I've just been to Jamendo (brilliant site) and have found some pretty amazing music for my RPG.
I would like to know what the deal is with Creative Commons Music. Is it really free to use for anything or just free as in you can't use it in commercial products?
Creative Commons isn't one license, it's a broad banner for several licenses which are made from combining the rights you want to transfer. What you can do depends on which combination of rights they chose.
From the site:
Each Work is made available to Users pursuant to a Creative Commons license identified by an icon. By clicking on that icon, you will know the conditions under which the ARTIST and JAMENDO authorize you to use his Work.
So I tried it out and got a box on the right hand side which said :
You can copy, distribute, advertise and play this album as long as you:
*
Give credit to the artist
*
Don't use this album for commercial purposes
*
Don't alter, transform or build upon this album
In which case, I could use this song in a freeware game, but not in a shareware or commercial game, and providing I gave credit. No idea whether it's likely to be the same for all/most songs.
Thanks for that link, there's a lot of great stuff there!
There is a way to search for music that can be used for commercial purposes. Click the Music tab, then Creative Commons, then on the right side of the screen there is a search box that includes a radio box that states "Find content I can use for commercial purposes."
http://www.jamendo.com/en/creativecommons That search option doesn't work. It includes music with licenses which forbid commercial distribution, but say so in a different way.
For example, if the work says that all work which uses it must also be licensed under the same license, that is clearly not compatible with any commercial use, but it still comes up in the search.