ROYALTY FREE MUSIC PART II

Where can you find royalty free music at no charge? There are actually quite a few musicians that offer their music under the Creative Commons License, it is sometimes just hard to find them through all the sites that ask a lot of money to use one song.

Recommendations

Some artists allow you to use their music in commercial productions whereas others only allow you to use their music in personal productions. So look at the license agreement carefully. Most music is licensed under Attribution, so in your production you should credit the author of the music. If it is a slideshow or a video presentation then you should include a credit to the artist such as:
Music By Artist Name

To play it safe, contact the artist and let them know how you are using their music. It is great that they allow you to use their music at no cost to you.

I suggest making a donation to the artist. Based on other's recommended donation amounts, I suggest that you send the artist at least $5 for each song that you use.

ROYALTY FREE MUSIC LINKS

http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/

At this website Kevin MacLeod offers his royalty free music creations under the Creative Commons License. There are many different types of instrumental music at this site.

http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/free-music.html

pacdv offers a few instrumentals for you to use royalty free. They just ask that you mention "Music by www.pacdv.com/sounds/" in your credits.

http://www.musopen.com/

Musopen is an online music library of copyright free (public domain) music. At Musopen they obtain recordings of public domain music that have no copyrights so that visitors may listen, re-use, or in any way enjoy music. Most of the music is of classical piano or symphony pieces.

http://www.taylorhayward.org/freemusic.htm

Taylor Hayward offers a few piano songs that are copyright free so you are free to use them in any way, commercial or non-commercial.

http://sonnyboo.com/music/music.htm

Offers a few songs that you can use in your productions as long as you credit the songwriter - Peter John Ross.

http://www.soundclick.com/business/license_list.cfm

I recommend that you sign up with a free account at www.soundclick.com to take full advantage of its many differnent music artsists and genres. To find royalty free music at no charge under the Creative Commons License click on the soundclick link above and then change License Type to Creative Commons (Free), select the Genre and click go.


This site includes many different genre's of music by many different artists under the Creative Commons License. The difficult part at this site is just downloading one song. When you go to an artist's page and click on an album it wants you to download the whole album. But if you are listening to the album with the jamplayerwebthere is an option at the bottom to Export this playlist: M3U. If you pause the music and click on M3U then the songs should open up in your Media Player and you can click the next and previous buttons in your Media Player and also click on File -> Save As... to save the song youhttp://derekaudette.ottawaarts.com/music.php

Derek Audette offers his royalty free music under the Creative Commons License. Most of these are instrumental pieces that are either dark, moody, or hard driving.

http://www.jame

5-18-11 - Note: Seems to no longer work under creative commons, but asks you to pay for licGeeksAreSexy.net exclusive created music with Apple Garage Band and Sony Acid that you can use. Download them here.

http://www.publicdomain4u.com/

This site contains recordings of songs that were published prior to 1922 and are now in the public domain which means the public is free to copy and use the works in any way.

http://opsound.org/

This website offers a collection of music from a variety of artists and genres under the Creative Commons License. In the left hand menu click on artists or genres.

http://www.openmusicarchive.org/

Open Music Archive offers recordings of songs that are over 50 years old so their copyright has expired in the UK so the recordings have become Public Domain. However, if you are from another country other than the UK then the recordings may not be Public Domain yet. See the FAQ for more information.

http://www.archive.org/details/audio

Dan-O at Danosongs.com has also released a number of songs, which are free for commercial or non-commercial projects with attribution. There is a pay-what-you-feel-is-fair donate button, however.

FREE MUSIC CLIPS

http://www.internetaudioguy.com/iag/freemusic/freemusic.htm

InernetAudioGuy.com usually sells royalty free audio tracks for a price but they also offer a few instrumental 30 second samples that you can use for free for anything you want.

Kathy Stemke
Award Winning Author/Educator/Freelance Writer

Trouble on Earth Day earned the Children's Literary Classics Seal of Approval

            Sh Sh Sh Let the Baby Sleep won the Children's Literary Classics Seal of Approval

         
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How I wrote my novel

How I Wrote My Novel, mostly sitting at my computer, plus a relatively small portion of it by hand in a succession of notebooks …

I just signed a contract with MuseItUp Publishing for my tween sci-fi novel, “Relocated,” so this feels like an appropriate time to talk about how I came to write it.

