Friendly Music

Friendly Music Help

FAQ
- Basic Friendly Music Questions
- Technical Questions
Tutorials

Friendly Music is a video soundtrack tool that we created to make finding the perfect soundtrack for any video really fun and social. Share video soundtracks instantly with Mash pages or download a soundtrack to use in your favorite video editor and then share on social video sites.

What is a Mash?

A Mash is a combination of an online video and a soundtrack. Using Friendly Music you can select any YouTube video and any Friendly Music soundtrack, create a Mash and share it with your friends.

Why does Friendly Music charge for soundtracks for use in UGC videos?

We love music, and we pay artists millions of dollars in royalties every year for the legitimate use of their music. The team at Rumblefish wants artists to have a royalty stream that helps them make more music, play more shows and inspire more and more of us with their craft. Buying MP3 downloads or paying for streaming services like MOG or Spotify help to compensate artists just like buying soundtracks from Friendly Music does. When you buy a soundtrack from Friendly Music, you’re buying a legal license to synchronize that song as a soundtrack in an online video AND investing artists. Feels good doesn’t it? Help make a difference and spread the word.

Where do I start?

Start by grabbing a video from YouTube. Then use our search and recommendation tools like the Mood Map, occasion search or playlists to get a crafty soundtrack recommendation for your video. Once you’ve found the perfect soundtrack, create a mash or download the soundtrack to edit in your favorite video editor and then share online. Have fun!

What kind of music does Friendly Music offer?

The Friendly Music catalog is the same music used by Hollywood producers for their projects. We feature music from all over the world including albums by independent artists, albums by production music companies (which is custom composed music that was created just for use in film, TV and ads and sound effects) and custom-made sound effects catalogs. We’re adding new songs and playlists every week so check back often for new music and hand-picked playlists from our editorial staff.

What is the Friendly Music refund policy?

All purchases are non-refundable because we can only sell you the license, or permission, to use the song...we can’t sell you the song itself (those copyrights belong to the artists & labels) and of course we can’t force you to use the soundtrack you purchased. That’s up to you! So, make sure you’d like to use something before you buy it.

Can I share downloaded soundtracks with my friends?

Any soundtrack that you download is for your use as a soundtrack for your video only. If you want to share a soundtrack with your friends, create a Friendly Music Mash and share it or use one of those really cool streaming music services...we really like MOG, but there’s a heated debate about which streaming service is the best going on in the office.

Can I put a video with licensed music on a DVD?

Yes, if you use purchase either our Commercial or Commercial Premium license. Both licenses provide for you to create up to five DVD copies of your video. See below for links to a PDF of each full license so you can look into the details.

Technical Questions

What happens if I lose the file I downloaded?

Log in to Friendly Music and go to the blue “My Music” tab and then to the “Projects” tab and it will be listed there. If there are any problems, please contact our customer support team at info@rumblefish.com and they’ll do everything they can to help you and put a smile on your face.

What file types are available?

The file types available for download are MP3, WAV and OGG. MP3’s and OGG files are both compressed audio files, while WAV files are full CD Quality audio recordings and may be as much as 10 times larger than the same compressed version of a file. You may want to download a compressed file and test it before taking the time to download a WAV. You may download additional formats or copies of your licensed track for the term of the license.

How long will it take me to download a song?

Song downloads are affected by three factors: song length, file type and your Internet connection speed. File type and length are the factors that determine file size. A WAV file may be 50 Megabytes for a 4 minute song, where a 4 minute OGG file may only be 4 Megabytes. Our files should arrive as quickly as similarly sized files over your Internet connection.

Tutorials

Introduction to Friendly Music

What’s the Auditioner and how do I use it?

The new video audition feature allows you to preview any YouTube video against any Friendly Music soundtrack, instantly. Think of it as the world’s simplest audio/video editing software. Pick any YouTube video. Pick any Friendly Music soundtrack. And Mash! (A Mash is an instant way to add a soundtrack to any YouTube video, do some light editing and share it with your friends. To learn more about Mashes go to the Mash tutorial.)

Below the video window, enter a YouTube URL or username to place a video of your choice into the Auditioner. When you choose a YouTube username you can see up to 25 of the most recent videos from that user’s YouTube page. Once you select a video, the video bar loads three stills from the selected video. You’ll see the camera icon is highlighted indicating the play button will play just video since you haven’t loaded a soundtrack yet. Now, you’re ready to use any of the Friendly Music search and recommendation tools to find the perfect soundtrack. Once you’ve loaded a video and soundtrack in the Auditioner, just click the video AND audio icons, hit play and watch your Mashter-piece!

Other Auditioner Features

Scrub

When playing video OR audio you can click forward or backward in the timeline to skip or review. Audition supports the same feature when both video and audio buttons are highlighted.

Shifting

You can also utilize the ability to shift or move the video or audio back and forth in the timeline changing their relative positions. Here you’ll see the off-sets indicating both the video and Mash times as you shift the video or audio.

