If you are trying to minimize your music budget, the least you could pay for a piece of music for your film is to use either public domain or Creative Commons licensed music. There are very few sources of true public domain music recordings. But there are a decent number of sources for public domain sheet music.
Before you go digging for free or cheap music, though, you should honestly read “Making sure it’s public domain sheet music” and “Avoiding problems with public domain music” from Public Domain Sherpa. It may not be as simple as it seems to grab free music. And also, make sure to look at the license agreements for any site (or piece of music) that you want to use.
Musopen.org has some public domain compositions whose performances have also been dedicated to the public domain. They also have sheet music, so you could record your own performance of the work, but it’s almost exclusively classical. Watch out for the license requirements, some recordings have more restrictive Creative Commons licenses, truly public domain material will be labeled CC PD. Lower quality recordings are free, but higher quality recordings will require a subscription.
PDInfo.com sells public domain sheet music – you will need to pay them money for the sheet music you want and make your own recording of the music, so it’s not totally free, but definitely a budget option. Their collections tend toward popular and traditional songs. You may also be able to find some decent Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) songs online (but be careful to do a full and precise attribution). Please see the “Legal Music for Videos” page on Creative Commons for more particulars.
The article “Soundtracking your indie film” from director Jon Russell Cring suggests that another way to get good music for your indie film is to work with local or up and coming bands. You could either contract with bands in your area or look for new artists on a site like Bandcamp. Assuming that they own the rights to their material, they may be very happy to give a good deal for the exposure of having their music featured in an indie film.
Royalty free music may also be an attractive option, since it generally will be lower cost and takes less legwork to acquire licenses. Take care that your license allows for theatrical distribution rights and rights to reproduce the music connected with the film in all media. Another type of standardized music licensing is called rights managed. This will usually be more specific and restrictive than royalty free, giving you rights for just one film or one type of use for a film in a particular budget range. For more information on the distinctions between royalty free and rights managed, please see “Royalty-Free Music vs. Rights-Managed Music” from TEC 101.
Especially when you are working with creating new versions of songs or working with bands, make sure to keep good chain of title documentation and solid written contracts. Please check out the information on the Hiring a Composer page on this site.
Also, please take a look at the Music and Sounds page on this site for more information and resources.
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