Local Forecast – Kevin MacLeodĭo you need elevator music? Do I have the song for you, but it’s also been around the block quite a few times. It’s been used so much it’s become an ironic joke to deploy the song, a way to quickly communicate “this is a parody of cheesy content.” There’s an argument to be made Carefree might be the most-heard royalty-free song. While there are hundreds of royalty free songs featuring ukulele, Carefree has been used to the point where most commentary channels use the term “royalty free ukelele” they mean Carefree. It’s impossible to know for sure how many times this cheery xylophone and ukelele combo has been used across the internet, but it’s certainly been used so much it’s often mocked.
Just like Buddy, both songs have been around for the better part of two decades. Which, by extension, means they’ve also been used hundreds of times by this point. Whether you’re a video editor trying to create a “breaking news” skit or a podcaster trying to ape a news broadcast in your next audio drama, these are the first two music stings you’re most likely to find. They both serve the same purpose as a song and serve the larger point of this piece. Broadcast News – iMovieįor the sake of brevity I’m going to package in Broadcast News with the Kevin MacLeod track NewsSting.
Smarthistory’s videos, for example, select a slice from near the middle of the track that, dodging those well-tread seconds and accidentally evoking memories of snarky movie reviews or wholesome pun-filled recipes. If one scrubs past those first ten seconds, though, there’s sections of the song one would be hard-pressed to identify as being from Buddy. It’s a staple of Red Letter Media’s popular Half in the Bag series, as well as the introduction to Chef John’s Food Wishes recipe videos for the past 13 years. The opening ten seconds of the song has been imprinted on YouTube audience members the world over. Being a stock song that came with Apple’s video editor iMovie, Buddy has been around since 2006. Buddy – iMovieīuddy is an excellent example of how a song can both be used within an inch of its life and still have some use left… if one is willing to put the work in. There’s absolutely no shame in using stock music. That’s right, he rocks a royalty-free outro (after ditching legally-dubious Frasier and Ratatat clips from his early videos, at least).
With millions of subscribers and frequent guest spots on huge channels/television shows, Binging with Babish is a cooking juggernaut on YouTube. We start with a little ice-breaker demonstration that free music can be found anywhere, including content creators who’re racking up major cash. It’s no longer generic background music, it’s “that song from _.”Ĭongratulations, you’ve been bamboozled into a discussion disguised as a listicle! We’re all using the same building blocks to make podcasts! Join me on this adventure.
This doesn’t mean those tracks are entirely off the table, mind you, but it does mean there’s a much higher chance your target audience already has a memory associated with that song. Unfortunately, the more new media matures, the more of a chance an easily-discovered track is something that other, far more popular creators got to first. Squirrels can’t file copyright cease-and-desist letters ( yet).įortunately for us podcasters, the world has kind-hearted musicians who’ve been gracious enough to make hundreds of hours worth of music available royalty free with proper attribution. It’s enough to send a podcaster running for the deep forest, resigned to a life of building microphones out of sticks to interview woodland creatures. Whether an episode is getting millions of downloads or three, it counts as a broadcast that can be accessed the world over, opening the uploader to the terrifyingly tangled spaghetti mess of international copyright law. To say licensing music for podcasts is “tricky” would be an understatement.