Friday, August 10, 2007

Music in book trailers

I'm thinking ahead (not really too far since summer 2008 is only a year away!) to marketing tactics to reach tween readers.

Along with the class of 2k8, we're doing book trailers and I think it's a great idea! I started jotting down ideas and thinking about what I'd like to see in my trailer. We've found an amazing selection of book trailer creators and I'm thrilled to have any one of them work on the HJ trailer this winter.

I'm looking through photos, free online art and then there will be images that the designer also presents. But I still wanted newer pictures of horses that matched the tone of my book.

The timing with this turned out to be perfect because yesterday a local horse farm owner called me up after reading my article in the paper and asked if I wanted to come visit her farm. I haven't been around horses in so long and I jumped at the chance! I also explained to her about my need for new horse pics and perhaps video and she graciously told me to bring my camera and shoot away. Hopefully, I'll have good shots to share of the horses and moi when I get back from visiting sometime next week.

Okay, back to the music issue. Someone pointed out that if we used songs from our own CDs that it's illegal. Yup, after doing research that turns out to be true unless you want to pay thousands for the song rights. Yeah, I was sadly mistaken when I thought I could use Fergie's "Glamorous" in my movie. :)

I've been doing a little digging online and am compiling a list of Websites that have royalty free music available legally for a moderate fee. Some of the sites charge insane fees for music that's, well, not quite right for a tween trailer.

Have you done a book trailer? If so, what did you do about the music? If not, are you aware of any legal royalty free music sites?

4 comments:

Emily Marshall said...

Jessica,

Good question, since I might need to know this for the future. I had to consult my husband, since he's the music expert in our house.

Unfortunately, he didn't know of any royalty free music sites that are available for download.

His suggestion was to find an unsigned band via MySpace (there's a TON out there), and then just email them and ask if you can use the song. It might be a lot of work flipping through MySpace Music pages, but usually you can hear at least one song just on the front page. And most unsigned musicians will do anything to get a song out there for free, as long as it's credited to them in the credits. Or if you have a musician friend that might work as well.

Also, he did mention that there might be a back door way around the licensing of some music, depending on how much of the actual music is used for the trailor, but he admitted he just "thought" this and didn't know for sure.

Hope that helps, alittle. And if I can think of any good unsigned songs, then I'll pass them along. Are you looking just for the music itself? Or do you want something with words?

Have fun!

Emily

Jessica Burkhart said...

Hi Emily,

Oooh, I didn't think about MySpace bands. That's a good one. I'll definitely start digging into that.

I'm not confined to something with words, but since my novel is chick lit-ish for tweens, I know the music needs to be upbeat and catchy to match the tone of my book. It if was something without words and the tone was right, that would be great, too.

I'm going to do a little more digging and see what I can find.

Thanks again! :)

Anonymous said...

HI Jessica,

Yes you can try myspace or any other sites with unsign bands but just a note, I don't know if they need to be signed with any performance rights organizations like Ascap else PRO's may still come up to you and ask you a bunch of questions. Else search out on Google "royalty-free music". There's this site http://www.opuzz.com/ that is having 50% discount off all tracks. Check their film style for some possible trailer music.

Jessica Burkhart said...

Hi Kate,

Thanks for stopping by and for the info! I'll check out that site right now. :)

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  Hii, friends! I'm so very thrilled to remind everyone that NEXT MONTH (!!!) is the release of my first novel in eight years! Ahhhhh!!...

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