Voice-over Demo Reels

[Horsman]

Hey guys, I recently recorded some voice-over work for a friend so she can have a short demo-reel. The recording itself is easy, but I don't know how to go about getting the background music. For example, I would need some light disney-sounding orchestral stuff for one part, and some action music in another. Are there any websites I could go to? I'm worried about copyright and what not, otherwise I would just throw the 007 theme music in there and call it a day. Any advice would be appreciated!

[PoxyMusic]

Originally Posted by Horsman

I'm worried about copyright and what not, otherwise I would just throw the 007 theme music in there and call it a day. Any advice would be appreciated!

Personally, I wouldn't worry about copyright infringement on a demo reel.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Find a friend with a "needle drop" music library and use the material off that without having to worry about copyright. I would NOT use copyrighted material for a demo reel but that is just me being anal about copyrighted material.

FWIW and YMMV

[mikevarela]

It is murky indeed. For one, it's not commercial, however, you ARE making money from the production.

Some people build the cost of licensing into the demo. They use music bakery and other such sites, where a track might be 35$. Say, 6 tracks for the demo and you can see that it might cost about 200$. Then you'll add in your time. Most good demos are about 1k.

It's up to you though. Many professional music companies do have digital watermarking though so it's possible (maybe not probable) that they might scan the web for illegal uses.

[PoxyMusic]

Originally Posted by mikevarela

Many professional music companies do have digital watermarking though so it's possible (maybe not probable) that they might scan the web for illegal uses.

Let me qualify my previous statement: I personally wouldn't worry about licensing on a demo reel that I sent out as a DVD, etc...but I wouldn't post it online.

[Bill@AudioVision]

VO demos come in two flavors - depending on the experience of the talent.
1- Seasoned pros will ask the producer or director if they could get a copy of the work they've done to use on their reel. A 'yes' answer generally implies that permission was granted, and any music or visual clearances are the responsibility of the producer or production company. For demo purposes, the VO artist is usually safe.
2 - Newbies - This is where a demo is produced from 'found' scripts and usually music and other production tricks are applied to make the newbie sound like a seasoned pro. Since the material never was part of a 'real' project, I always recommend that music be cleared. There are several 'buy-out' libraries out there, and a few do some pretty good work. (You'll have enough to worry about wondering if some law office will call about that Coke commercial on your reel.)