More Free Video Background Loops: Romantic and Corporate

vbsd0961_ntsc_thumbWe have uploaded two new pages of free video background loops to our growing collection of free video loops. The new pages include 12 romantic video loops with lots of hearts and flowers plus 10 corporate video background loops with lots of charts, globes and team building images.
They are available in full rez and in both NTSC and PAL formats. You can use these video loops as backgrounds in your personal and commercial projects completely free of charge (you are not allowed to repost, redistribute or resell these clips without syncing them into your own projects first).

Street Fight Simulator for the iPhone

Street Fight Simulator:
Punch ‘n’ Stab

New Sound Effect iPhone App


Sound design your fake street fights with Punch ‘n’ Stab

Have fun with your friends and frighten complete strangers with these powerful sounding punches and super-gory sounding knife wounds.
The sounds are triggered by throwing ‘air punches’ and ‘air stabs’.

Simply hold your iPhone sideways with the screen up and thrust forward to trigger the power punch sound effect.
Then hold your iPhone forward, like a knife, with the screen up and thrust forward to hear the steal-y slash of metal connecting with a gory flesh wound.

The punch and stab sounds alone are pretty cool but what is a good street fight without some great action music?
The Punch ‘n’ Stab app also comes with a music soundtrack menu to choose from a list of real action movie soundtracks.

You get:

’70’s Cop Show’ for that Starsky and Hutch type TV drama

‘Mission Incredible’ for that super-spy action movie vibe

‘Heavy Rock Action’ soundtrack for all you metal-heads out there.

We’ll be adding more functionality and music choices in future upgrades.

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More Free Royalty Free Music Clips

Besides all of the free royalty free music we give away for personal and commercial use here
http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/pir/free_music_loops.shtml
we also like to point you to other websites and blogs that offer free royalty free music. Here are three composers that I ran across today:

Taylor Howard
http://www.taylorhayward.org/recordings.htm
Some very nice ambient / classical piano recordings from Taylor Howard with wide-open, copyright-free terms for use:
“The music on this site is: free to download and play, free to rebroadcast in any form for any purpose, free to play in public, free to publish for profit, and free to sample.
There is no copyright on this music.
If you can think of a creative way to use this music, you have my full support.”

Bill Cushman
http://ghostnotes.blogspot.com/
This talented is offering his beautiful piano pieces for free use in personal and commercial project. You need to contact the composer before using music.

Derek Audette
http://derekaudette.ottawaarts.com/music.php
A collection of free royalty free music from Derek Audette. Although most of the tracks are very midi sounding there are some interesting and usable pieces here:

“There is no charge or licensing fees associated with the use of any of these songs for any reason. I only ask that if you use them in a production in which you are able to give credit, (such as closing credits in a video or film production) that you do provide the proper credit in your production. ”

Pump Audio Demands (A lot) More Money From Their Composers

Pump Audio has sent out the notice posted below to all of their contributors.
It basically says that from now on their split will be 35% to the artists and 65% to Getty Images.

It would be surprising if this was a Pump Audio decision but it is definitely not surprising that this is a Getty Images decision. Getty Images along with Jupiter Images are pretty ruthless in how they treat their composers. And their composers are the ones who make their business models profitable.

Dear Pump Audio Artist,

We would like to thank you for your music and congratulate you on being part of one of the fastest growing music licensing companies in the world. Since the acquisition of Pump Audio by Getty Images, we continue to hear praises from a wide expansion of our clients on the depth and quality of our catalog and that is a testament to you.

As we plan for the future growth of our offering to the global music licensing client base, we have determined that to fully support the 400+ person Getty Images sales staff and invest in marketing and technology needs that we must make adjustments to the current revenue split system. By making these changes, we intend to accelerate the pace of our growth and achieve our goal of becoming the largest music licensor in the world.

The new model will be as following:

1) Licensing fees will now be 35% to the artist, 65% to Pump Audio/Getty Images

2) This change will take place as of July 1, 2009. Any royalties payable through June 30, 2009 will not be affected by this change

3) Performance royalty splits will remain at 50% of the publisher’s share

4) Those that don’t accept the new split will have their music removed from the system no later than December 31, 2009.

