www.scottbuckley.com.au features a small library of original cinematic music, ideal for use indie filmmaking, game design & media projects.
Creative Commons means music on this site can be used for free, as long as your project is non-commercial.
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Another uplifting orchestral cue, featuring synths and percussion.
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An uplifting cinematic orchestral cue, featuring ethnic winds, vocals, percussion and strings.
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An aggressive rock-tronica track, featuring riffing guitars, and driving drums and synths.
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A dark rock track, featuring moody electric guitars, driving drums & subtle distorted synths.
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A folky tune featuring acoustic guitar, ukulele, and well, pretty much anything I could find lying around.
Over the years I’ve dabbled with the use of quite a few websites for music distribution. But the result of this is that my music is scattered all over the net… and it’s not all the same tracks either… a few tracks here, a few different tracks there… it’s a bit of a mess, really.
So, I’m in the process of implementing a way of organising my music so it is a bit more centralised. This means I get to listen to a whole lot of my despairingly old tracks… some of which I hardly remember creating. There is something very self-serving about listening to your own music, but I barely remember these tracks, so it’s like listening for the first time again. It’s fun!
So, over the next few weeks I’m going to share them with you. Some of you probably have heard these tracks before – you were there the first time around. But many of you probably weren’t… so some of them warrant a second showing, considering the whole aim of my music these days is to get it used (remember, its FREE for all you non-commercialites!). Some show their age, but aren’t too bad.
Image: “Blue Summer Song” by Gate-to-Nowhere
First up is a track I made during university (the first time around, as a ‘music’ student), called ‘Soul Searcher’. If I remember correctly, this track was the result of a bit of an experiment in vocal recording, that ended up quite atmospheric. Yes, it’s me warbling away but don’t worry, I’m not THAT bad of a vocalist.
Soul Searcher | DOWNLOAD >>
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There is about 6-7 lines which interweave with each other… occasionally swelling and harmonising to create some nice moments. I remember showing this track in class – everyone loved it, but it raised the political issue of whether a white guy is allowed to sing non-sensical vocals that sound vaguely ethnic. I didn’t really think about that when I was playing around with it, but it made me feel a little bad. But only a little.
Moral of this track…
Like much of my music, this was the result of simple improvisation. I recommend you guys try it sometime, maybe with an instrument you are comfortable with – sax, clarinet, vibraphone… whatever. Stick a mic in front of it and hit record. You just never know what might come out.
By the way… if you do, post me a link!
-s
‘Soul Searcher is released under the Creative Commons “Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported” License. For other licenses (including commercial), please contact Scott.
Anyone who has followed me for a while knows that I like to give my music to the world for use in any way it see’s fit; so as long as the project the music is used in is non-commercial, and I’m credited. And I’m not the only one – the rise of the internet has seen plenty of artists give away their creative works (for both commercial and non-commercial use) to other artists for manipulation and translation – ‘remixed’, I guess is a good word for it.
But I’ve never really know what rights I’m giving away when I do this. Traditional copyright law is somewhat of a legend… people believe it exists, but under what circumstances no-one really knows. I’m not an intellectual property lawyer, as aren’t most other musicians and artists – so what rights are we giving away when we ‘give away’ our works?
In response to this, I’ve chosen to adopt the Creative Commons ‘Attribution-NonCommercial License’ for music downloads available on this website. This means my music is freely available for use in projects on the condition that the project is non-commercial, and I am credited. See… nothing has changed, except now I have a clearly understandable legal framework to back it up. Good for me.
COMMONLY CREATIVE
‘Creative Commons’ you ask? For those of you who have never heard of ‘CC’, it’s a US-based not-for-profit organisation that endeavours to “strengthen the public domain” (Suthersanen, 2007). What does this mean? CC allows artists to release their creative work to the wider community for free – under a legally-binding license, featuring certain conditions chosen by the artist. These conditions can include:
Certain combinations of these conditions create different types of licenses, allowing for different uses of the work. You can read more about them here at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/.
WHY USE CC?
The best idea that permeates from CC is that it provides clarity about what constitutes fair use of a creative work. Each license has a ‘human-readable’ version of the code (alongside lawyer-readable fine-print) that allows for a quick understanding of how a work can be used under a certain license (check out the license deed for the Attribution-NonCommercial License, which I’ve adopted).
CC is also good news for people searching for works to use, as it is increasing the availability of creative works in the public domain, as more artists adopt the scheme. This is especially so for indie filmmakers and media artists, who are always on the lookout for great sources of music & art with which they are legally allowed to use. I also think more YouTube users should hunt for CC-authorised materials for their videos as well – too many times do I see a video with music that has been illegally used without permission (see another post I made about this) A search tool for finding CC works is available on the CC website – http://search.creativecommons.org/.
