License music for your games
The joy of music
What can you do if you are not a composer and need music for your game? You can always ask for help in online forums or maybe you know someone who can do it. There is also the option of licensing music from stock libraries.
When I needed music for my hobby game in development Sands of Myth I used the website Shockwave-Sound. This is a site that has loads of stock music and sound effects. Everything can be licensed as individually or as part of a larger collection where a discounted price may apply.
How it works
Shockwave-Sound is a site that music composers can upload their work to and let other people buy the rights to use it in their games, podcasts, movies etc. All musical tracks are indexed and marked with keywords so that you can search for words like "egypt", "ancient" or "classic" music if you want to.
Some tracks are bundled as CD collections and buying all these tracks together will usually reduce the price a bit. It is also worth noticing that most music tracks can be found at full length and also as shortened loops that will play repeatedly without pause when the track reaches the end and restarts from the beginning. Looped tracks are often used in computer games as background music.
If you buy anything then you must pay for the license. This is one of the downsides of royalty free music. It is only free to use once you have purchased the initial license. The other downside is that you are not the only one who can license the music. Anyone can buy the rights to the exact same tracks as you have and you may therefore find other games or media that uses the same audio as you. Licensing is an option among many when and you should consider what works best for you and your game.
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June 20th, 2011 - 06:31
I’m going to take a look!