As a powerful influencer of emotions and atmosphere, music can give your piece a needed shot in the arm or be a disastrous shot to the head. But where do you find quality music?
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Of course, there are always the bigger music libraries, such as Network Music & BMG. But if you're reading this blog, that's probably outside your budget. So let's take a look at what's available for under $100.
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*You can't get much cheaper than free. And that's what you'll be able to obtain through
+CSS Music+, using their
+free song promotion+. The quality of the
Super Themes is definitely decent and some of it is actually pretty good. I haven't listened much to their other stuff, but from what I remember, outside of
Super Themes, everything else was blah. The music is royalty-free and full-length tracks are $40 each.
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*Jumping from the bottom of our designated price range to the top is the
+StackTraxx collections+ from Digital Juice. We own three of these and have been very happy with them. The ability to customize each song by adding or subtracting instruments is an invaluable feature and sets these collections apart from the competition. That being said, not all the music is that great and some of it sounds really synthesized. In each of the collections we own, probably 40-50% of the songs are usable for us. But hey, it's still cheaper than getting the same number of songs one by one from CSS Music.
[br] *A royalty-free library that I discovered last year when looking for songs for a non-profit promo vid is
+the Studio Cutz library+. Each CD is only $99, and the quality of the music is fairly impressive for that price range. Now if you're just downloading one song, the price per clip is $59.95. That seems a bit steep to me, but I guess they're wanting you to buy the entire album.
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[br]*Need cheaper? How about $10 a song? That's what you'll find at
+RevoStock+. Each song is only $10. I'm not sure what the tech specs (ie, 44k or 48k) of the downloaded music is - they don't seem to say. I'll have to shoot them an e-mail to find out. More on that later. There's a lot of songs here, but the musical quality definitely seems spotty, though I did find a piece I might download if I needed that style.
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[br]*Last but not least on this post is
+Opuzz+. I was surprised by how nice their sound was considering the price. In my short time checking them out, I heard several songs I was quite impressed with. Definitely check them out if you're just needing a song or two.
