creative Commons, if you do get a takedown notice, you can actually contest it with evidence that the license allows it.
Anyway, hope this helps with at least some of the frustration of publishing your pole videos!
-
2 Replies
-
I’ve used this before. To answer you about whether it trips the YouTube warnings, in the past I have not had any issues. For businesses, you can not use the work in your classes unless the contributor specifically writes their work may be used for that purpose. Be sure to read the fine print associated with the Creative Commons music so you understand what and how you are allowed to use the music provided.
-
Good point Kobajo, yes some Creative Commons music may not be used for commercial purposes. There’s a check box on the main search page where you can select “I want content that I can use for commercial purposes” if that’s your goal.
The “Can I play it in my class” and “Can I use it in a video” issues are related, but fall under different governing laws.
Log in to reply.