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Choose your real estate video music wisely - keep the lawyers away!

I've noticed in a number of real estate video tours, that popular music is being used quite often as background music.

It's really NOT a good idea to use copyrighted music on your videos, unless you potentially want to invite trouble!

The web is a great place to start to find royalty free music, but some of it is low quality or it just doesn’t match your production style. There are a few sites I recommend that have some great, royalty free music which is either free or reasonably priced. More importantly, it keeps lawyers away!

For sound effects use Findsounds - any sound effect you want this search engine will find it. Google searches websites….findsounds.com finds audio files related to your keywords.

For free music files the podsafe music network is great along with a site called podsafe audio as well as Garageband.com - both of these sites offer many choices. From instrumental to rock to jazz these sites have it all - you’re sure to find something that would be a great background for any video tour. You are completely immune to copyrights or legal issues. Freeplay Music is another site with excellent free music. There are some restrictions with this one, so be sure to read their terms of service.

There are also many companies that sell royalty free music, which can be found on a simple Google search. I have had great luck with music I have purchased from Music Bakery.

Posted by Fred Light - Real Estate Video Tours for MA and NH on 06/05/2007 11:13 PM

Comments (16)

real estate videos, real estate slideshows, real estate virtual tours, royalty free music

16 Comments on Choose your real estate video music wisely - keep the lawyers away!

JUN

2007

Thanks Fred, :)
Never really gave it much thought...but I'm glad YOU did! :)

Your right Fred, that is copyright infringement. Even radio stations pay a fee to use background music in there commercials and news blurps.

Fred thank you for bringing this up. I am assuming the visual tour companies pay a fee to use the music.

JUN

2007

Great advise, thanks for sharing. I always wonder about the photos that people copy and paste as well. Are we stepping on someones toes with that too?

Linda.... Technically, yes. Most photos are copyrighted. Even images taken from Google image search are copyrighted.

In fact, new technology recently developed in Israel allows copyright owners the ability to search and find THEIR material online - even if it has been altered by programs such as Photoshop. If you haven't purchased them and own the rights, you will receive a certified letter from their owners demanding payment. I've seen letters requesting up to $1000 per photo.

There are great sites such as iStockPhoto.com which sell royalty free photos very inexpensively. The sophisticated technology will definitely catch up with those who swipe photos.

Hmmmm, I have never thought about this before. Thanks for sharing!

Actually a preference is to use no music at all. Consider that a lot of people may want to check out homes on the Internet while at work(on breaks of course). If there is music that comes on and blares away, well it is not a good idea for the work environment. And for a lot of people, even if they are not surfing at work (on breaks of course), they just don't like music on virtual tours. They prefer their own sounds of choice while looking at the on-line virtual tours.

Carolin Benjamin

JUN

2007

Yes, if you are airing your vids online only, you can do a search for podsafe music on google - but do check on the restrictions. I currently use www.opuzz.com and have used www.musicbakery.com too before. Both seem to have simple and easy royalty free terms. I agree that www.freeplay.com is has quite a bit of restrictions and some of their music has vocals which don't work well for background music. Don't bother with trying to license popular music. Too much hassle plus it just cost too much.

And watch out for the cheap tunes that sound like bad tracks from old "blue" movies.

JUN

2007

great advice fred...I've found if you call the right music companies, they are more then interestd in giving up some tracks for good background music!!!

AUG

2007

Something I have never considered. Thanks for bringing it up and helping me avoid a potential lawsuit somewhere down the road!!

AUG

2007

Fred, Once again you provide us with solid information and I appreciate the links to the royalty free music. Thanks, Sam Miller

SEP

2007

I have been wondering where to go to get legal, free music. Thanks for doing the researching!!

NOV

2007

Fred, sometimes NO Music works well...the natural "music" of loons crying on a lake, the sound of a river, the sound of a horse by a barn whinnying...natural ambience is neat. So many times, the music beds are corny, or same muzak sounding. Unless you have a driving beat and quick video action, the two don't go well and the average listener/viewer strains to make a production like a hollywood expectation and its not. So rather than come up short with tinny sound tract that is hokey and many times distracting, it is best to use natural one!

DEC

2007

Andrew: That's true... Unfortunately, if you're doing a video tour of a home, the 'natural' sounds are those of the videographer and/ or the realtor walking through the house - and that sounds more like a stalker film than anything.....

DEC

2007

I've bought royalty-free music for our videos from www.Freshmusic.com. I liked that they had Orchestral music which can be a bit hard to find.

Margaret H.

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