How to Find Free or Cheap Stock Photography and Music for Your Promos
You're just about to make your first commercial for your business. You have a limited budget, but a great deal of creative reserves. There's this Beastie Boys song you know will be perfect -- surely they won't mind if you throw it in?
Not so fast. When you use copyrighted media in your projects you run a big risk -- something entrepreneur Debbie Sterling recently learned when she employed a version of the Beastie Boys' song "Girls" in a spot touting her company, GoldieBlox, which creates construction and engineering-related kits for girls.
The snappy video was hugely popular (and a part of the Intuit Small Business Big Game competition), netting millions of views on YouTube shortly after its unveiling, but it also raised the ire of the surviving members of the legendary hip hop group, who have very strong feelings about the way their music is used in advertising. Whether Goldieblox's used of the song is fair use or an outright ripoff will be hashed out in the courts, but the entire saga should serve as a cautionary tale to all entrepreneurs looking to raise their profiles.
When you make content for social media, you want to to get attention for the right reasons. You also want to sidestep the legal hassle and cost of legal proceedings. That's why it pays to look into permission before you use a song or a photograph or any other type of media. You'll save yourself a lot of headache if your spot becomes massively popular -- and a disgruntled rights holder comes calling looking for a slice of the action.
So what if you are creating a video and don't have the budget to secure the rights to a song from Jay Z's record company?
What was a setback for GoldieBlox doesn't need to be for you -- a number of solutions exist for those who are working on a shoestring budget but still want a professional end product.
Here are a few ideas:
Photography
Buying stock photographs can be prohibitively expensive, especially when you are shopping from the major stock houses. Instead, I try to use material that I've shot, or head over to the Creative Commons search tool to go through relevant imagery on Flickr.
"Creative Commons" is a type of license that can be a boon to those working on small budgets. According to the site: "Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators." Which means it sometime affords creators access to work that they can remix, so long as they credit the original author.
Creative Commons offers a number of different licenses, some of which will and will not work with commercial endeavors, so each one carefully to know if you've found a good fit for your project.
Stock footage
The Prelinger Archive is a fascinating online archive of training films, PSAs, and other ephemeral films that are largely in the public domain. This stock footage is free and can be used in all sorts of projects to highly engaging effect.
Music
Music -- don't end up in legal hell because you used a copyrighted track! Options for free or low-cost music backing tracks is constantly proliferating.
Jamendo is a clearinghouse for up-and-coming and independent musicians and their tracks. It's well-indexed by different genres of music -- you can search for the style or mood you're looking for, whether you want lyrics or not. Much of the material is licensed under Creative Commons, so you can use it for free or cheap (if your production meets certain conditions).
Royaltyfreemusic.com - Note that "royalty free" doesn't mean FREE, but it can mean less expensive that lining up a rights negotiation with a label, for instance.
Royalty Free Breakbeats (iTunes link) - Breakbeats can work really well to liven up a spot or promo.
Apple library - the library of music that comes with iMovie and Final Cut can definitely work in a pinch. It is used by a lot of people so if you want something original, keep searching.
Not so fast. When you use copyrighted media in your projects you run a big risk -- something entrepreneur Debbie Sterling recently learned when she employed a version of the Beastie Boys' song "Girls" in a spot touting her company, GoldieBlox, which creates construction and engineering-related kits for girls.
The snappy video was hugely popular (and a part of the Intuit Small Business Big Game competition), netting millions of views on YouTube shortly after its unveiling, but it also raised the ire of the surviving members of the legendary hip hop group, who have very strong feelings about the way their music is used in advertising. Whether Goldieblox's used of the song is fair use or an outright ripoff will be hashed out in the courts, but the entire saga should serve as a cautionary tale to all entrepreneurs looking to raise their profiles.
When you make content for social media, you want to to get attention for the right reasons. You also want to sidestep the legal hassle and cost of legal proceedings. That's why it pays to look into permission before you use a song or a photograph or any other type of media. You'll save yourself a lot of headache if your spot becomes massively popular -- and a disgruntled rights holder comes calling looking for a slice of the action.
So what if you are creating a video and don't have the budget to secure the rights to a song from Jay Z's record company?
What was a setback for GoldieBlox doesn't need to be for you -- a number of solutions exist for those who are working on a shoestring budget but still want a professional end product.
Here are a few ideas:
Photography
Buying stock photographs can be prohibitively expensive, especially when you are shopping from the major stock houses. Instead, I try to use material that I've shot, or head over to the Creative Commons search tool to go through relevant imagery on Flickr.
"Creative Commons" is a type of license that can be a boon to those working on small budgets. According to the site: "Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators." Which means it sometime affords creators access to work that they can remix, so long as they credit the original author.
Creative Commons offers a number of different licenses, some of which will and will not work with commercial endeavors, so each one carefully to know if you've found a good fit for your project.
Stock footage
The Prelinger Archive is a fascinating online archive of training films, PSAs, and other ephemeral films that are largely in the public domain. This stock footage is free and can be used in all sorts of projects to highly engaging effect.
Music
Music -- don't end up in legal hell because you used a copyrighted track! Options for free or low-cost music backing tracks is constantly proliferating.
Jamendo is a clearinghouse for up-and-coming and independent musicians and their tracks. It's well-indexed by different genres of music -- you can search for the style or mood you're looking for, whether you want lyrics or not. Much of the material is licensed under Creative Commons, so you can use it for free or cheap (if your production meets certain conditions).
Royaltyfreemusic.com - Note that "royalty free" doesn't mean FREE, but it can mean less expensive that lining up a rights negotiation with a label, for instance.
Royalty Free Breakbeats (iTunes link) - Breakbeats can work really well to liven up a spot or promo.
Apple library - the library of music that comes with iMovie and Final Cut can definitely work in a pinch. It is used by a lot of people so if you want something original, keep searching.