I know there are some out there. I keep running across them when I'm not interested, or see a URL mentioned when I'm no where near pencil & paper to write it down.

So where does one go for public domain music, or to create music from public domain bits, for a soundtrack?

Any and all help much appreciated.

Do you mean published compositions, or do you mean sound recordings? If published compositions, anything published prior to 1923 would be in the public domain. If you mean sound recordings, you shouldn't expect to find any in the public domain until 2067. There are exceptions, such as when a sound recording was published without notification during certain years; and unpublished works during certain years are treated differently from published works. And this only applies to the United States (since you are in Saipan, I'm assuming all this holds true for you); copyright terms in other countries vary, and some works in the public domain in the US are not in the public domain elsewhere.

In fact, since this keeps coming up on the forums, I'll post a helpful link:

Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States as of 1 January, 2008

Of course, there are those today who release their compositions and sound recordings into the public domain, or into the Creative Commons for commercial use on the condition of attribution.

This probably hasn't been at all helpful since it's not what you asked. If you'll specify composition or sound recording, I'll be glad to help you find something.

thanks.

I'm looking for recorded music.

Although music is protected by copyright (unless it pre-dates 1923), there is music that is put into the public domain and is available for use. Whether you call this public domain, or music available under the Creative Commons License, it's out there and just the ticket for soundtrack basics.

So far I've found this:
http://www.pdinfo.com/ (you can identify music in the public domain here, and there are a limited number of recordings that you can purchase and get a perpetual use license with the recording. These include styles of music, sound effects, etc. Cost is about $45 for a cd, around $9 for individual song downloads with license).

http://www.splicemusic.com/
this is a place where you can make music from public domain beats, riffs, sounds etc.

But I'm pretty sure there's more.

Anyone with info?

Saipanwriter
http://saipanwriter.blogspot.com

Here's a link list containing sites which feature some sound recordings in the public domain: Public Domain Sherpa

ccMixter has some material available under a Commercial-Attribution license, and occasionally you'll come across something in the public domain.

The Freesound Project has material licensed as Sampling Plus, which allows for some commercial use. The library does include some music/instrument loops, but you won't find songs. Note that technically, the Sampling Plus license is not a sync license, but most of the members take it as implied. Still, you might want to contact the author of a particular work just to be sure of their position if you find a sound you'd like to use more or less as-is in a motion picture.

Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech has a good bit of original work, all of which is available for commercial use under the CC Attribution 3.0 license.

Plus, there are tonnes of royalty free libraries out there, but they do require a paid subscription, of course.

Thanks again!

I've come across the "royalty free" libraries and always got scared when it came to the paid subscription part. Have you had experience with them?

Saipanwriter
http://saipanwriter.blogspot.com

No, I've never tried the libraries myself. I've looked into them for instrument samples, but like you, the subscription fee runs me off. I suppose if I had the money to spare, I might shop around and try one for a year, just to see. I do know many people who use the libraries though, for sound effects, or instrument samples, or what have you, and they seem happy enough with them.

I was thinking about it all the other night, after posting those links, and decided it would make a nice ongoing project for me to record music that people could use in films, free of fees, like the Incompetech site does. If I'm diligent about it, come next Script Frenzy there should be a nice collection of music started. Since there are so many compositions that are currently in the public domain, I shouldn't tax myself too heavily by trying to record all original material, and some people might prefer the old works to anything new.

Wow! Malhoppermas, that would be a great. I'm not musically inclined myself, but find it useful to have music that can be used without additional licensing fees (especially for short films and such).

Saipanwriter
http://saipanwriter.blogspot.com

A quick question on film music, Saipan, do you prefer stereo mixes in your films, or mono mixes? Or do you think I should just make both available for each recording?

Malhoppermas,
Sorry for the delay in responding. I think both is a good choice.

BTW, there are some other links about free music in the useful resources/sites/organizations forum.

Saipanwriter
http://saipanwriter.blogspot.com