One of the most important (and most difficult to obtain) parts of any good film is music.  Not just in an artistic sense that it must match up perfectly with the video, but in a legal sense as well.  Music legal uses, especially in YouTube videos are an especially confusing subject.  Not helping the matter is the fact that any time that you attempt to search for “free music” or even “royalty free music” online you end up with either illegal alternatives or music that is “royalty free” but that you still have to pay money to license.

Over the years, I’ve managed to cobble together a great list of quality websites that offer free and legal royalty free music for use in videos.

Most of these sites have a lot of offer in terms of Royalty Free and Creative Commons licensed music files.  Please note though, that some creative commons licenses do not permit you to use songs in a commercial aspect, so if you plan on making money off a video that you use the music with, make sure it is legal.

This is a list that I have amassed over several years of creating videos.  Most of these sites have a lot to offer in terms of royalty free and creative commons licensed music files.

CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSED MUSIC

- Free music that can usually always be used for non-commercial works and occasionally commercial works as well depending on the license offered with each song.  Expect to usually have to credit the musician by name or a link to their website.

ccmixter.org/ – This is a community music remixing site featuring remixes and samples licensed under Creative Commons licenses.

freesound.org/ – The Freesound Project is just that, free sounds.  They are licensed under the Creative Commons and uploaded collaboratively.  Unlike CCMIXTER, The Freesound Project only concentrates on sounds, not songs.

audiofarm.org/ – Audiofarm is another Creative Commons licensed music website.  There are a lot of options here.

http://www.joshwoodward.com/ - Josh Woodward offers a ton of music for free licensed under the Creative Commons.  Just give him credit and you can use his stuff.  It’s a little more rock and country oriented, but he has some chill stuff too.  A great mix of songs that I have used multiple times.

incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/ - Kevin Macleod offers all of his musical creations under the Creative Commons license.  He has some really great stuff, I’ve used his music in numerous videos.  You can even use his music in your YouTube Partner program videos, just make sure that you link back to his site and give him credit.

soundclick.com – Soundclick offers a lot of great Creative Commons licensed music, all you have to do is dig for it a bit.  Create an account and change the license type under your searching to Creative Commons and you’ll find some good audio.

derekaudette.ottawaarts.com/music.php - Derek Audette has plenty of good songs under the Creative Commons license.  Just give him credit!

opsound.org/ – More Creative Commons licensed music from a variety of artists and genres.  Use the menu on the left under the “Music” heading.

http://www.beatpick.com/ – Beatpick offers a wide variety of licensed music for download.  If you are making a student or non-profit/non-commercial film then you are free to use any song on their site under the creative commons license.   Just create an account and select that option when downloading the music.

http://bush-of-ghosts.com/remix/bush_of_ghosts.htm – Offers creative commons licensed music from their cds.

http://podingtonbear.com/?cat=1 – Podington Bear offers all of their music under the Creative Commons Non-Commercial license so use all their music in Non-commercial works.  All of the music is also free to be used in student films and festivals.

http://www.jamendo.com/en/ – Jamendo offers a lot of free Creative Commons licensed music.

http://www.mobygratis.com/film-music.html – Moby has set aside music for independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short.

TOTALLY FREE/PUBLIC DOMAIN MUSIC

-Free music that is in the public domain and can be used for any works commercial or non-commercial.  Some artists may still ask you to credit them by name or website.

pacdv.com/sounds/free-music.html -Pacdv offers a few free instrumentals for you to use royalty free. They just ask that you mention “Music by pacdv.com/sounds/” in your credits.

sonnyboo.com/music/music.htm - Peter John Ross has a few free songs here that you can use Royalty Free in your videos, just make sure you give him credit for them.

taylorhayward.org/freemusic.htm
Taylor Hayward offers a few piano songs that are completely copyright free so you are free to use them in any way, commercial or non-commercial.  No crediting or any other references required.  Just download and go.

publicdomain4u.com/ - This site contains recordings of songs that were published prior to 1922 and are now in the public domain which means the public is free to copy and use the works in any way.  They may be old, but they’re classics.

openmusicarchive.org/ – This site is a little tricky if you’re in the USA.  It offers public domain musical works that have expired copyrights in the UK.  So, if you live in the UK download away, but if you live in the USA you should read the FAQ on the site before using the music in your video.

archive.org/details/audio – You can get a ton of live recordings of bands here.  Most of the audio can only be used for non-commercial works though.  Check their Music FAQ for more information.

freeproductiontracks.com/ - Free Production Tracks has a few styles of music that can be downloaded for free and can be used for anything, commercial or personal, without any royalty fees.

royaltyfreemusic.com/free-music-resources.html – Most of their stuff costs money but they have a few shorter clips that are totally free for personal/non-commercial use.

internetaudioguy.com/iag/freemusic/freemusic.htm - Internet Audio Guy usually sells a lot of audio, but they have a few nice tracks for download.

http://www.musopen.com/ – Another site that offers music that has had the copyright expired.  You can get a lot of the classics on here and can search by composer.

http://whoismatt.com/curtvernon/ – My friend Curt Vernon has a complete CD that he has recorded for God’s glory.  All of his music is free to use in any way you wish.

http://www.mattmcfarland.com/index.php/musicdownloads.html – McFarland Beats offers music composed by Matt McFarland for free use in any project.  Just credit the songwriter.

