It's ridiculous to make music for free if you don't have special interest in a certain project and are a qualified talented composer. This is what destroys the business! Why would you ever create anything for free if you are a talented composer?

Film makers saying they can't pay is nonesense. Of course they can pay something. However, because there are so many creating music for free they won't.

Making scores takes a lot of effort. Regularly giving them away for free is insane. Do you really think the credit is worth that much? Think again!

It does seem odd to see the qualifier here: 'royalty-free' as if that's normal.

Music can make or break a film. Why should music be excepted as something which figures into any budget, even the smallest? Because musicians are supposed to be above it, or below it, or what?

I am onboard with you guys! It's funny because I just got asked (again) to use my studio for free (which cost me over $100,000) to record a few tracks for a film!! FREE?!?!?! I'm tired of this "free" garbage! I live in Austin, TX and I know composers all over the world with the same problem and I know this may sound cheesy, but we **ALL** need to start demanding money or the music DOES NOT get composed!

Do not accept promises of "connections, credits, or experience" without getting paid. I know a film score composer in Hollywood that is writing for big-budget productions and he told me that there are composers out there that are composing for free, which in turn is trashing every composer out there... just as Nightsun stated, it will always be expected free of charge if people continue to do this- STOP and ask for money- PERIOD!

James

http://www.jamesjumonville.com/

Audiomicro has a collection of sounds effect tracks. You can buy sound effects using a Pay Per Download then download original files any time. Audiomicro is very popular for music and production music. It’s not free but very well priced and then you are free to use the music forever.

I offer my services for free, since it's a good experience to do this, and because composing is a hobby for me. Ofcourse earning money would be better, but I think I first have to do good for an amount of video's before I can ask anything.

Greetz

Lots of filmmakers don't make any money for their films... It isn't like big hollywood productions are asking for free music.

I kind of feel like the "business" as we knew it is going out the window in a hurry. At least in the indie world. That doesn't mean that people can't make money. It just means that the way you get the money is going to be different.

Also... One of the reasons people ask for royalty free music is because their projects are small and making or breaking isn't really that important. If I'm looking for background music for vlogs or a web series, why would I bother paying for music that isn't exactly making or breaking the project... I have a feeling that this is what people are looking for when they want royalty free music... Obviously if you were making a serious project, you would try to get the best music you could with the money you could spare for it.