Music | Dave Courvoisier's Blog

Free Sound Clips

August 17, 2011 By CourVO 4 Comments

No other blog I’ve written has garnered the attention as the one titled: “50+ ROYALTY-FREE STOCK MUSIC SITES”

Since publishing that in May of last year, I’ve had to augment the list to add more and more links.

Typically, I’m contacted by the owner of a site NOT listed, asking if I would please add his site to the list. Apparently word gets around among peers in THAT business, too.

Yesterday, I had a similar request, brought to my attention in the original article’s list of comments. I added the new link to the bottom of the list in the original article, but it appeared to be such a great site, I thought I’d give it special treatment here.

So, check out http://SOUNDBIBLE.com, and tell ‘em Courvo sent ya.

Google Music

May 12, 2011 By CourVO 1 Comment

On the heels of Amazon.com’s new CloudDrive Sound Player (see my blog from Mar 30), Google is launching it’s own “Google Music” service.

This is an inevitable move on Google’s part (next week, they’ll be challenging Purina in the pet food arena…kidding!), as they play catch-up with iTunes…in fact, they may never catch up to Apple, which is DOMINANT in this area, but I’ve learned never to underestimate Google.

Many voice-actors use Sound-Cloud or AudioBoo to share their demos online, on their websites, blogs, or in emails. Now that Amazon and Google are entering this market, too, you can anticipate a rush to add features, maybe some price wars, and growing ease-of-use. At least that’s usually how the free-market system works.

At this point, the Google Music service is fairly rudimentary, in fact all you can do is ask for an invite. Also, most announcements mention the caveat that it’s a free service for now.

But ANYTIME Google enters into a competitive online marketplace it sends ripples. Information Week is already out with a couple of articles about Google Music: “HANDS ON WITH GOOGLE’S MUSIC BETA CLOUD SERVICE“, and “CLOUD MUSIC DEATH MATCH: AMAZON VERSUS GOOGLE“.

(Of course) Mashable has the latest on this, too: Google Music is (finally) Here.

…and below is a YouTube video explaining how it works.

CourVO

Filed Under: Music, Technology, The Cloud Tagged With: .wav, Amazon, Amazon Cloud Drive Sound Player, audioboo, Google, Google Music, mp3, SoundCloiud, VO, voice, voice acting, voice actor, voice artist, voice over, voiceover

Music Packs

March 31, 2011 By CourVO 3 Comments

Ever since I blogged 50+ Royalty-Free Stock Music Sites in May of last year, I’ve had to revisit the site again and again with updates.

Apparently this is a pretty competitive market segment, and all the sites I DIDN’T put on the list would send me their link to be added to the list. That’s why the blog has been augmented several times (scroll to the bottom).

One of the additions was Direct Composer. Andrew Oye of the site just emailed me again the other day to ask for a little help from people like voice over artists to evaluate a new service on his site.

Here’s what he wrote: “…I’m looking to get feedback on it from industry professionals. It’s something a little different than other companies in that I am offering song construction packs of music on my site. Basically it’s an editors dream as the music is already chopped into timed sections with multiple mixes allowing seamless and quick scoring to voice or images. I posted a little vid of it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppb35Xem_Fk

You can go directly to the page on Direct Composer, Oye has described, the video is embedded there as well.

Is this something you can use?

CourVO

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Direct Composer, directcomposer.com, Music, music packs, VO, voice acting, voice actor, voice artist, voice over, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover talent

Another Royalty-Free Music Site

December 15, 2010 By CourVO 1 Comment

Back in May of this year, I blogged a list of 50+ top Royalty-Free Music sites.

The blog has legs. I’ve had to continually add new sites as competing services find my list and realize they aren’t on it.

The latest is Direct Composer.

I have not tried this service, but it seems well thought-out. Let me know if you’ve tried them and what your experience is…and yes, I’ve added them to my original list.

CourVO

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Direct Composer, downloadable music sites, music sites, Royalty Free Music, voice, voice acting, voice actor, voice artist, voice over, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover talent

Just One…uh, Two More

May 11, 2010 By CourVO Leave a Comment

Response to yesterday’s blog, listing 50 Royalty-Free Stock music libraries was enthusiastic.

But inevitably, I’d miss someone important. Guy Lewis of AmbientMusicGarden.com wrote to point out JUST ONE MORE.

Check out Guy’s site. It’s pretty awesome too..in a relaxing sort of way.

————————–

….and 24 hours later, ANOTHER add…but one the author claims is among the top-5. If that’s true, I’m not sure how the Google search missed it (‘could be blogger error!)

At any rate….here ’tis: http://www.royaltyfreemusiclibrary.com/

CourVO

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: ambientmusicgarden.com, music beds, royalty-free, stock music, voice actor, voice artist, voice over, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover talent

50+ Royalty-Free Stock Music Sites

May 10, 2010 By CourVO 25 Comments

Have I mentioned I’m a prodigious list-maker?

I am. My shrink has yet to explain the significance.

With Google around, it may seem a moot point, but then again, Google only provides search results, and the list I have here today is sifted, winnowed, filtered and somewhat vetted.

Voice-Actors are always looking for royalty-free, stock music, music beds, sound effects, looped tracks, and public domain music (must be 1922 or older, BTW).

HERE‘s a great site that explains public domain, copywriting, and music copying principles.

Reading below, you’ll see a list that I’ve compiled from — first — my trusted friends at the VO-BB (Voice Over Bulletin Board), and secondly from a Google search using the terms “royalty-free”, “music-beds”, “public domain”, and “stock music”.

I can tell you that I visited each site, and found them all to be exactly what they claim to be. Not all sites are made the same, but you’ll see a lot of similarities among them: free download samples, graduated pricing structures, an occasional calendar special, packaged specials, and a spectrum of music genres.

Digging into some of the sites will yield sections that offer looped tracks, special effects, stingers, and sound effects.

I’d recommend checking out the first ten-or-so on the list before going deeper…but they’re all genuine.

CourVO