A friend supervises a workplace and had been playing nice music over the speaker system in the hallways and waiting rooms. But they’ve been told that they can no longer play copyrighted music of any kind, so I’m looking for alternatives that are free of cost and royalty free.
What I’ve come across so far isn’t great. On the lower end you have music that sounds like what you’d hear on an elevator, on hold on the phone or a corporate promo video. On the slightly higher end it’s still generic music that gets tedious after a half hour.
I know it’s a big ask, but does anyone have really good free music that can be played in the work place and around customers? Some customers are there for orientation appointments in the college and some are there for counselling.
My friend has their own CDs, but it’s not allowed. Youtube isn’t an option because of the ads. I assume Spotify isn’t an option for the same reason.
Classical music seems like a good choice. Not all recordings are public domain, but because much of the compositions are old as hell it’s easier to find older recordings that are out of copyright. Here’s a list!
That’s great, thank you. The clientele here are on the younger side but I will personally get great use out of that list :)
Edit: actually, there are some great songs there for any age group. I’ll definitely include some in the play list. Thanks again!
Soma.fm!!
i dont think the songs soma.fm plays are generally copyright free, many artists i listen to there have regular releases.
Their terms don’t allow public performances, unfortunately. But I really enjoyed what I heard there so I’ll be keeping a tab open for myself. Thank you :)
Check out soma.fm. Groove Salad is my fav station, there are other great options too. All free.
- I second what @[email protected] suggests
- I knew of Pixabay for images, cool you found they also do music
- Another source: maybe Jamendo? Here’s their page on licensing. I believe those subscription plans support use with fewer limitations & additional features/services, but I think you can start building a library of tracks for free (but I am not an expert)
How about some AI music? You can make or download some in Suno, or Udio. There’s no copyright for AI generated music as far as u know, but may depend on jurisdiction
That’s been challenged by UMG or Warner I think.
It’ll be interesting to see the outcome. I personally don’t agree with that verdict. There should be copyright somewhere. It’s not like computer decides to make music on its own whim, like that monkey who snapped a selfie.
Does it matter whether music was generated by pressing keyboard keys, or typing a prompt? What if i write a program that makes an audio file by matching chords that work well together? What of chords and notes are randomly selected?
a big ask
Hey. When you’re not selling cars, it’s still just ‘a request’.
good free music that can be played in the work place and around customers?
Try the radio: https://radio.garden/
I like radio garden. But it’s not permitted to play radio in a commercial setting that has visiting public. It counts as a public performance and requires a license.
YouTube in Firefox with ublock origin… Not sure if that goes against any licences…
Just about all of them.
My producer, Neigsendoig, has some music you could use. Just search up [at]Neigsendoig using an Invidous instance, and put on a playlist or album of his music. He doesn’t mind if people uses it as long as he’s credited.
I’d only recommend the ones with CC BY as the license, and maybe you could use Wavlake in order to ensure you can credit him properly.
Interesting. I like that music. It’s a little different. The only way I think attribution can really work on their system is if I record myself announcing the tracks. I’m not sure how I feel about that though. I’ll be listening myself anyway, thanks again.
I thought you were doing that over the airwaves. My mistake on that, as that’s an autism moment. For just the store or something along those lines, you don’t need to do so. Sendo is absolutely fine with it. I think CC BY is only enforceable if there’s some sort of video, movie, livestream, etc. that basically has it displayed. For a shop like yours, he can’t control that, since that’s what the license is.
Sometimes, for a few of them, they’re ARR, but he doesn’t mind that either.
Do you really need to play music? I’ve never heard anyone say they will (not) shop at x because they don’t play music.
Yes, the staff and clientele would both like music. It’s not a shop as such, but a set of services. They used to have music in the past until they were alerted to the need for both a commercial license and a public performance license. So due to the budget set by senior powers, the music was dropped. They’re trying to change that now.
