We’re huge fans of This American Life here at Dare Dreamer FM. We like to describe our show Radio Film School as “This American Life” for filmmakers. If you’re a fan of the NPR show yourself, then you know how vital a role music plays.
When we set out to make a podcast unlike anything the visual arts community has ever heard, we knew that meant curating music like our audience has never heard. But as a small, bootstrap operation, we don’t have the budget to license the sheer volume of songs needed to populate each episode (which could be as many as 5-10). So, we spend a tremendous amount of time scouring the internet for high-quality creative commons music that allows for commercial use. An eclectic mix of genres that will deliver the feel and atmosphere we need for each show.
I have to admit, I had my doubts we’d be able to find as many as we needed. To my pleasant surprise, if I may quote “Rain Man” himself, “There are lots and lots of them!” But it takes a loooooooonnnnnnng time to find them all. Many, many man and woman-hours each week.
We’ve spent so much time curating this music, it seems like such a shame not sharing it with our audience. As such, we are making it our duty to keep you, our devoted fans, updated on all the great music we find. Sure, you could do all this work yourself, but why bother if we’ve done it for you. 😉
The Dare Dreamer FM Music Channel
So we’re excited to introduce the Dare Dreamer FM Music Channel. Just go to daredreamer.fm/music to find all of our collections, links to any episodes in which we’ve used them, as well as commentary on why we chose it. You’ll even find great music we haven’t used, with subcategories based on genre.
This channel, like the site, is new and still in flux. We value your opinions. Email us at if you have suggestions for the channel, or if you know of any additional music sources we should check out. We’d also love to connect with indie bands interested in getting their music in front of a large filmmaker audience.
Our Sources
We recognize that you may not have the same tastes as us. Therefore, if you’re so inclined, here’s a list of the sites where we’ve found our music. This list will sure grow over time.
- FreeMusicArchive.org – this where we find an overwhelming majority of the tracks we use. If you do a creative commons search, make sure you check “commercial use” if you plan to use the songs in a commercial project.
- SoundCloud.com
- Incompetech.com
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