The Rise & Fall of Muzak/DMX

Looks like Ted Nugent finally got his wish. Not the one where we all run around shirtless and kill deer, but rather the one where cheesy string arrangements of Twisted Sister are vanquished forever from elevators. In 1989, Nugent publicly bid $10M to buy the famous provider of 'environmental' music for the sole purpose of shutting it down. Well, it's your lucky day, Ted. On Feb 3rd, Muzak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

We assume this will likely affect rival DMX, which announced almost 2 years ago they would merge with Muzak. With ASCAP, BMI, Warner Music & EMI topping the list of creditors, it's hard to imagine Muzak/DMX salvaging the relationships necessary to grow the business.

Meanwhile, we just keep chugging along with more and more volumes of royalty free audio like On Hold Compilation Vol. 10 (#RFM1674 ) . Our music is current, cool, ideal for retail/on hold usage and requires no ongoing fees. Download royalty free music from our website via subscription, single track purchases or pre-made albums and start using it today!



-Mike Bielenberg

Eulogy for Smooth Jazz

There will always be a disconnect between the direction in which musicians want to evolve vs. the music audiences wish to hear. I once attended a Chuck Mangione concert at Atlanta's Chastain Park where the band's sublime 2 hour performance of classic jazz instrumentals was relegated to background music by an audience far more entertained by Chastain's wine-cheese-and-good-friends vibe - until, of course Mangione performed his 1978 smash hit Feels So Good . Before they closed the show with the song, Chuck angrily muttered into the mic, 'Thanks to you people, this song put my daughter through college.'

With more smooth jazz stations closing everyday (WQCD in New York, WJZZ in Atlanta, WLVE in Miami and many more) I mourn the loss of what seemed like the best marriage of cultural needs and musical chops since David Lee Roth drank his first whiskey shot with Eddie Van Halen. Like 80's glam rock, smooth jazz has been a great way for musical virtuosity to hide in plain sight.

Behind all the Muzak steaminess of Joe Sample's Seven Years of Good Luck (1989) is an L.A. studio musician who's recorded with the likes of Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, B.B. King, and Marvin Gaye.

Behind the polished, predictability of saxophonist Eric Marienthal's Blue Water (2007) is a Berklee grad who's encyclopedic mastery of the bebop language is featured on 2 Grammy-winning recordings by jazz legend Chick Corea ( To the Stars -2004 and GRP Super Live In Concert -1990).

For RoyaltyFreeMusic.com subscribers who wish to download stock music and keep smooth jazz alive on telephones lines everywhere, I recommend this album for musiconhold : Smooth Jazz #4 (#RFM1295) .

But if you're interested in the musical genre we feel is behind the dethroning of smooth jazz, download royalty free music that is the lush, minimalistic electronic soundscapes composed by Juan Sanchez on Ambient/Chill (#SCUND01) .

-Mike Bielenberg

Hold On To Your Customers

We've been improving the quality of the search metadata on our site to help you find and download royalty free music faster than ever. In the process I came across four hidden gems in our royalty-free music catalog that I think would be great music on hold :

Big Blue Jam 10 (#RFM113990)

Corporate Climate 1 (#RFM101413)

Dance Trance 1 (#RFM101420)

Farther Jam Blues 09 (#RFM114055)

As composer Stephen Bashaw clearly knew, quality hold music needs to keep a positive vibe, not put the caller to sleep and not challenge the listener's musical boundaries. Let's face it, being on hold is a much different state of mind than sitting in the audience at a film festival.

-Mike Bielenberg

The Clash Over Cash

I've read about big artists suing their labels over royalty problems with subscription sites like yours. If I subscribe to www.RoyaltyFreeMusic.com , should I worry about tracks going away?

Shelly, WY

You're absolutely right about bands clashing with their labels. The Allman Brothers, for example, are suing Universal Music Group for $13 million claiming 'refusal to pay plaintiffs at the correct royalty rate for its digital exploitation of the Capricorn Masters'. And just wait 'til Phil Spector's lawyers to get that whole murder trail thing off their plate and need to cover the bill. Watch out! Anyhoo, your RoyaltyFreeMusic tracks are safe from such tomfoolery because we own our copyrights outright. That gives us complete control over our royalty free music content (12,000 tracks/12,000 sound effects) so we can cut out the red tape and give you an absolutely gigantic palette of musical options…and the wonderful ability to download royalty free music worry free.

Groovin' to Our Guitar Heroes

You guys listen to royalty free music day in and day out. What kind of music are you into personally?

Todd, TX

Darn thoughtful of you to ask, Todd. Especially with you being imaginary and all. Here's the breakdown. This is not music royalty-free , mind you. Just our favorite bands from major and indie labels:

Linkin Park (Gerren), Jack Johnson (Holly), One Republic (Mike), the MashCats (Alex's original band), Jamiroqui (Hector), Tay Zonday's 'Chocolate Rain ' (Taylor), James Taylor ( Angelo) and Graham Day and Gaolers (Emily).

