“Fan Man” from Michele Iversen’s Night Surveillance Series, 2006.
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Finally. A LONG overdue HowSound on scoring — using music in a story. Jonathan Mitchell’s provocative piece about photographer Michele Iversen goes under the HowSound audio microscope.
Jonathan is a master at using music in stories for Studio 360, Radiolab, the PBS science program Nova, and elsewhere. He shows us how he uses music for transitions and mood and he reveals his process — it’s all incredibly helpful if you’re thinking about using music in stories.
If you’re thinking of using music in stories, keep copyright in mind. For broadcast on public radio, use whatever music you want. But, if you audio work is distributed via CD or on the web or in videos, copyright is another story entirely. There is a lot of copyright free music available. And, there’s music you can license under a Creative Commons copyright. Here are just a few you might want to keep in mind for your next production.
Happy scoring!!
Rob
PS – Jonathan has an excellent podcast you should subscribe to — The Truth. He calls them “movies for your ears.” Go listen…. after you listen to this HowSound, of course.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 22:47 — 21.0MB)
Rob is a radio teacher and freelance producer. He's the lead instructor at the
Hi Rob,
I didn’t see a way to e-mail you directly, so I’m writing here to let you know I’ve linked to your excellent site from my rather more modest one (http://www.radiootd.com/?p=1045). Although you’ll probably find out via a WordPress pingback. Anyway, thanks for doing this. It’s fun and interesting and necessary.
All best,
Lars Hoel
Hi,
Something is wrong with the file. When I download it, it is only about a minute long, and the file is only 833kb. Same thing when I play it in my Google Reader and on this page. Can you please tell me how I can get the full file?
Cameron,
Thanks for writing and sorry you’re having trouble.
I just double-checked that file for this episode that I downloaded via iTunes and I didn’t have any problems. Same with listening to the file at the iTunes store.
I also checked the file in the embedded player on the blog, still no problems. And, I clicked the download button on the blog. Again, no problems. Which leads me to say “Hmmmmmmmmm….. ”
What if you quit and re-open your browser or podcatcher? Have you tried a different browser? And, when having problems such as what you are describing, I often just restart my computer to let it know who’s in charge.
I realize these are, perhaps, obvious answers but it’s the best I’ve got right now. Let me know if you continue to have problems and I can ask tech-support to look into it.
Thanks for listening!
Best,
Rob
Thanks, Lars!
Hi, some other sources of copyright free music
- http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/ (organized by genres and moods/feels)
- http://www.jamendo.com/
- http://www.classiccat.net/
- freesoundtrackmusic.com offers tracks that are royalty-free. Some of the tracks available are completely free and can be edited and remixed while others require subscriptions and payment.
-http://freeplaymusic.com/search/category_search.php?t=v&i=1604
- A very nice record with creative commons pop music from all around the world: http://phlow-magazine.com/mp3-music-download/pop/1619-music-from-all-around-the-world
Best,
Xx
Xurxo — Thanks for this list! Sorry it took so long to approve it for posting. It got caught up in the spam filter. Thanks again. — Rob
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