Music is a very powerful method of expression. It inspires, uplifts, changes, creates, redefines, revives and silences. When used in combination with visuals (in the case of movies), it becomes a very reliable way to enhance messages conveyed through visuals. Unfortunately, in the case of amateur filmmakers, legal issues often prevent a creative mind from using suitable music. In these cases, open source music can be a very viable alternative.

Open source music is, unfortunately, a victim of the common misconception about its quality. In a certain sense, it is understandable that people underestimate this kind of music. If they don’t have money, how do they want to produce high quality music, right? No, on the contrary: artists who create open source music are not in it for the money or even fame. In most cases, they are in it for the expression of their feelings, which makes it much more exciting and meaningful.

In my past quests for finding suitable music for my film making endeavors, I have filtered through a variety of music sources. The list I have compiled below consists of free, open source and (most importantly) high quality music. Find them, listen to them and use them.

1. ccMixter at http://ccmixter.org. A great source of interesting music. Take a look at the “Picks” section for the crème de la crème.
2. OPSound at http://www.opsound.org. Quite a variety of genres and artists. The “The Orchestral Movement of 1932″ (http://www.opsound.org/artist/theorchestralmovementof1932) is one of my favourites.
3. Archive.org’s music section at http://www.archive.org/details/audio. A great place to find so-called net labels – music released under a specific label, similar to real-world labels. A personal highlight is “Clinical Anthology” (http://www.archive.org/details/ca300_ca).
4. Josh Woodward at http://www.joshwoodward.com/music. Free music licensed under the creative commons license(s). Take a look at “Flypaper”, an instrumental song.

Feel free to add to the list.