6 ms·

CC Hound: A curated library of free music for content creators

211 points by aabergkvist 6y ago

l00sed 6y ago
Lovely! Was thinking about making some stuff in Fruity loops for tutorial video background tracks, but this is much easier! I'd recommend swapping the hamburger menu on the left with a filter/funnel icon, the double hamburger is a little weird.
- imhoguy 6y ago
  Make sure it is not too loud! Also matching music taste of audience is not an easy task. Most of the time I prefer only tutor's voice and/or natural workplace ambient sounds (including keyboard). This one makes it to perfection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsDtlB4OSrs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsDtlB4OSrs
philipkiely 6y ago
This is great! It would be nice to be able to filter by license type. By my understanding, there are many projects where music licensed under CC BY-SA would not be usable.
- Minor49er 6y ago
  Seconding this. I love the simplicity of the site, but the way the links work for the results, I would expect that clicking on the license type would filter by that license rather than bring me to the license itself. It would be cool if those links acted like a filter, but were also accompanied by something like a question mark or info button that would bring me to the definition in case I needed it.
  - aabergkvist 6y ago
    Good idea. Gonna invest some time into writing an index of the different types instead and then having those on the category page for it. Was afraid of legal ramifications, if something was incorrect, hence the link to the CC site.
Hoasi 6y ago
It's great as long as creators do this voluntarily. In an ideal world, you'd hire someone to compose music for a particular project.
fermienrico 6y ago
What does HN think of free content like audio clips and samples, stock photography, etc? I think it is different than free software where folks are contributing as a community and can sometimes thrive as a business by providing support. IMO free "hard" content such as this is destroying a lot of small content creators that used to earn a living but are now forced to abandon their professions. I fear it will create a bimodal distribution - top notch large houses (Getty Images, for e.g.) and free distribution sites (Unsplash) and nothing in the middle. I fear a society that is used to free stuff all the time.
- dbuder 6y ago
  There is too much duplication, some of those people are now free to create something of more value and those who have been held back from creating content are now are to make it more easily and with less friction.
- ISL 6y ago
  "You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library." -- Will Hunting And yet people still pay to go to college. It is okay. Yes, the distribution of CC and GPL work products at negligible cost does cut into the revenue streams of existing business models. However, there will always be something to do for others that is both engaging and adds value to their lives. Furthermore, Mozart hasn't put modern music out of business. Unsplash absolutely threatens existing business models, but Unsplash and derivatives aren't going away. One must adapt. Furthermore, CC-BY-SA licensing of high-quality content may even threaten the likes of Getty in the long run. GNU/Linux/BSD clearly compete with once-dominant Microsoft. The alternative is to force people to charge for something of value they wish to give, gratis, to the world.
  - cblconfederate 6y ago
    > The alternative is to force people to charge for something of value they wish to give, gratis, to the world. I 'm not sure they wish, as much as they have no option to monetize it or do something with it
squarefoot 6y ago
Good indeed, however I wish there was a way to filter out by source. Of all tunes I tried so far, all those coming from Reddit, mostly if not all from the same author/uploader, sound like the worst possible elevator music with added drums played on a 20 years old General Midi presets-only expander. Definitely some interesting stuff among the others, however.
- aabergkvist 6y ago
  Fixing this!
merricksb 6y ago
For the curious, this appeared as a Show HN in 2018: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16884979 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16884979
jancborchardt 6y ago
Really nice! Since Unsplash is mentioned in the About page, I hope it doesn’t go the same way with a strange non-CC license at some point. (Also ideally sticking to just Attribution and Share-Alike as now. :) I tried out the feed at /feed but it seems to be empty – is there a way to get updates of new additions?
- aabergkvist 6y ago
  I missed that, what did they go from the do whatever the f*ck you want license? But, no. The licensing will be up to the artist, always. What would be the preferred way? Twitter? RSS?
  - jancborchardt 6y ago
    It used to be CC0 on Unsplash but some time ago they moved from that to a custom license with some special restrictons, which makes it impossible to use in other Creative Commons work: https://unsplash.com/license https://unsplash.com/license This also happened to a lot of other similar photo sites unfortunately. Preferred for the feed would be RSS I’d say, but maybe Twitter is good on top for promo. Thank you!
  - ironmagma 6y ago
    The WTF license is an antipattern really. All it does is push away anyone who has serious use cases for your work, because of the risk that nothing in that license will (likely) hold up in court. MIT carries basically the exact same provisions as WTF, so just use that.
- wodenokoto 6y ago
  While I too think everything would be easier if everything was CC-something licensed, I actually think the Unsplash license is extremely fair. The license is basically: use pictures for anything you want except for a competing service. You decide if you want to attribute source. For stock photos on websites and in PPP and reports, I can hardly imagine anything better than Unsplash.
tomerbd 6y ago
I see license is CC do you have an example in your website how do we must provide attribution?
royosherove 6y ago
Where is the music being sourced from? As a music creator, how can I add my music to be visible here? Another question (which contradicts my first question): Aren't you helping to create another "race to the bottom" where free music always wins over paid?
- dylz 6y ago
  People that won't pay for music licencing probably won't be paying for music licencing in the first place..
edw 6y ago
When I think of royalty free music for “creators,” my mind instantly goes to the sort of cliched, bombastic audio that is used to score “epic b-roll” that serves no purpose in so many YouTube videos. The world needs less of this, not more.
danbmil99 6y ago
Where are the vocals?

