Audio Visual Night – Alternative Sources of Copyright Free Audio Material

If like me you have been looking closely at our new seasons program, you may have noticed our Audio Visual night on 15th March next year. A long way away but sometimes AVs are helped by a bit of planning. It is interesting to remember that back in the pre digital days when using slides and tape recorders, AVs were far more difficult to put together.

They were also more popular, with the club having its own AV group.  Nowadays despite software that means making an AV is much easier, there is a problem that puts many off taking part, and that is Copyright Law on music.

An AV is a presentation using only images and audio content to immerse the viewer in a unique experience

Copyright law is far too complex to tackle here and I suggest you refer to http://wcpf.org.uk/, and check out “music copyright” in their “useful information” section. Also, http://www.theiac.org.uk/ will help further. It has experts explaining how they make their AVs.

Alex Cranswick - Winner of the AV Competition 2010-2011 Season

You will discover there are other, and I believe potentially better, options than copyrighted music.  My preferred method is music using a “Creative Commons licence”. Have a look at creativecommons.org/licenses

The main part of the AV should be your pictures with the music, sound effects, or whatever, helping to create the right mood. With music the audience already know, there is a mood there in the mind, and your pictures could just be confirming the atmosphere of the music rather than the other way round. My favourite site at the moment is Jamendo.com which has a large selection of all kinds of music that you could use with your AV. Just check out the licence offered for the specific piece of music you choose before you download it.

Please let us know your opinions, or your suggestions for other ways forward.