ZirconTrax - License original music from OC ReMixers for games, films, animations and more!

[zircon]

Though it has already been in my sig for about a week now, I'd like to formally announce the launch of ZirconTrax, a production music library with a growing catalog of over 200 original instrumental and vocal tracks in a huge variety of genres. The roster of composers and producers is comprised primarily of OC ReMixers: myself, Big Giant Circles (whose idea this whole thing was to begin with!), pixietricks, SGX, bustatunez, Joshua Morse and, coming soon, bLiNd, Mazedude and virt. We also have a number of other pro composers on board such as Mike Worth, who is a good friend of mine and founder of the Videogame Growth Initiative in Philadelphia.

The idea of this library is to provide a boutique, elite alternative to mainstream production music libraries. For example, it's not hard to find websites offering literally hundreds of thousands of tracks at bargain basement prices (eg. $9 for an unlimited license), but they're generally terrible, use outdated sounds, tons of recognizable loops, etc. On the other hand, major libraries from companies like Universal Music can be insanely expensive as some of the best-known composers and producers work for them, and they have massive overhead.

In comparison, ZirconTrax has an excellent pool of talent (most of whom you all already know!) that is, by and large, not elsewhere in the library world. Pricing is also highly flexible, with an automated system that can produce an estimate based on a wide number of factors. For example, you can license a track from SGX's Chroma album for a very inexpensive rate if you're just using it for a student project, indie game, podcast or non-profit use. There are even extensive customization options for big-budget productions like theatrical films and TV ads.

So, if you or anyone you know has any need for original, ready-made music with killer production values and unique sounds, drop by www.zircontrax.com and check out the catalog.

To hear a sampling of what we have, here's a little demo reel:

http://zircontrax.com/demos/ZirconTrax_Demo_Montage.mp3

(artist and track info in the comments)

[The Legendary Zoltan]

Upon listening to the demo track, I don't feel like I'd like to use the music in a movie I would make as much as make a movie to go with all this awesome music. The heavy chorus is totally my type.

[A-RoN]

Thanks for sharing, Zircon. I think my classmates in film production and computer programming will appreciate this highly. Never though virt would offer anything for licensing unless the source was repuatble. This is a good idea, dude. I'll mention it next year to my proffessors as it will make a great investment for my college course material.

[Shaltif]

This sounds rather cool. After checking out some of the tracks, I bookmarked the page for future reference. I'm currently in the development of some freeware 2D PC games and an 'original' soundtrack sounds like a sweet option when I near completion.

One thing that does concern me under the license bit is the calculated price of a 'freeware' setup, or more correctly, if I use the following options:

Video Games (non-Web)

PC Only

Download Only

Advertisement: No

Nonprofit

This usually ranks at $112.50 per title.

That's quite expensive, considering the resulting game (which would probably include multiple tracks) is for non-profit, has no marketing and is available only from the single internet website (or a typical freeware distribution setup). I think the calculation system needs some adjustment.

What I find really odd is the cheapest setup one can configure (for non-web game):

Video Games (non-Web)

iPhone/Android

Download Only

Advertisement: No

Xbox indie Game

Currently that ranks at $39.60 (which I think is more reasonable for a freeware title)... but who the hell is making an Xbox indie Game for the iPhone? (You may want to adjust some of your selection options to avoid 'impossible/confusing' setups)

Anyway, I look forward to seeing how this service grows. Great idea.

~Brandon

[zircon]

Thanks guys - and thank you Shaltif for the feedback on the licensing matrix. Admittedly because there are a million options, percentage modifiers and multipliers, some stuff might come out wonky. That is of course why there is also a counter-bid option and the option of simply emailing us for an adjusted quote. I'll be making some tweaks based on this.

[ProjectSpam]

Awesome. As a filmmaker, this could come in handy in the future.

[Mirby]

I just wish I could afford a few tracks for Relics of Nature's Fury... maybe once I have disposable income...

[Binjovi]

This is pretty awesome, but I'm having a few problems with the site, and thought it'd be helpful if I shared. I'm running 64-bit Vista Business and viewing the site with Firefox version 3.6.3.

In the catalog, starting at page one and selecting page two doesn't appear to take me to a second page. None of the content changes. Page three and the subsequent pages seem to work fine, though. Going from page three to page two shows me the missing page. The electronic genre appears to have the same problem, however, the orchestral genre works just fine. Sorry, but these are the only two I've tried out so far, and I didn't try any of the sub-genres.

I can't seem to preview any of Brian Curtin's tracks. All other artists seem to load up just fine in the pop-up player, but Curtin's appear to sit there trying to load indefinitely.

I hate to be all negative, and whatnot, 'cause the idea is great, and the tracks on there that I've listened to are all stunning, but I wanted to make sure you were aware of some of the stuff I encountered while browsing. I'll poke around some more later.

[zircon]

Hey man, please do NOT worry about being negative - it's a new site so if stuff isn't working, I want to know! Regarding the catalog browsing, I actually wasn't able to duplicate that problem on my end, but I did experience a bit of wonkiness where it would jump pages sometimes. This is of course the downside to using a 3rd party solution, I don't control the code for that. I'll let them know that the page browsing is a little glitchy and see what they say.

Brian Curtin's tracks are fixed now - sometimes there is a discrepancy in the system between display name and full name. I was really impressed with this guy, having never heard of him before. He has a number of live orchestral tracks.

Feel free to share any other feedback!

[zircon]

Bump! We're still accepting submissions from composers, and our catalog has now hit over 300 tracks (including new ones from Mazedude and Flextstyle.) Definitely check us out if you need music for anything but can't afford (or don't have time for) a custom score.

[Hobo Joe]

Just saw this, and I have to say, this is probably the most exciting thing to happen in a long time. There have been many times where I legitimately thought to myself, "I wish I could put zircon music in a movie."

Oh look.

[Viking ZX]

I just got an indie team together and we've been perusing the site for different songs we feel fit the game. One feature that would be nice would be a compare feature or a last ten listened to so that it would be quicker and easier to compare multiple songs. Still, this site is cool and I hope it's a huge hit.

[Chernabogue]

I have a little question, I think it's okay but I want to be sure : can we use zicontrax's music for a non-commercial project for free?

In my case, it would be a web series broadcasted on the Internet. Of course, every artist would have his name credited and a link to the website would be added.