*I can't resist sharing this musical film clip, directed by Julie Dash. It originally aired on HBO and is simply impossible to describe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUlH1iDMg3Y

Don't Be the Bearer of Errors

I've heard that major media companies won't work with my post-production company without an Errors and Omission policy in place. Why does that matter if I'm a post house?

Luke, CA

It only matters if you're involved with the film at a higher level than just post work, Luke. 'Most major film distributors won't distribute a movie unless the primary production company has at least 10 years of E&O coverage in place.', says Randy Frankel of Frankel & Associates , California's largest provider of production insurance . 'We usually provide that coverage in the form of a 3 year policy that comes with 7 years of what's called 'rights endorsement' coverage. That makes sure that if someone sees the film on DVD 5 years later and says, 'Hey! They used my song without my permission', the distributors' legal costs are covered.' Frankel went on to add that companies doing just a small portion of the post work on a film can sometimes avoid the need for an E&O policy by requesting that their name simply be added to the production company's policy. 'Not many post production companies know that.', Frankel said.

Be sure to check out one of the best royalty free music rock CDs we've released in a long time: Alternative Rock 10( #SCROC10) . It's fresh-out-of-the-oven feel good rock.

Get Down With A New Online Sound

I'm trying to talk my boss into using sound on our company website, but she doesn't want to risk playing songs that drive customers away. What can we do?

Lisa, FL

Once upon a time, experts would have steered you towards creating an immersive Flash microsite with a soundtrack like She Moved Across The Water ( #BF202549 -$59.95). While interactive Flash sites are well-suited for branding campaigns like this Webby-award-winning campaign for the Audi A5 (love that piano elevator music !), they've largely gone the way of dot coms and the Backstreet Boys. You'll have better luck presenting the latest version of www.americanexpress.com to your boss. The design team's use of button sounds, musical stingers and bumper music during the bill paying process makes you feel like you're adding a phone number to your cel phone. It's effective, yet subtle (much like Amex's annual fees). Short, professional, royalty free stock music elements such as Free Fall ( #RFM100746 ”-$9.95) are a great way to subtly say to your users, This step is done. What's next?.

-Mike Bielenberg

Move Your Feat To An Authentic World Beat

I'm doing video segments on each of the global territories in which our company does business. A lot of your world stock music sounds cool, but it's kind of hybrid-sounding. Can you help me find more traditional world music that distinguishes one country from another?

-Hugh, VA



You definitely want to bookmark this page, Hugh. We approached this music search more like a documentary film than a TV spot. The only thing you need after you download royalty free music like this is that announcer guy from those McGraw-Hill school films.

Here are separate links to twelve different www.royaltyfreemusic.com tracks which will instantly place your audience in these countries: Mexico , France , Caribbean Islands , China , Australia , Thailand , Scotland , India , Japan , Ireland , Native American , Africa . Europe, as a whole, can often be represented by royalty free classical music , if you want to go for the whole antiquity vibe.

New On Hold / Background Music Playback Equipment

We are proud to announce a new type of on hold/background music playback equipment available at http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/musiconholdsystems/ . The Messager USB is different from our other available devices because it plays Flash drives instead of red book audio CDs. For example, you can instantly download our On Hold Gold Collection (our most popular musiconhold CDs at low price of $399.00) in MP3 format. Then just load those tracks onto small USB flash drive, plug the drive into the Messager USB and you've got music! This digital playback solution is used by hundreds of small businesses to provide a continuous-play audio source for message on-hold, background music, or any other audio application where high-quality audio playback is required.

Postcards from the (Royalty Free) Edge

The makers of this cute Ikea spot could've saved a bundle on the Vince Guaraldi knock-off soundtrack by instead using the sublime, pianistic smoothness of our $59.95 track Slow Drifting (#BF202645) which can found on the CD Nuthin But Upright . We've heard upright bass tracks like this used as music for websites , especially when clients want to seem timeless, but not too stuffy.

The agency that commissioned this remake of David Bowie's Major Tom for Lincoln Mercury, however, had the right idea. Commissioning a new recording of a well-known song yields the best of both worlds: A chance to say something fresh without being entirely un-familiar. We've had great success with twisted versions of royalty free classical music as well as pristine new versions of well-known public domain music . Check out this full gospel choir's moving performance of The Lord's Prayer (#SC101336) from Big Ensemble Classics (now available for $99.95).

And as much as we'd like to brag about some obscure composition in our massive 10,000 track library of royalty free audio that could've helped this Overstock TV spot reach its full potentia - no can do. This is one of the most touching music spots we've seen in a long time. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBzdUfv0JIs