lizb (FMA Admin)

In late 2009, I broke with tradition and decided to finally hold myself to a New Year's resolution. My goal was to start a podcast in 2010. Click here to subscribe to it, and click here to check out WFMU's full podcast listing.

Thanks to the Free Music Archive, there is now a wealth of great music that is pre-cleared for podcasts (14,644 tracks and counting). Podcasting music is a complicated issue, legally speaking, as record labels and publishing companies have not yet created blanket licensing schemes that address podcasting (licenses do exist for over-the-air broadcasting and webcasting). Because licensing schemes do not exist, labels and publishers could potentially sue podcasters who do not pursue clearances for each and every song included in a podcast. As a result, podcasters are left in the lurch: they can either risk legal wrath from a rabidly lawsuit-happy recording industry, or take on the burden of clearing hundreds of songs on their own.

Because most artists and labels who participate in the FMA have pre-cleared their material for podcasting, the whole game just got easier, and I'm happy to take advantage of this wealth of great material. Two weeks into 2010, I've got a few podcasts under my belt (perhaps a better success rate than many who have vowed to quit smoking or join a gym), and in searching for instrumental tracks to use as talkover music for my podcast, I discovered a great tool in the FMA's search dept.

On the search page, I filtered results both by use (for podcasting) and by type (instrumental only); both filters can be found on the left sidebar, along with many other helpful options. Not only did I find some great talkover music (thanks, YACHT!), but I put a mix together of all the great instros I found. Enjoy!