Hey, there, and welcome to the non-techie video tip podcast series.
My name is Ozzy Eyre and I’m your non-techie guide to the wonderful world of video creation.
Before we get started on today’s tip – if you’ve been a regular listener from the start, you’ll know that, over the last few shows, I’ve been trying on different tunes for size – and today’s the day you get to decide which of those 7 tunes I’ve used gets to become the theme tune for the rest of the non-techie video series – well, that is unless we decide we want a change and do this whole thing again. Anyway, don’t let the power go to your head!
Later in the show, I’ll play a snatch from all 7 tunes again as a reminder and then I’ll give you my email address for you to write with your vote.
Before that I talk more about music, though, I’m going to talk more about music!
(See what I did there – I don’t just throw this stuff together)
Specifically, I want to talk about using music in your videos.
Music can change the whole feel of a video and, properly selected, a theme tune or some background music can turn a good video into a great video.
But I want to inject a note of caution here. Don’t think you can just go and download your favourite tracks and use them. Unless you have the rights to use music, the penalties can be very severe indeed – like ‘lose your house’ type severe. You may think you won’t get caught but music recognition software is getting ever more sophisticated and, if you’ve got your video up online and you’ve used music to which you’re not entitled, chances are it will be found.
So, my advice would be don’t do it – and if you already have videos out there with music onthat you think may be breaking the rules, I’d suggest you take them down.
So, does that mean you can never have music on your videos? Of course not! What you need to look for is royalty-free music that grants you unlimited use. Now, this can be music you pay for, or it can even be had, quite legally, for free.
And a great place to look for free music is YouTube itself – but not YT videos. No, YouTube has an entire section where you can access free music and sound effects. Just go to https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music – I’ll put the full link in the show notes and you will find hundreds of tracks.
You can filter them, too – search by genre, mood, instrument and track duration. You can also filter by whether or not attribution is required – if attribution is required, be sure to give the required credit. You’ll know if a track requires attribution because there will be an icon showing the silhouette of a person in a black circle on the listing.
Chances are, you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for there on YouTube but, just in case you don’t, another place you can look is http://incompetech.com which features the work of an incredibly talented guy, Kevin Macleod – in fact, if you’ve been reading the show notes to these podcasts, you’ll have noticed I’ve been giving a credit to Mr Macleod and incompetech.com each day.
With incompetech.com, you get the choice of either paying for the track or giving a credit. Here’s the decision process I go through in those circumstances. If I’m using the music on a commercial project, then I’d often rather pay and not have to give the credit. If, on the other hand, I’m just putting something together as a personal project or creating a freebie, like this podcast, then I’m more than happy to keep my money in my pocket and give the appropriate credit.
So, with that, how about we listen again to the tracks we’ve heard so far so you can cast your vote? Let’s start with Isolated…
Next is Morocco…
The third tune is River Fire…
And now we have Ripples…
Fifth on the list is Spirit of the Girl…
Number 6 is Improbable…
And, finally, number 7 on our list is Nightdreams…
Now you’ve heard them all it’s time to cast your vote – and you can do that by emailing me at ozzy at elitevideoacademy dot com – that’s also the address if you have any questions.
And, don’t forget, if you would like free non-techie video tips delivered direct to your inbox, just head over to https://elitevideoacademy.com/non-techie-videos – leave your detail in the box and I’ll do the rest.
I’ll be back again with another tip soon – in the meantime I can’t wait to find out which is your favourite tune.
I’ve been Ozzy Eyre, your non-techie guide to the wonderful world of video creation – take care and make some video!