5) The rights you granted to us in the original contract do not change

If you have any questions, please email [email protected].

Please sign the enclosed amendment and send back to Artist Relations.

I have been reading about this development on blogs like the themusicsnob.com here
Pump Audio Reduces Music Licensing Payments

There are lots of comments regarding this move by Getty and Pump Audio, most of them bad, things like;

“That’s defaulting on the contract. If they have a signed agreement with me that states 50/50 and they decide to make changes to the split, they need to have a new contract signed with that agreement, which I will not do, and if they default on my contract and change the terms without my written consent, I will sue them.”

and;

“You have to really stay on top of things with Pump/Getty and I will definitely be looking for alternatives. Just when I was thinking they were cool it turns out to be another artist-leaching corporation”

I’d also like to quote Scott Hallgren, Owner/composer/producer at Scootman Music Productions http://www.scootmanmusic.com

Scott has contacted his rep at Pump Audio with some direct questions and received these as replies

1. Nacia at Pump couldn’t promise me the problems they’ve been having reconciling all of their databases (including, among other things: incorrect contact, PRO, and direct deposit info) are going to be fixed anytime soon. Even with all the new bodies, notice none are dedicated to admin…

2. She also informed me that Pump would now be giving their ‘clients’ UP TO A YEAR to report usage. Not pay, just report! So an artist could conceivably be waiting for 2+ years for payment if the bi-annual reporting didn’t fall in one’s favor.

3. I’ve also learned from another source that Pump are 15 months behind in registering their PRO info.

Scott goes on to say:

I have music in the PumpBox and have gotten a placement, but after this and the forced addition of our content to iStockPhoto.com (without receiving the benefits that people who joined iStock of their own volition, natch), I’m beginning to wonder if I need to ‘beat feet’ and let my participation die a natural death…

I think one of the reasons behind the success of Partners In Rhyme and www.musicloops.com and www.sound-effect.com is that we are a company run by musicians, first and foremost we think of our musicians above all else because we know first-hand what it is like to try to make a living at composing music.

It is difficult in that musicians are just that, musicians, they do not have MBAs or degrees in marketing and promotion and they are often times completely socially inept. To expect a musician to spend his/her days producing creative work and then ask them to also handle all the business dealings plus the marketing, self promotion, accounting, etc, etc. is a really big ask.

At Partners In Rhyme we are trying to make a place where musicians just have to create, we take of the rest and send them a nice paycheck every month. I can promise you we will never turn “corporate” (even though we are incorporated) and we will always be on the side of the little guy.

50/50 Forever! 🙂

So how do you feel about this new development at Pump Audio?

Do you have music in their library and are you going to keep it there?

Are you also looking for alternatives like these other Pump Audio composers?

Tell us your feelings and what your plans are. It might help other composers figure out their own way forward.

GUNS! New Sound Effect iPhone App

GUNS!
new sound effect iphone app

GUNS! is a collection of 24 different gun sounds including shotguns, machine guns, pistols and rifles from Partners In Rhyme and Lynne Publishing.

The sounds are available via buttons on four separate panels and includes loading and racking weapon sounds giving you the ability to play a variety of sounds at the same time without having to scroll through a long list just to change sounds.
Info about each gun is available by pressing on the name of the gun in the button.

These sounds were professionally recorded and are being made available from the Partners In Rhyme sound effects catalog (http://www.sound-effect.com/).

The sounds available in the Guns Sounds application are listed below.

Machine Guns
Thompson Machine
Gun AK 47
Heckler and Koch
MP540
Uzi
MP40
Insert Magazine

Shotguns
Remington 870 1
Remington 870 2
Mossburg 500
Load Round
Rack & Load fast
Rack & Load slow

Rifles
Remington 7mm
Howa Model 1500
Winchester 30-30
Marlin 30-30
Rifle Bolt Action
Load Round

Pistols
Liberty 22
Target Pistol
Rhuger Magnum 44
Smith & Wesson P99
Remington GP 38
Revolver Dry Fire
Revolver Chamber Opened

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