I am a 'way back sci fi fan. I selected Robert A. Heinlein's “Farmer in the Sky” for my tenth birthday, and at that point I was already a fan. I've continued to read copious amounts in the many years since. In spite of that, I had backed away from attempting to write my own sci fi story.

Last September I decided that I would write a sci fi novel for NaNoWriMo, which takes place every November. I decided to write a novel for kids, and I made my main character fourteen. Then I had to plan my novel and build my world. Or, in my case, build my world and plan my novel.

I'm always telling myself stories in my head, and some of them took place on alien planets. I'd done a fair amount of thinking about my alien society, and a couple of things had really sparked my imagination: shared responsibility and mutual support rather than rules and laws, and four-person relationships. I did a lot of thinking about the spiritual life, diet, landscape, literature, art, and music. Why, you might ask? Because I like that stuff. In fact, I ended up writing 30 poems “by” an ancestor of one of the characters in the book as part of Robert Lee Brewer's November poem-a-day chapbook challenge. Eight of them ended up in the novel itself. I also wrote a story, sort of a folk tale that I managed to work into the book as well.
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For various reasons, I wanted my aliens to be close to humans in appearance. I made them tall, slender, and dark skinned. I wanted them to look distinctive, and I was tired of pale, beautiful aliens. I wanted dark, beautiful aliens.

After that, I made notes about the novel itself. I made notes about the setting, my main character's motivation and character arc. Most of that was good. I ended up renaming his father, as an early reader told me his original name was too much like that of the main character. The plot and most of the secondary character went out the window once I started writing; I kept a lot of the direction of the story, but the details ended up quite different. The nature of the plot that Keth uncovers changed. The adult characters involved in the Terran/Alien romance changed. Dad's character changed, as did that of his boss, Brad. All of the kids other than the main character were new. I had fifteen plot points, I threw all of them out the window.

And after Nano was over, I let the novel sit until January. Then I started revising. And revising. And revising... but, hey, that's what happens when you start writing without much of a plot outline.

What Makes a Good Children’s Book?

What Makes a Good Children’s Book?

By Sherry Ellis

There are many factors that go into the making of a good children’s book.

The first is the story itself.  It must have a plot that appeals to the age of the child it is written for.  It has to be something a child can understand.  It has to be told in such a way that the child falls in love with it.  The best stories are ones that are timeless; where the plot is something that could appeal to a child fifty years from now.

Illustrations are another important factor in the making of a good children’s book.  Brightly-colored illustrations really grab a child’s attention.  The illustrations should accurately portray what is going on in the story.  Really well-done illustrations may even tell a story of their own.  Kids should want to sit down with a book and pour over the pictures.

A book’s cover should be attractive.  There’s an old mantra, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but the truth is, we do judge a book by its cover.  If the cover looks appealing, we are more likely to want to read what’s inside.  The same holds true with children’s books.  Children are naturally attracted to books with interesting covers. 

Finally, there’s the language itself.  Descriptive words are important in painting a picture of what’s going on in the story.  Care must be taken to use words that can be understood by the age of the children the story is written for.

Good children’s book writers have the ability to view the world through the eyes of a child.  They are able to remember the feelings and emotions they had as a child.  All of these factors put together help an author create a book that is not only enchanting to children, but also to the adults who read it. 

About Sherry Ellis: Sherry Ellis is a freelance writer who writes articles for parenting magazines and children’s publications.  Her first book, That Baby Woke Me Up, AGAIN, was published in 2005.  Her second, That Mama is a Grouch, was published in May of 2010.  It was honored as a finalist in the Parenting/Family category of the 2010 USA Book News Awards. 

Sherry is also a professional musician who plays and teaches violin, viola, and piano.  Ms. Ellis lives in Loveland, Ohio with her husband and two children.

Author Website: www.sherryellis.org

Blog Address: www.sherryellis.blogspot.com