It’s hard to get quality music for video production. There’s lots of good royalty free music but the excellent music seems to be reserved for major motion pictures. Here’s a list of such songs I’d love to have in my library to produce videos with but just don’t have the budget to hire Hans Zimmer type.

Limitations of Stock Music

Predictable Harmony If you’ve heard the intro you tend to have felt the whole song. It’s like when kids learn to play the basic piano song with three keys. Doo Doo Doo Du Du, repeat ad nosism.

Flat intensity It’s either comatose soothing or brainstem overload. It never pulls back enough. Super punch is okay for the ultimate climax but burns out the viewer so cannot hold to long. Comatose does just that, get’s boring and puts them to sleep. These are not good for the main score in a video.

Never pulls back music that swells up doesn’t seem to pull back enough. It keeps the viewer overly stimulated to point you want to shut it off cause it HURTS.

Swell NOT tsunamis I like when a piece is slow, then builds some speed and pulls back. Almost like a wave on the ocean. Stock music tends to build up and only pull back a little, to point of knocking you out of your chair like a boat being thrown around on the ocean not gently going over some waves, and occasionally getting you excited with a bit much of a wave but pulls back before you scream.

Builds too late music needs variety within approximately first 30 seconds. Many wait till nearly a minute to build any intrigue or emotion. It continues with same beat, same instrument, same intensity, BORING. Even after switching it up the main tone is overbearing most of the time. Da da da dum da da da dum, etc. They need to pull that main tone back a bit but they never do. Lower it’s intensity / volume and let something else swell up over it for a bit before bringing the main tone back up for continuity.

Limited instrumentation Stock music doesn’t employ enough instruments. I like to hear one instrument building in background and flow over another then ebb and tide with the others. Adds incredible depth to the piece. Promentory below is an excellent example of this. The string is obviously the star of that piece, however, the weave in some symbols, and that ding ding thing in the background. It really adds some beautiful depth to the piece. I could if anything be a bit shorter but really is a nice feeling to listen to.

Music is shaped by search instead of ears Stock music is often too stylized as a result of trying to match search on stock music websites. It’s too comical (punchy tropical); too dark tones (horror); too corporate or whatever category you’re searching. The music tends to be way too overdone.

Ideal Music

We’re not making disco music here for Ringo Star to bust a move to! The beat should be dynamic, yet maintain a common thread to it feels continuous (harmonize). We want the viewers mind guessing a bit as to what the song will do. This keeps them engaged and not stuck in their thoughts, or distracted by painful music as described above.

Music should be looked at as a brain MAssage. It pushes to moment it might feel like too tension. Your brain feels the energy building to point of jumping just then the music pulls back creating a much deeper release, and lets the listener sink into their seat. Their brain melts away. It then hits a few beats firing the brain back up and swings into a soothing medium pace and swells up and pull back again. The music itself is a dance of swells, beats, instruments, hits, and keeps the mind in a stimulated but relaxed state.

This is not as I mentioned a catchy beat where people dance to it. It’s a gentle ocean accented by a few energetic waves that gently swell over.

I like to have a drum in there establishing some beats (really easy to cut to). However, excellent to keep the viewer intrigued by not always employing the drum (or main instrument with beat). Fade the main beat out as something else builds up, say a piano along with some strings for example. There’s probably multiple ways to do this but not a flat tone, single beat, solitary instrument droning through score.

This would describe the main score for an edit / production. The other songs in the musical score could be flatter and more predictable. Likely what would happen is say you could pull the various beats, instruments, and tones out of the main score and use it say elsewhere in the production. This is a common practice of editors from what I’ve seen.

My thoughts are to have a healing, immersive, brain massage. It FEELS great. The mind becomes clear of thought and immersed in the music. It deepens the experience watching nature scenery and pulls the viewer into another world that we have create. I think this first piece really illustrates that.

The ultimate soundtrack

John Murphy Adagio in D Minor

This is my current favorite for emotion building, somewhat climatic. It plays on the listener, calming soothing undertones that slowly build and swell. Varying beats and hits. Makes it very exicting to cut to and can really build intrige and keep the watcher’s mind second guessing which beat the cut may or may not come on.

This is a quick cut, grade, and mix to the above song.

It builds calmly but strongly. There are swells with slow, and fast tones. Then a nice double tap in the song that allows for some sort of false cuts. The mind thinks you might cut the video on the first beat but then you cut it on the second and it creates incredible intrigue and awe in the mind.

Heroes by Richard Blair-Oliphant

I love how this music is uplifting. It’s not too fast paced, and has some beautiful swells in it. Swells like this allow me to build up the cuts.

Promentory by Trevor Jones

This song also has swells with a nice beat. It’s a little more laid back. Yet allows for nice transitions and cuts yet some action and movement in the edit.