Getting Music and Video
First things first: You gotta get the music or whatever media before you can add it to your Web site. Okay, grabbing music off the Web, off a newsgroup, through FTP, or just about any other way that data moves on the Internet is a pretty easy thing to do. However, you face two problems with taking just any old song that you can get your hands on, and the same goes for video. First, if you can snag it with no trouble, so can everyone else — and you presumably want your site to stand out from the crowd. Second, you face the question of copyright. The odds are pretty good that you have no idea who owns the copyright to a song or video that you snag from some Web site or if it’s in the public domain (for everyone to use) instead of under copyright.
You can avoid this copyright mess by following these few simple suggestions:
| ✓ | Get your own custom music or video by hiring professionals to create it for you — totally new and completely unencumbered. That way, you won’t have any legal hassles, and nobody else can use it on another site. |
| ✓ | Buy or download royalty-free music and video collections. |
| ✓ | Use public-domain music and video (if you don’t mind everyone else using the same music or video on countless other Web sites, too). |
| ✓ | Create your own music or video. |
The following sections describe how to get these different types of files for your site.
Finding music houses
Professional music suppliers can accommodate your desires to play unique music on your site, either by selling you custom compositions that they design to serve your particular needs or by providing you with music that they already have on hand for you to buy or license. The exact deal you strike depends on the company’s policy and how much money you’re willing to part with. Some companies license you to use the music only in certain ways (sort of like the way software licenses say things like you can use a program on only a single computer). So when you talk to them, be sure to specify that the music will be used on Web pages. You shouldn’t, however, have to pay any royalties — fees for every time you play the music — just the flat fee when you get the music.
LicenseMusic.com (shown in Figure 9-1) is one good source that sports a useful database of what’s available. Table 9-1 lists some other good Web sites where you can find or order royalty-free music.
| Web Site Name | Web Address |
|---|---|
| Catovah Arts | www.catovah.com |
| Fresh Music Library | www.freshmusic.com |
| LicenseMusic | www.licensemusic.com |
| Music 2 Hues | www.music2hues.com |
| Music Bakery | www.musicbakery.com |
| Nash Music Library | www.nash.co.jp/sod/nml |
| Partners In Rhyme | www.partnersinrhyme.com |
| PBTM Library | www.pbtm.com |
| SONOTON | www.productionmusic.com |
| Royalty Free Music | www.royaltyfree.com |
Finding public-domain music and video
Not all music or video is currently under copyright. Music has been around a long time, and most of it’s in the public domain — meaning that nobody holds the copyright to it. The reverse is true of video. Video is a more recent technology, and the massive proliferation of compact, lightweight video cameras means that most moving pictures have been created within the past few years.
Copyright can prove to be a tricky issue. If you make a mistake, you can end up in federal court, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. Rest assured, however, that very few copyright infringers ever go to prison, although the law provides for that eventuality. On the other hand, some of these copyright infringers find themselves spending all their time talking to lawyers. And paying lawyers. So before you add some public-domain music or video to your Web site, make absolutely sure that it is in the public domain.
Table 9-2 lists some good public-domain music and video sources.
| Web Site Name | Web Address |
|---|---|
| Classical Piano Free Downloads | www.sheetmusic1.com/new.great.music.html |
| Musopen | www.musopen.com |
| PD Info | www.pdinfo.com |
| Public Domain Music | http://pdmusic.org |
| U.S. National Archives | www.archives.gov/research/index.html |
| Virtual Sheet Music | www.virtualsheetmusic.com/Downloads.html |
| Web-Helper.net: Public Domain Music | www.web-helper.net/PDMusic |
Some public domain music sites provide copies of sheet music that you can use to create new recordings of your own. Others have music files that you can download and use right away. There’s a catch, however; a recording of a public domain song is not in the public domain. The written music is, but the recording isn’t. Yes, I’m repeating myself, but it’s critical for you to remember that. The legal reasons are so convoluted that any two lawyers have three opinions about why it’s so, but it’s a fact. So, unless the site specifically states that it’s releasing its music files into the public domain, you probably have to pay for the download. Some sites that charge commercial sites to use their recordings are willing to let noncommercial sites use them for free.