A Sound Idea!

Sound effects and music are a vital part of any toon. For now I don't believe I'll get into the effects, as stock effects are a bit easier to come by than music.

"Music isn't hard to come by," you say? It is if you don't want to be slapped with a cease and desist order, or worse, sued if your project starts becoming profitable.

So what's a plucky creator to do? Well, there's always the option of seeking out music that is more or less public domain. In that regaurd the older the music or deader(yes, deader) the original creator the better. It's basically music old enough there's not many around to legally claim it. Aside from the unique vibe it lent the series, that was some of the reasons "Ren & Stimpy" featured such old music. They didn't have to pay for it.

From the realm of Public Domain we move on to "Royalty Free Music". Sorry to say, but "Royalty Free" doesn't mean free. You do have to pay for it. Although once you do the music is yours to do with as you please. All that trademarked licensed music in your favorite movies and such, unless they paid big bucks for the use, the companies likely have to pay out royalties to the artists featured in the sound track.

For the obvious great advantage of Royalty Free saving you from legal issues that may arise from selling a project with someone else's music, there is one big downside. Depending on the company or service providing the royalty free tunes, you may be paying the price of a full CD or more per track, which are sometimes only a few seconds long!!!

Royalty free is a great idea, but why so much? Fact is, it's a VERY niche market. The people behind it all are assorted artists and talented people and companies providing a product to a rather small market in the grand scheme of things. And their clientel are generally various companies, corporations, and studios with the money to afford the big price tags on royalty free tracks and libraries. Also when they sell that music they sell all the rights that go along with it. Some places actually sell tracks exclusively. Meaning that once a client purchases the music they aquire ALL RIGHTS to it. But that's something we little guys need not worry about.

If one is lucky, they can track down companies that offer a selection of free samples. A Google search can generally provide one a good place to start.

In the follow up to this I'll cover a few of the sites and services I've run across in a search for cartooning resources