Pre-Cleared, Licensed Tracks from Audiosocket and Free Tunes from Free Music Archive Are Now Available in One Place

Vimeo has entered the music library business with the launch of the Vimeo Music Store. The 45,000 included tracks, which range in price from free to $98 per track for full commercial use online, can be searched by genre or by some 100 metadata categories covering tempo, mood and instrumentation.
The store’s filter lets users quickly locate tracks tailored to specific scenes in their videos. A search for “Analog Synths + Reggae-Dub + Chill + Medium Slow (60-80),” for example, yielded this track from Lauge & Baba Gnohm called “Manzilla.” By turning on the “Safe Search” toggle you can also screen out those tracks with explicit lyrics.

The casual Vimeo user can license “Manzilla” and some 33,000 other tracks found in partner Audiosocket’s catalog for only $1.99 each, similar to iTunes. Professionals who need a full Web-use license for commercial use of their videos beyond Vimeo, however, must purchase an Audiosocket song for $98 per track. Audiosocket, a boutique licensing agency with offices in Seattle, New Orleans and L.A., represents close to 2,000 indie bands and record labels. The company says it curates only music of the highest quality by avoiding the “cookie-cutter stock” offered elsewhere.

Any video that is entered in an online film festival (other than the Vimeo  Festival & Award) or will appear on an ad-supported Web site requires a commercial license. Those who need more than a blanket Web license to cover distribution on episodic programming or DVD must purchase an additional background or featured license through Audiosocket.

Vimeo’s VP of creative development Blake Whitman acknowledged in the announcement that “finding music to use in your videos can be extremely hard,” and finding decent music for free can “take forever.” Hence, about a quarter of the tracks in the store come without a price tag. An advanced options tab lets you search by price range and isolate some 11,000 tracks of free music sourced through the Free Music Archive, WFMU Radio’s interactive music library, now in beta. Vimeo is using the Free Music Archive’s API to index open-sourced Creative Commons tracks that don’t contain a “No Derivatives” clause in their license and are therefore safe to use on noncommercial video-sharing sites like Vimeo.

Vimeo first introduced Creative Commons soundtrack licensing to its users in 2010, and like Mobygratis.com, Moby’s gift of song to independent filmmakers and film students, the Vimeo Music Store expands the options for struggling creatives who are sharing their works pro bono. By putting the commercial options into the mix, Vimeo has created a flexible music source that should appeal to pros already using its site to share both personal and professional projects.

For more information:
Vimeo Music Store
Audiosocket
Free Music Archive