CC also helps with distribution of a work – nothing beats a free download. And with the ability for other users to help with distribution via their own works and file-sharing, it could become a lucrative way of getting your work known in the wider community. CC is also a bit of a brand these days – a lot of people recognise the name and the logo – so it’s always a good way of branding your work with something instantly recognisable.
But is CC legally binding? Yup. In 2006, a Dutch court upheld a ruling that involved a Creative Common license – proving that Creative Commons is legally binding (https://creativecommons.org/press-releases/entry/5822). That said – not every part of these licenses have been tested in a legal setting yet – but each license provides certain provisions so that if certain parts are unenforceable, that portion is removed but the rest of the license remains intact.
LIMITATIONS OF CC
In my opinion, CC is great for all things non-commercial; but in the area of commercial licensing (for projects that make money), CC falls short. It does not offer the robust protection that more widely used legal contracts offer. But CC was not designed for commercial use – it was designed to bolster works available in the public domain, and I think it does so very successfully.
And a word of caution – once a work is released under a certain license, that license is irrevocable. That means that even if you chose to stop distributing a work after it has been released, you cannot stop anyone from using that work under the provisions set out in the original license. I guess this isn’t a limitation – it’s actually a form of protection for the end user – but it is something you need to carefully consider before placing a work under a license, especially when your license can allow for commercial use of the work.
ITS A CHOICE…
I chose CC because I felt the license allows my music to be used in a way that maximises distribution and creative use, with the protection that comes with good legal code and a recognisable brand. Best of all – these licenses are non-exclusive; as the original copyright holder I am still able to sell my music without violating the conditions of my own license.
Whether it might suit you is a completely different story, and it is up to you to ask yourself this question. Check out the Creative Commons website and see for yourself what they are doing to push the boundaries of creative copyright, and see whether any of it applies to you. I found that some of the Case Studies featured on the Australian CC website was very useful in helping me decide on how I might utilise CC. Check it out yourself at: http://creativecommons.org.au/learn-more/publications/casestudiesvol1.
-s
References
Creative Commons (2011). “Frequently Asked Questions.” Retrieved 30/03, 2011, from http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ.
Commons, C. (2011). “Case Studies Vol. 1.” Retrieved 30/03, 2011, from http://creativecommons.org.au/learn-more/publications/casestudiesvol1.
Suthersanen, U. (2007). “Creative Commons – The Other Way?” Learned Publishing 20(1): 59-68.
When I listened to some CD by a guy named John Williams all those years ago, I didn’t expect to end up here. Really, I’m not sure where here is, but it’s here. Right here, in the Biological Sciences library, studying to become a scientist at the University of Queensland.
That CD I bought off my friend Aaron all those years ago was Star Wars: Episode IV. I memorised the entire two-disc set, and can still hum the whole thing off by heart (noone ever asks me to do it at parties, for some strange reason). That sent me on a huge whirlwind musical excursion, that made me obsessed with all things MIDI and film, and all I wanted to be when I grew up was a film composer. It has seen me to LA and back, and has seen my music used in all sorts of things; from games to feature films, to film trailers and TV advertising.
With the success I’ve had, and the skill’s I’ve acquired, you’d think I’d be pretty determined to continue… to get my name in lights, so to speak.
But no. Music as a job is fraught with danger, my friends; amongst a multitude, the danger of hating music. With a fiery passion.
I was at that point for a while – I couldn’t touch a keyboard without hating what came out. Something like that makes you really think about the reasons why you get involved with music… why you put yourself through the pain of trying to be creative if you hate what you are creating.
So, here I am, typing at the library at uni, studying to become a scientist. No more pressure to write music I hate, or even to write at all.
But I’ve gotta tell ya – I haven’t hated what I’ve been creating lately…
-s
Q. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? ARE YOU STILL GONNA WRITE MUSIC?
A. Hell yes! This time around though, I’m hoping to make all my music accessible to indy film and game makers – my aim is to make a sort of free production music library for use in non-commercial productions. I want my music used – and I don’t really care by whom or in what, as long as I know about it. I’ve gotta write about something on this site, don’t I?
Stay tuned for some new music coming soon. Quite alot of it, actually… 
-s
The inevitability of putting your own music up on the net for people to use for free (under certain conditions), is that people eventually use your music in something. It happens reasonably frequently, so I’ve decided: If you’ve got a project that uses my music – tell me and I’ll post about it.
Sites like
YouTube and Vimeo have given filmmakers the world over the chance to showcase their filmmaking abilities to the masses. But I gotta tell ya folks, there are plenty of you out there that illegally use music in the process. Here’s a few reasons why you should acquire music for your next project ‘legally’.