211 points by aabergkvist 6y ago

Lovely! Was thinking about making some stuff in Fruity loops for tutorial video background tracks, but this is much easier! I'd recommend swapping the hamburger menu on the left with a filter/funnel icon, the double hamburger is a little weird.

imhoguy 6y ago
Make sure it is not too loud! Also matching music taste of audience is not an easy task. Most of the time I prefer only tutor's voice and/or natural workplace ambient sounds (including keyboard). This one makes it to perfection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsDtlB4OSrs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsDtlB4OSrs

philipkiely 6y ago

This is great! It would be nice to be able to filter by license type. By my understanding, there are many projects where music licensed under CC BY-SA would not be usable.

Minor49er 6y ago
Seconding this. I love the simplicity of the site, but the way the links work for the results, I would expect that clicking on the license type would filter by that license rather than bring me to the license itself. It would be cool if those links acted like a filter, but were also accompanied by something like a question mark or info button that would bring me to the definition in case I needed it.
- aabergkvist 6y ago
  Good idea. Gonna invest some time into writing an index of the different types instead and then having those on the category page for it. Was afraid of legal ramifications, if something was incorrect, hence the link to the CC site.

Hoasi 6y ago

It's great as long as creators do this voluntarily. In an ideal world, you'd hire someone to compose music for a particular project.

fermienrico 6y ago

What does HN think of free content like audio clips and samples, stock photography, etc? I think it is different than free software where folks are contributing as a community and can sometimes thrive as a business by providing support. IMO free "hard" content such as this is destroying a lot of small content creators that used to earn a living but are now forced to abandon their professions. I fear it will create a bimodal distribution - top notch large houses (Getty Images, for e.g.) and free distribution sites (Unsplash) and nothing in the middle. I fear a society that is used to free stuff all the time.

dbuder 6y ago
There is too much duplication, some of those people are now free to create something of more value and those who have been held back from creating content are now are to make it more easily and with less friction.
ISL 6y ago
"You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library." -- Will Hunting And yet people still pay to go to college. It is okay. Yes, the distribution of CC and GPL work products at negligible cost does cut into the revenue streams of existing business models. However, there will always be something to do for others that is both engaging and adds value to their lives. Furthermore, Mozart hasn't put modern music out of business. Unsplash absolutely threatens existing business models, but Unsplash and derivatives aren't going away. One must adapt. Furthermore, CC-BY-SA licensing of high-quality content may even threaten the likes of Getty in the long run. GNU/Linux/BSD clearly compete with once-dominant Microsoft. The alternative is to force people to charge for something of value they wish to give, gratis, to the world.
- cblconfederate 6y ago
  > The alternative is to force people to charge for something of value they wish to give, gratis, to the world. I 'm not sure they wish, as much as they have no option to monetize it or do something with it

squarefoot 6y ago

Good indeed, however I wish there was a way to filter out by source. Of all tunes I tried so far, all those coming from Reddit, mostly if not all from the same author/uploader, sound like the worst possible elevator music with added drums played on a 20 years old General Midi presets-only expander. Definitely some interesting stuff among the others, however.

aabergkvist 6y ago
Fixing this!

merricksb 6y ago

For the curious, this appeared as a Show HN in 2018: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16884979 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16884979

jancborchardt 6y ago

Really nice! Since Unsplash is mentioned in the About page, I hope it doesn’t go the same way with a strange non-CC license at some point. (Also ideally sticking to just Attribution and Share-Alike as now. :) I tried out the feed at /feed but it seems to be empty – is there a way to get updates of new additions?

aabergkvist 6y ago
I missed that, what did they go from the do whatever the f*ck you want license? But, no. The licensing will be up to the artist, always. What would be the preferred way? Twitter? RSS?
- jancborchardt 6y ago
  It used to be CC0 on Unsplash but some time ago they moved from that to a custom license with some special restrictons, which makes it impossible to use in other Creative Commons work: https://unsplash.com/license https://unsplash.com/license This also happened to a lot of other similar photo sites unfortunately. Preferred for the feed would be RSS I’d say, but maybe Twitter is good on top for promo. Thank you!
- ironmagma 6y ago
  The WTF license is an antipattern really. All it does is push away anyone who has serious use cases for your work, because of the risk that nothing in that license will (likely) hold up in court. MIT carries basically the exact same provisions as WTF, so just use that.
wodenokoto 6y ago
While I too think everything would be easier if everything was CC-something licensed, I actually think the Unsplash license is extremely fair. The license is basically: use pictures for anything you want except for a competing service. You decide if you want to attribute source. For stock photos on websites and in PPP and reports, I can hardly imagine anything better than Unsplash.

tomerbd 6y ago

I see license is CC do you have an example in your website how do we must provide attribution?

royosherove 6y ago

Where is the music being sourced from? As a music creator, how can I add my music to be visible here? Another question (which contradicts my first question): Aren't you helping to create another "race to the bottom" where free music always wins over paid?

dylz 6y ago
People that won't pay for music licencing probably won't be paying for music licencing in the first place..

edw 6y ago

When I think of royalty free music for “creators,” my mind instantly goes to the sort of cliched, bombastic audio that is used to score “epic b-roll” that serves no purpose in so many YouTube videos. The world needs less of this, not more.

danbmil99 6y ago

Where are the vocals?