20,000 New Tracks Added As Its Library Surpasses Two Hundred Thousand Tracks

AudioMicro.com, a crowd-sourced marketplace for royalty free music and sound effects licensing, announces that its users can now download more than 20,000 new production music tracks from its online library.  AudioMicro users have immediate access to 20,000 fresh tracks spanning a comprehensive range of musical genres and styles.  The new offering has been dubbed, “The Platinum Collection”, and features a selection of hand picked, award winning production music.    Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most confusing topics we receive questions about is on the legalities of using copyrighted material. Sometimes it seems to be OK, other times it doesn’t. Sometimes we’ll get a letter complaining about a take-down notice from YouTube because the writers used 10-seconds of a popular song for their children’s birthday video, while we report in other areas of our content about viral videos of full songs getting millions of hits.. and the videos are allowed to stay up.

Yes, the copyright law are as clear as mud, I like to say. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently read a story stating that old vinyl records, (you know, what we used to call L.P.s), are making a comeback. And not just the old fogies, but new releases. When audio cassette tapes entered the market, no one thought they’d take over the better-quality recordings found on vinyl, but when CDs came along, we were all hooked.  Or were we hood-winked? Yes, CDs offered instant track access, and they didn’t pop or crackle, but, boy-oh-boy, when a CD cracked, your “album” was toast.  At least with vinyl you could skip the needle over the scratch. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been having an interesting conversation with school instructor Dylan Bennett over a blog post I made on Monday about a viral video on YouTube.

The video is a well choreographed piece by film students in Montreal using a popular song.

Mr. Bennett was commenting about how, as a video production instructor, he strives to teach his students not only the video producing skills and techniques but also the rules and ethics that go along with being a video producer.

We often write in Videomaker about how legally and ethically one shouldn’t use copyright music without permission,  and how, even recently, YouTube has taken down people’s fun videos because they used 10-seconds of a song without permission from the copyright holder.  But, apparently, the rules are changing.

Mr. Bennett sent me this blog post that Google put up this week, saying it’s OK to use copyright music, TV shows, or other approved media on YouTube… “if”… and it’s a big IF.  If the record company/TV network/copyright holder sees a financial benefit to them.

Read the rest of this entry »

Reprinted from a SmartSound press release

NORTHRIDGE, CA–(Marketwire – August 25, 2009) – SmartSound Software, Inc., the leading innovator of creative music solutions for the video industry, announced today that its popular Sonicfire Pro 5 plug-in supports Apple Final Cut Pro 7, released last month. The groundbreaking plug-in, which was unveiled at this year’s NAB show, allows Final Cut Pro users to seamlessly add complete customized soundtracks to their Final Cut Pro projects in a few simple steps.

At this year’s Final Cut Pro Users Group (FCPUG) NAB Supermeet in Las Vegas, world-renowned Final Cut Pro expert, Larry Jordan, was greeted by an energetic crowd of over a thousand Final Cut Pro users waiting in anticipation to watch a private demonstration of SmartSound’s new plug-in. In an exclusive video of the event, only recently released to the public by MacVideo.tv, Jordan explains how Final Cut Pro users can save valuable time and resources by utilizing SmartSound’s patented software, Sonicfire Pro 5.

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Using SmartSound’s Sonicfire Pro 5 plug-in, users are able to import the markers and in/out points from a Final Cut Pro video sequence. Any track and arrangement selected from the entire SmartSound music library will already be perfectly timed to fit within any markers on the sequence. In addition to fitting the track perfectly to length, users can take advantage of Sonicfire Pro 5′s many innovative features such as Timing Control and Mood Mapping, which allow users to easily adjust the timing of specific beats and control individual instrument volume levels, instantly mapped to their video. After customizing music to match their visuals, users can then simply click “Send To” and their music track will be added directly into their Final Cut project. Later, if users need to make changes to their music, they can simply choose a track on their Final Cut Pro timeline and use the “Open in Editor” command for full roundtrip editing.

SmartSound’s Sonicfire Pro 5 and Final Cut Pro plug-in can be purchased together for $249.85 at www.smartsound.com. Current Sonicfire Pro 5 users may add the plug-in for as low as $49.95. For a limited time, as an extra bonus, each plug-in purchase will include a SmartSound exclusive multi-layer music album, “A New Era” ($99.95 value) free of charge. The Final Cut Pro plug-in works with Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 or later. For more information visit: http://www.smartsound.com/finalcutpro.