Bono, Obama & Dylan – The Non Profit Video Production Music Party
Try to watch TV for 5 minutes without hearing a soundtrack. It's nearly impossible. Music adds another layer of depth. A good soundtrack is invaluable to any nonprofit video production. It can create emotion... establish a mood... provide energy, etc. The video below takes you through three samples before and after a soundtrack has been added.
I still get excited every time I add music to a project because I know it's going to take it to another level. Now it's important to remember that you just can't use any music. You need to pay attention to copyright law. Even President Obama had to call up Bono to get permission to use a U2 song in his campaign. But fear not, you don't need to be close personal friends with a rock star to get a good soundtrack for your nonprofit video. There are plenty of royalty free music sites online. And many of them have fantastic music at a very reasonable price. The three soundtracks above were purchased for $14 or less.
My favorite site for music is http://audiojungle.net. The combination of the size of their library and the price is hard to beat. Now there is one caveat. In addition to a lot of great music, there is also a lot of crap. Here are a few steps that will prevent you from getting overwhelmed and allow you to get to quality clips quicker.
Step 1
The first thing I do when looking for a clip is to narrow the library to a specific category of music. I have had a lot of success clicking on "cinematic" "classical" and "corporate".
Step 2
By default, the website will sort the list by the date the clip was added. Click on the sorting drop-down menu and sort the list by sales. Sorting by sales will help weed out a lot of the bad clips. How bad can a clip be if a lot of people have already bought it?
Step 3
The upside of sorting by sales is the clips are good. The downside is that they are very popular. For that reason, I tend to avoid clips that are on the first preview page. I like to toggle at least a few pages in to find a clip that is both good and has fewer miles on it.
Step 4
If you have done steps 1 through 3 and are still struggling to find a clip, another thing I like to do is to find clips with a lot of sales and click on the author link underneath the clip title. This will take you to an author's page. Usually, I can find good clips by the same author that have not been used as much.
Wasn't it Bob Dylan and not Bono who said that all he needed was "three chords and the truth." Well now all you need is $14 and the truth and you've got yourself a great soundtrack.
