I need some good 1940's detective music.

Anyone come across anything like that in their search for music for their own games? I've searched my regular royalty free music sites but their selections don't seem to be that good.

Either that, or I just have no idea what genre I'm supposed to be looking for. Jazz seems to be the only category I've found with music that's close but most of that is more like dance music than detective music.

I may be able to custom make it. If you're interested, hit me a @mail with some screenshots or something, or otherwise references to relevant google images or anything else you think would be suitable.

Try http://www.stockmusic.net or http://www.shockwave-sound.com

Look at some of the old time radio shows that were mystery or detective, they are long out of copyright, the same with many of the old detective movies that you can get on DVD for $1.

Nope. Copyright lasts for between 50-100 years from the artist's death, depending on the country. And even then its a grey area.

You can't base your derivative work on a more modern arrangement as the creator of the derivative work still holds Copyright - it has to be based on the original work.

Copyright is a minefield.

GFK:
I tried those. Shockwave didn't have anything useful, and stockmusic has a ton of stuff, but most of it is crap and the search is lacking. (If you enter more than one search term, it doesn't seem to filter results... but rather, it adds them.)

But I'll browse stockmusic a bit more. Maybe there's something there, somewhere.

CS:
I'm really looking for something pre-written so I can choose exactly the sound I need. I never seem to have luck having people write music for me.

Added to that: usually a publisher owns part of the rights, at least mostly the exclusive exploitation rights, and since those publishers are usually big companies that won't just go away or die.. the music will always be protected by some person or company.

Try searching by mood on StockMusic, it's much more effective than searching by genre, in my experience. I just tried a search for "sultry" and came up with some nice sound jazz stuff. No idea if it would suit your taste though.

Until the you meet the point where what you want simply isn't available..


Yea, my current (admittedly: cheap) shoes ain't really great either, I guess I shouldn't ever buy new shoes anymore. Did you ever consider the possibility that you simply met the wrong people? :P

Nope. What I suggested is legal. Most of that I mentioned, the copyright has long expired on them. You are thinking in current terms, with the laws that were passed in the early 70s. Those laws were NOT made retroactive.

Maybe I did, but... No offense... You're asking me to provide you images of a private eye so you can get ideas for what sort of detective music I'm looking for? Anyone who's ever seen a 1940's detective movie, or spoof would know what that music is like, and no photo of a private eye is going to help you get it right. That doesn't inspire confidence. :-)

Also the only screenshot I have is the art I posted in the graphics showcase here:
http://blitzmax.com/Community/posts.php?topic=79605

As you can see, that's not much of a help.

Anyway, the music would be something like a plucked bass with some saxophone and a bit of percussion and whatever else they use in that sort of music. Unfortunately I don't know where I could find samples of it, except maybe Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Guess I'll check youtube for clips of that and see what I can find as far as samples.

Actually, I'm pretty sure they were, or else many Disney classics would be in the public domain, and they aren't.

I think they went back to the 1920's or so.

Ah, here you go:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Bono_Copyright_Term_Extension_Act

So basically, anything created by a corporation after 1923 is still under copyright.

Nope, Disney always renewed the copyrights. Don't fall into the trap. You know better.

Gary:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldred_v._Ashcroft



I didn't mean that Disney's works had fallen out of copyright and they got them recopyrighted. I don't know of a case where that's happened.

It doesn't say that does it? It clearly says it only applies to old works that were that were still copyrighted in 1998. You know better. You live in the USA, you can go into most stores and see the old public domain movies being sold for $1-$5 on DVD by various companies. You could start your own company selling copies of those movies.

Most OTRs are way out of copyright and in the public domain, along with many old movies. If something is in the public domain, it is FREE to use however you wish.

Gary:
I updated that post before you replied to it.

Yes, it was only to works still copyrighted in 1998. Which is anything all the way back to 1923, not 1913 as I first said.

I think you're mistaken. Just because those movies are being sold cheap doesn't mean they're in the public domain.

Also, I'm pretty sure that any old movie on a DVD has been restored in some way and as such is a derivative work and I couldn't just copy that and redistribute it. I'd need an original copy from the 1920's to make my copy from.

I'm sure that's a gray area though. But I don't think most of those movies you think are out of copyright actually are. The Three Stooges for example are almost surely still copyrighted even though they started in 1925.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain_film
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Public_domain_films

Nothing after 1922.

(Looks like I found a bug in the forum. Won't let me make a URL with a : in it into a link.)

What do Blade Runner and Star Wars have in common, and what not?

In common: sci-fi
Not: style of the music

Hence, it's worth asking for specific details in order to make a choice. But anyway, as you've more confidence in the exact seamless availability of stock music, go ahead.

No, because they renewed the copyright for most everything. Although there are some less popular Disney works that fell into the public domain.

Before '76, a Copyright only lasted 28 years and could only be renewed once.

http://www.legalzoom.com/legal-articles/article13706.html

You really need to research something before you discuss it. I didn't say ALL cheap movies were public domain, did I? You can find a good listing of public domain movies at archive.org

Nope, most have NOT been restored in any way and are rarely taken from the original. Many are taken from old tapes that were sent to TV stations and some were actually recorded from TV.

Some of their stuff is Public Domain. Even some episodes of Andy Griffith and Beverly Hillbillies are in the public domain.

Anyway, this isn't the thread to discuss your misconceptions of copyright law.

what game are you working on swift to need that kind of music?

Is it some kind of find hidden object detective game? :P

That's not why I want to go with stock music. I want to go with stock music because I can't afford to pay a musician $200 a song to write three different songs because the first two didn't fit well. With stock music I can listen to samples for free and pick the one which works AND it costs half as much as custom music.

I may ultimately have to pay someone to write music, but it would be foolish not to look at the less expensive option first. Just because it's stock doesn't mean there's no chance of it fitting my game. There's lots of great stock music on http://www.beatsuite.com/ for example.

Of course if you need more than one or two tunes in your game, then you might have a problem. For this game though, I only need a couple songs, as long as whatever songs I pick are fairly long, quiet, and not too repetitive.

Anyway you're not going to convince me to have you write music for me by giving me a snarky attitude over it. I know custom music can be better. But my decisions are driven by my financial reality. If I was well funded I could afford to pay people to screw up a few times. But I'm not.

Totally sensible to stick to stock music first and foremost. If you find something you like, why not go with it? I would.

I'm surprised at $200 a track. I've never charged that much - but I only ever do it for fun and 'beer money', not making a living / profit.

I was quoted $400 by one guy.

In common: Harrison Ford :p