What is a Mash?

A Mash is a combination of a YouTube video and a Friendly Music soundtrack. No editing or downloading is required. Just pick a YouTube video, add a soundtrack and make a Mash. Each Mash gets its own unique URL where others can watch, comment, like or share. Users can even Remash the original video with a new soundtrack to create a new Mash.

Search Tools

How do I use the MoodMap?

Being moody has never been so easy! MoodMap allows you to search for a soundtrack based on the feeling or mood of your video. All you have to do is click on the mood of your video to get soundtrack recommendations. The mood-based search tool is divided into four quadrants: happy, sad, angry and serene. The x-axis is an intensity scale that ranges from passive and subdued on the left, to assertive and intense on the right. The y-axis represents a range of temperament, or vibe. At the top, the mood is sunny, positive and optimistic, where the bottom is dark, gloomy and negative. You can audition soundtrack results from the moods you select and make playlists of your favorites. If you don’t nail the right mood off the bat, the MoodMap is easy and fun to click around on and listen to, so play around with it.

How do I use the Occasion & SFX Search?

What’s the Occasion?

The Occasion search is as easy as picking out a greeting card. Browse through occasion categories, including celebrations, themes, current events, moods, sports and holidays. Select a sub-category and quickly navigate to playlists that match the video occasion or theme, such as a weddings, snowboarding or New Year’s Eve. The Sound Effects search tool works exactly like the Occasion search. Just select an SFX category and scroll through the sub-category to find the perfect sound effect.

What are Editor’s Picks?

Editor’s Picks allows you to browse playlists handpicked by our editorial team. This search tool is great for quickly finding a soundtrack for current events such as Halloween or Valentine’s Day, or topical events such as memorial videos celebrating the life of Steve Jobs, planking (so last year!) or Charlie Sheen's tigers’ blood. Scroll through the main buckets: Current Events, Brands You Love, Best of, and Random.

Using Advanced Search

The keyword search bar is fairly straightforward. Simply enter the occasion, artist, song or keyword you’re searching for and viola! Results! Scroll down and start playing. There are a number of filters to help you set parameters for your search. Just click Genre, Duration, BPM (Beats per Minute), Explicit Lyrics or License Type and you can narrow your search results to find the perfect soundtrack for your video.

How do I hide & show features?

As with all the search and recommendation tools you may hide or show the search tool or the Auditioner. To hide or show the Auditioner click on the arrow just below the Auditioner and above the search tools. To hide or show any of the search and recommendation search tools, click on the hide button in the top right hand corner of the search tool. This feature makes it easier to focus on the task at hand.

How do I add Soundtracks to my Q, a New Playlist or an Existing Playlist?

You can add any soundtrack to your Queue, a new custom playlist or add to any of your existing custom playlists. Click on the plus button and a dropdown menu will allow you to make the selection.

Where’s my Q?

Queued Tracks can be accessed from either My Music or in the Auditioner. In the Auditioner you’ll find a shortcut labeled Q . The Q will be blue when there are soundtracks queued. Otherwise the shortcut remains grayed out indicating it is empty.

What can I do in My Music?

Playlists

Here, our default buckets are Recently Played, Queued Tracks and Shared tracks. If you’ve created any custom playlists you’ll find those here below the Shared Tracks.

Recently Played

You’ll notice all the soundtracks you’ve played are loaded here for your convenience. If you’d like to add any of them to a custom playlist click the plus button and the dropdown menu allows you to send them wherever you’d like. Hovering over the Recently Played icon gives you options to clear the list or copy into a custom playlist of its own. Notice when you click the copy button a new playlist appears below.

Queued Tracks

Queued Tracks can be accessed from two places. Find them in My Music or in the Auditioner where there is a shortcut to Queued Tracks. Notice the Q is blue when there are soundtracks queued. Otherwise the shortcut remains grayed out indicating it is empty. As with other features you can add Queued soundtracks to custom playlists, share them or add to cart. To empty your Queue just hover over the icon and hit clear list.

Shared Tracks

This is simply a running list of all the soundtracks or playlists you have previously shared.

Custom Playlists

Below the three default playlists you’ll find all of your custom playlists. Click on the title to change the name of your playlist and save. From here you can delete the playlist, copy the playlist or add to cart. Click on the icon to reveal the soundtracks you’ve selected for your custom playlist.

Cart

When you’ve found your soundtrack, select your license type in the dropdown menu (to the left of the cart button) and add it to your cart by clicking on the cart button. Once you’re ready to check out, click on My Music and navigate to the Cart tab at the top of the My Music page. Here you’ll find a project with a default name or a custom playlist that you have added to your cart. You can change the name of your project and save. When you click on the project icon (P) the soundtracks associated with that project open below the project name. Once open, an itemized list of all the soundtracks appears, as well as controls to delete soundtracks from your project. Click the Next button to agree to the Terms of License agreement. Next, you’ll enter your billing info. Select your payment type. Confirm. And viola! You are ready to download or share!