Hello Fellow Developers, I am contemplating using some of the online production music libraries in our next games. Being relatively new to this, I wondered if some of you have explored this area and care to share the lessons learned. Especially: - what to watch out for in terms of licensing? - any online or royalty-free libraries to avoid? - can customers really tell the difference between production and custom music? Please do not use this for promotional purposes. If you have had a good experience, I would like to hear about it too, but please be a genuine developer who has actually used the library. Thank you! Ted Valkov

This question seems a better fit for the lounge since most folks in the Music and Sound forum are composers and sound designers. You'll probably find more game developers with experiences regarding using music libraries. I'd be happy to provide my experience as a contributor to music libraries.... but I have no experience as a game developer using music libraries. I'd be willing to bet most in the Music and Sound forum are in the same situation... but I might be wrong.

As a sound designer/composer I don't have experience with purchasing library music, but this is what I have picked up on the topic.

Positives of library music:

*Ready to use instantly, no waiting for composer to complete work!
*Can reduce cost than having original music composed for your project
*WYHIWYG - What you hear is what you get.


Positives of original music:

*Original music can be written to fit the scene perfectly.
*Original music can be alot more distinctive than library music, which at worst can be rather bland / cliched (not always!).
*Anyone can use library music and the tune they pick could quite possibly have been used for a dozen other projects. Your customers could have easily heard it before.
*Everybody loves a good game soundtrack, good original audio through word of mouth / reviews can add to product sales.
*An original motif or tune can be arranged in dozens of different moods so the same musical idea is carried through the whole game.
*Sometimes with the hours of spent hunting for the right production music for each part, you could have spent that money on a composer telling him/her what exactly you are after.

I guess you have to weigh it all up.

Royalty free music is a mixed bag. You like some you loathe some.

But as for me, I mix and match in Acid Studio Pro. Loops and royalty free music and all. Oh, I mostly used the as background music for machinima I will release later.

But with all these free engines around (I've been burned long time ago by Jamagic, Pie in the sky 3d and 3D RAD - the old one) maybe I make a return to gamedev.