Please leave me a comment letting me know if I missed any music sites, I will gladly add more to this list!

Last year, a crowdsourcing video company called Elastic Lab contacted me about doing some freelance video work.  Having never took part in any projects that used buzzwords such as crowdsourcing I didn’t entirely know what to expect, but loving to create videos, I signed up.

My first assignment was simple, to record myself talking about why I used video as a social tool on websites such as Youtube and Vimeo.  Many months after sending off the video, I was notified by Elastic Lab that my video (as well as many others) was available for viewing on their website under the heading “The Culture of Content Creation“.

At Elastic Lab’s request, I have abstained from embedding the video here on my own site and will simply link to their Culture of Content Creation video site.

You can view all of the Culture of Content Creation videos, as well as leave comments, and view the credits on their site. Hopefully at some point in the future I will be able to embed the video on my own site.

I find that many songs are sung today, but not many of them are sung from the heart.  This Spring break, I had the distinct privilege of meeting one of the most inspirational and talented men to walk the earth today.

Curt Vernon describes himself as a 6′9″ ridiculously happy man that lives in a ‘92 Celica.  He is definitely one of the coolest (and tallest) guys that I met in Florida on a mission trip called Beach Reach.  After getting back to Texas, I saw that he had posted a link to his music on his Facebook.  After hearing his songs, I realized that more people needed to hear them.

The Thoroughbred Community Church website leaves this disclaimer above their links to the music,

“WARNING! The lyrics in these songs may cause conviction leading to repentance.”

I honestly believe this is an accurate description of the songs that Curt has created.

All of Curt’s songs from the album, “Songs for The Brood & Me”, are free to stream and download off The Thoroughbred Community Church Website as well as my website here.

Every one of them tells a different story.  You can stream and download all of them below:

You can also download the full CD here! Curt Vernon - Songs For The Brood And Me Full CD - MP3 (160)

Luke 6 Beatitudes

Download Luke 6 Beatitudes: Luke 6 Beatitudes - Curt Vernon MP3 (104)

There’s nothing quite like hearing scripture sang directly.  It’s very powerful.

Mason Jar Jesus

Mason Jar Jesus is an awesome reminder to not put Jesus on the shelf.

Download Mason Jar Jesus: Mason Jar Jesus - Curt Vernon MP3 (96)

Furious Love

Download Furious Love: Furious Love - Curt Vernon - MP3 (97)

Grace

Grace by Curt Vernon, is an attempt at describing the awesome power of God to forgive anyone’s sin, no matter how great.

Download Grace: Grace - Curt Vernon MP3 (101)

If The Sun

Download If The Sun: If The Sun - Curt Vernon MP3 (93)

Fatherless and The Widows

Download Fatherless and The Widows: Fatherless And Widows - Curt Vernon MP3 (97)

Amsterdam

Download Amsterdam: Amsterdam - Curt Vernon MP3 (86)

None of Self and All of Thee

None Of Self And All Of Thee by Curt Vernon is an amazing story of God’s reaching out and pulling us in to him.  First we are entirely self focused; and then gradually, we become entirely focused on Him.

Download None of Self and All of Thee: None of Self and All Of Thee (94)

Pornography Will Murder You

Pornography Will Murder You by Curt Vernon is the perfect example of humanity’s willingness to lust, as well as God’s forgiveness and saving grace from that lust.  It gets really good about 1:55 into the song!

Download Pornography Will Murder You: Pornography Will Murder You - Curt Vernon MP3 (96)

You Are My Rest

Download You Are My Rest: You Are My Rest - Curt Vernon MP3 (90)

Preferences

Preferences by Curt Vernon is a look at God’s saving power from a slightly snarky viewpoint. Definitely a way of looking at the Christian faith that not many people have tried before.

Download Preferences: Preferences - Curt Vernon MP3 (89)

Great and Terrible Day of The LORD

Great and Terrible Day of The LORD by Curt Vernon is an awesome song that pushes the limits of how a worship song is made. Curt begins and ends it with the powerful verse, “If you remember nothing else, I have said to you this night, remember this, God is Love…” and the middle of the song holds the lines, “God I know that your first name is love, but your middle name is wrath, I even love the way you discipline and I love the way you laugh…”

Download Great and Terrible Day of The LORD: Great And Terrible Day of The Lord (87)

Name of The One I Love

Download Name of The One I Love: Name Of The One I Love - Curt Vernon MP3 (94)

Rebel Bride

If you like this song you should really watch the Rebel Bride music video I created.

