Presenting…

After what feels like months and months of work, I’m finally ready to unveil my latest project. A little drumroll, please?

It is my pleasure to introduce: Music for Photographers!

http://mettaaudio.com/music_photo.htm

First order of business, I can’t have a blog post without music. It just isn’t right. For your listening pleasure, I offer, The Dude Shoot:

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Ok, if you’re a photographer, or if you’ve ever Googled “Royalty Free Music” you know there are a ton of sources for music. It’s like trying to sell ice cubes to Eskimos. Why on earth would I try to compete with the likes of Triple Scoop Music and istockphoto and even White House Custom Color? Why am I selling my music?

Honestly, because I was a photographer back when it was BetsyandJohn.net. I know what it takes to make great pictures and I know how hard photographers work. But I’m also a musician, and I would watch Betsy take our photos and create beautiful slideshows, but using music pulled from iTunes, and I just didn’t feel right about it. As photographers, we had several discussions about how to prevent people from stealing and printing photos from the blog. Some kind of image protection is built into just about every online proofing site out there, and yet we’re doing the same to musicians.

After a lot of discussion, I think I’ve finally convinced Betsy that using unlicensed music is just not the right thing to do. (Even today we’ve been debating it, because she wants to post a personal slide show to copyrighted music.) As a composer, I decided that I could either sit and complain about it, or try to provide an alternative for her, which is why you’ve seen my music now on several of her slideshows. I’m proud of her for being willing to let go of the licensed music and give mine a try. (I think it has helped that once she’s selected the photos for her slideshow, I take over and do all the syncing and timing for her.) Either way, I sleep just a little better at night knowing we’re doing the right thing.

Writing music for Betsy has been kind of a game changer for me too. I was in a bit of a musical dead end. I had started a million pieces, and finished none. My computer was a sea of open ended work, without a deadline or a goal in sight. Having Betsy come to me week in and week out demanding music was as therapeutic as it was motivating. I’ve only posted 5 of the pieces that I’ve written, but there are several more in the wings (awaiting some polish), and every week she’s off on another shoot. I’ve definitely got my work cut out for me!

But I still haven’t answered the original question: Why am I selling music? Honestly, because I want to encourage all photographers to use licensed music, mine or someone else’s. By providing music and timing templates (so all you have to do is add your photos and stir), I hope that decision is just a little easier to make. Besides, there’s a lot of great music out there and a lot of passionate musicians. If you don’t find something here that moves you, I’m sure you can at many of the other royalty free music outlets. (But I’m not going to help you with their timing templates!)

Finally ready to listen to some music?

http://mettaaudio.com/music_photo.htm#listen

This is the best place to browse all the pieces at once. Be sure to check out the slide shows to see how the music and images fit. When you’ve picked the ones you want, just click on the “more info and purchasing” button, and it will take you to the shopping cart. Every piece includes a CD quality .wav file, a high quality mp3 file, and at least 2 timing templates, and all the rights you need for your business for only $60.00 per piece.

I’m really passionate about encouraging photographers to use licensed music, but like buying prints, I also understand that it can be expensive to get what you want. To help, I’m putting together two things. First is a bundle of all 5 pieces and their 10 timing templates for only $120. I know Betsy would never settle for having the same music over and over for each slide show, so I thought it was the right thing to do. Secondly, from now through the end of the month, I’m offering 20% off by using the coupon code “MettaAudio” when you check out. That 20% even applies to the bundle, you can use it as many times as you like and can pass it on.

By the way, if you’re not a photographer or don’t use ShowItWeb, every download includes a CD quality .wav file and a high quality mp3. You can use the music for your website, a podcast, your on-hold music. You can even just load it into iTunes and listen to it for fun, if you want to.

Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed. Any new slideshows I create will get posted here too!

Much metta,

John