I've been asked to do a photo slide show for work and the boss wants it against a "rousing" or "inspiring" instrumental piece. Preferably orchestral instrumental like "Hoe Down" from Aaron Copeland (think the "beef. it's what's for dinner" ad campaign in the US).

Anyone of you know of resources to get instrumental music pieces that are basically royalty-free and/or public domain performances? I'm looking for actual recordings and not sheet music. Even stock music would be good if it's not outrageously priced (even though I don't know what an outrageous price would be at this point).

Even better would be a site where I could put in a known song and it would list similar sounding pieces. I seem to remember we had a forum discussion on something like this but I can't find it.

Anyway any pointers to resources would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.pandora.com/
You start an account. Tell them what music you like and they find similar music as part of their huge "genome" project.

hey seed dixies???

Ahhhh! That was the site that I remembered discussing in the forums! Eve this is one more reason why you have my undying love!

Not sure if it will help me locate the type of song I need but I'll give it a try.

Is this going to be sold or used as broadcast advertising? If it's just inhouse, I don't think copyright laws really apply. You do have the right to listen to music. You also have the right to listen to music while looking at pictures. I don't think ascap has a leg to stand on as long as you are not profiting from it.

great site when it's working,
http://www.soundsnap.com/

It's doubtful that it would ever be used for broadcast media. Our client demographic isn't one to come to us by TV spot. However the slide show may very well be used as a piece for "kiosk" type use at trade and/or home shows. It would basically be an attention-getter to get people to notice our booth. That's why I was looking for royalty-free and also why I want to use something that's not overly recognizable like "Hoe-Down". We simply don't have the budget to hire a composer to create a score just for us.

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dont click sound art, only morons would concider short sound clips as art,
(oh crap!!! I'm in trouble again)

Too bad, Arc, looks like you're outside the "genome pool."

This is the best place I know of for music scores (Classical).

It was shut down for a while, but now is reopen!

http://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page

Under "browse scores" on the left, go to "composer name" and look for any composer you want. Copland may be difficult, since he is a 20th century composer (most free-domain scores have to be before the early 1920s or something).

Good luck!

I don't know if this is any help regarding usage:

http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/public-domain/

You can also search music there - don't know what it's like tho. You do have to pay something like $40 a track but that's not too bad...!

Thanks Goat!

I don't need Copeland specifically. I was just using him as an example of the type of music that the boss wants for the show. Something with a western feel that has an energetic tempo and an authoritative/powerful feel to it. Basically to allude to energy and confidence. Make sense?



This site looks extremely promising! There's a huge collection there so I'll spend the better part of today and tomorrow going through the lists. Thanks Mellow and everyone else for pointing me to all these resources.

You guys and gals ROCK!

Mellow you are my new favorite mellow chick! I found just what we wanted at royaltyfreemusic.com. The boss sprung for a whole collection instead of getting just the one song. We'll be visiting that site in the future I'm sure.

Now the fun part. Playing with Flash and/or Final Cut Pro.

Thanks again everyone!

Hey great! Glad you found what you were looking for! If it's not against the rules, maybe show us the finished product when yer done?!