Download Rebel Bride: Rebel Bride - Curt Vernon MP3 (141)

You can find out more about Curt Vernon at his Myspace and Facebook.

Leave me a comment and let me know which songs inspired you, and how they made you feel.

Welcome to the new WhoIsMatt.com!

It has been over a year since I originally created this site and I figured it was about time for an update.  I originally didn’t anticipate an entire site overhaul but after careful consideration I ended up changing the entire site from the Joomla CMS to the Wordpress blogging software.

There were multiple reasons for this change, but mainly for the ease of use and automation of wordpress as well as the aging nature of my Joomla installation (My Joomla theme was configured for Joomla 1.0 which is over a year old.).  Things that took tedious amounts of time for me with Joomla are now quickly  automated with Wordpress.  Also, Wordpress is more focused on being good at blogging; whereas with Joomla it is more for general website use.  It is simply easier to utilize Wordpress for my needs.  Joomla still holds a special place in my heart though and I have created websites for friends and clients using the CMS.

I would like to put out a big thank you to Jason Schuller at Press75.com.  He supplied the theme and will be updating it soon meaning even more functionality here.

Everything is currently available on the site except for video downloads right now.  This is mainly due to me needing to ftp 9gigs of video to my server.  Once that is done and everything is synced you will be able to download things much more easily than ever before.

Feel free to leave me a comment or contact me about the site!

Thanks for reading and watching.

Curt

The Adoration Poster Board

The last station I was to visit was confession. Curt reminded us that when God tells us to confess, we aren’t supposed to just tell Him; we are to confess to one another as well. With this in mind, we paired off into groups and talked. After confessing to one another, it came time to confess to God as well. To aid in the symbolic imagery of our sin leaving us and being placed on Jesus, there was a giant two-by-four wooden beam cross laying on the floor. We could write our confessions on a piece of paper and nail them to the cross. By the final day, it was nearly impossible to hammer anything because of all the nails. It was a remarkable image of how sinful we are and how much we need the Lord. The coolest part of the confession station was that it was open to the rest of the room. No matter what station you were at; in the background you could always hear hammers driving nails into the cross. It was poignant image and reminder of Jesus taking away my sin.

As our time in the prayer room drew to an end, Curt drew us together and we sang a few more songs. During this time I was in a bit of shock at the awesomeness of prayer and just how much God is capable of doing. I had never looked at prayer that way before, and it started a fire in me to want to pray again and again unceasingly.

When Curt prayed over us, two things he said really hit me:

1. He explained that the Holy Spirit and Son are interceding for us to the father constantly. (Romans 8:26, Romans 8:34) Curt’s prayer for us is that our prayers will echo the son’s prayers. That our prayers might catch up to Jesus’ prayers.

2. Curt said, “I pray that tonight is the farthest that we ever are from you Lord.” When he said that I kinda freaked out a little because I wasn’t sure how to take that statement. Curt’s next statement explained all of it when he said, “I pray that every day after this we are closer to you than we were the day before.” This means he wants us to be closer to God next week when we aren’t on some Spiritual high brought on by Beach Reach. It’s a cool thought.

After he finished praying, Curt reminded us to not feel like we were awesome because we prayed for two hours. He told us of a time when he prayed for 6 hours and felt very accomplished about it. Then he said when we was driving home after praying God spoke to him and said, “You just prayed to me for 6 hours; what about the other 18 in the day?” At that point Curt explained that we are to follow 1 Thessalonians 5:17 and pray unceasingly. Every thought and thing that we say should be filtered through prayer first. I want to do that and am striving to do that.

The effects of the prayer room extended far beyond anything I ever expected and I really saw God’s hand at work both in my own life, and when I was out on the streets of Panama City.

I should have more written soon about the experiences I had on the streets and in the Beach Reach vans. Until then, thanks for reading!

I picked out the outfit for my grandfathers funeral today. No, he isn’t dead yet, though by the time you read this he might be. I find myself torn right now. Part of me knows that he lived a full life and am glad to see him he had on to that big roundup in the sky known as heaven, yet part of me wishes for more time. Time, something that we never seem to have enough of. Time, that I should, could, would, have spent with my grandfather. Time, that I am now spending picking out the outfit that I will wear when I stand next to his grave.

The only thing that is keeping me solidly rooted right now in my thoughts is the knowledge that time isn’t going to stop. And this isn’t the end. My life will still go on, and one day I will see my grandfather again just as I saw him a few days ago. And when I do he will be perfectly fine. But until that time, I am left just wishing for more. This is definitely a conundrum.