What Is Stock Music?
The last time you watched a movie or a TV show, it’s likely that you heard some stock music in the background. Stock music, also known as production music, is an easy solution for media producers who need a good background tune for their projects. Instead of seeking out a composer, producers can license music from stock music libraries for a much lower rate.
Stock music is also an inexpensive alternative to attempting to license popular music. Well-known pieces can cost far more than many individuals and companies can afford. And since stock music is produced in a wide variety of genres and styles, it’s easy to find exactly what you need for any type of project. Hundreds or even thousands of tracks of classical, electronic, humorous and other kinds of music may be available in any one stock music library.
Composers of stock music may also receive royalty fees from performing rights organizations such as ASCAP and BMI. You don’t have to worry about these fees when you license stock music. Instead, these organizations provide annual payouts to composers based on how often a piece of music was used, performed or rebroadcast. Depending on what type of media the pieces are used in, this can turn out to be very lucrative for some artists.
You can use stock music for more than just big projects like TV commercials. Promotional videos, training films, multimedia productions, video games and even video blogs can all benefit from stock music. Think about the last time you saw a video or presentation that had no music at all. It probably didn’t stick with you the way it might have with the addition of a catchy piece of stock music. But with both full-length and shorter broadcast length stock music readily available, there’s no reason for producers not to include an audio track to grab your attention.
When you hear a catchy jingle or favorite TV show theme, you might be hearing stock music. Taking advantage of stock music as an alternative to licensing popular music or having custom music composed makes it much easier for producers to add original, attention-grabbing pieces to their projects. You can even utilize the wide and varied types of stock music available to make your own website, video blog or multimedia productions more appealing and memorable.
