“The rug really tied the room together.”

Bob Dylan fades out and we hear The Dude talk about the importance of a stolen rug. It tied things together. The same could be said for the songs in The Big Lebowski. Any fan of the film knows how important those tracks are, featured even more prominently than the score. Like the rug in Lebowski’s living room, the right music can tie a film or video project together, making a grander sense out of separate elements.

Whether you’re creating an advertisement, a TV show, or web short, your video project benefits from the addition of smartly placed music to synchronize (“sync”) with the moving images. A properly selected song not only lends an air of professionalism to a video, but also makes your production more memorable. In extreme cases, a well-placed piece of music can even add emotional weight to a project that wouldn’t have hit as hard without it.

Music taps into memory.

And we don’t have to point to cult classics like The Big Lebowski. Think of a particularly impactful TV commercial or scene from a favorite childhood show. Chances are you remember the song playing as much as the images on the screen. That’s because – as humans have known for thousands of years (but have only recently began studying) – music is inextricably tied to our emotions and memories. Even a simple audio cue (think of the soft piano notes plunked during the heartfelt scenes in every ‘90s ABC sitcom) triggers a specific emotional response.

The right song doesn’t have to eat up your budget. 

Those shows you’re remembering were probably huge network projects with budgets in the millions. Even today, ads you see on Hulu, YouTube or cable TV (remember cable?) can have big budgets too. What if you’re an indie producer with a project budget in the thousands or even hundreds? How do you add emotional heft and memorability to your work without plummeting into the red or using music unlawfully? AudioMicro’s got you.

Don’t let sync clearance hassles slow down your production. 

The first concern when Licensing music for placement is fully clearing the song you’re interested in. This may sound like common sense, but it’s good to get the fundamentals out of the way first. 

If a music supervisor wants to use a popular major label song in a TV show, they might have to wait for the label to talk to the publishers and for six different songwriters to talk to the label to talk to the publishers to talk to the… 

You get it. Acquiring sync permission can be an inefficient process. 

Since AudioMicro uses royalty-free music specifically created to be synced, nothing licensed through AudioMicro requires any further clearance. No tracking down every party involved in the recording and composition just to clear 30 seconds of sound. It’s a one-stop-shop for fully cleared music, so you can use it in your YouTube video without fear they’ll pull it for copyright reasons. The copyright is already secured!

Support other creators while avoiding years of complicated accounting.

Royalty free music isn’t just great for the user, but also the creator. Some people think that “royalty free” means “free from revenue for the artist.” Not so. But what actually is “royalty free”? It means you pay only once to clear a track, and once you’ve paid you can use it as much as you like in accordance with the uses of the standard license.

This doesn’t generate royalties on the back-end per use, but it does generate revenue upfront from the fee you pay to use the song. That fee then gets paid to the creator of the music after AudioMicro takes their cut, which is significantly lower than other licensing companies. You get to license a song for a reasonable price, and the artist makes more money. It’s creators and users supporting each other; a beautiful thing! AudioMicro also allows PRO-affiliated songwriters, which means you’re licensing music created by serious, professional songwriters and not hobbyists looking to get a few placements as a side gig.

Don’t settle for okay tracks. Find EXACTLY what you’re looking for. 

So which creators take part in this mutually beneficial endeavor? Hundreds! Peruse the genres in this catalog of royalty free music. Need some reggae for a chill travel commercial? How about some heavy gosh-dang metal for a fight scene? Or maybe you’re a social media fitness influencer and need some good workout jams. The extent of the catalog means you’re sure to find something that’ll set your project apart from the competition.

In the old days of music licensing, there were enough roadblocks in securing a song placement to discourage even the heartiest music supervisor. The Coen Brothers must’ve had their work cut out for them clearing all the songs in Lebowski.

Many of those hurdles are still there for big-budget projects licensing recordings and compositions that have upwards of 10 copyright owners, but AudioMicro helps you overcome obstacles by combining the entire music licensing process into one simple step.

Once you find the song you want to tie your project together, all the licensing is done at once. This is the 21^st Century. Shouldn’t things be easier than they were before?