Situation Background: I am a high school student learning about video
production, and in my spare time I occasionally create and publish my
own videos using footage recorded from an MMORPG. Mostly these tend to
be action-packed overviews of special in-game events, and thus they
often require a very specific type of instrumental background music
that provides the proper mood and is easy to synchronize the action
to.

After a couple of very successful productions using background tracks
from the game itself, that source has dried up and I am looking for
music elsewhere. So far this search has hit only one major snag: There
is apparently no such thing as free music of the type that I'm looking
for. I have discovered that this type is generally referred to as
"production music", and almost always requires a hideously expensive
license no matter how it is used. I dislike the prospect of paying a
large fee for every video I create, especially since I never intended
this to be anything more than a hobby and I have very little money to
spend on it in the first place.

I guess what I'm really looking for here is either confirmation or
denial that my predicament is unsolvable and trying to create free,
quality videos on a zero-dollar music budget is a ridiculous notion.
It probably is, but I just felt like throwing this out there because I
will never be able to convince myself on my own to give up what I'm
doing. Now to phrase all of the above in the form of a question that
can have a definite answer...

THE QUESTION: Is there such a thing as a reasonably large source of
"production"-style music that is completely free to use for
non-commercial purposes? If so, please point me to the location. If
not, no additional information is required, but any explanation of how
you came to this conclusion would be appreciated.

You may be able to find what you want under the term 'pod safe music'.
Mostly intended for podcasts (hense the name), they may also be
sutable for what you want to do. A large source is
http://creativecommons.org/find/ You can also use Google to search by
license if you go to the Advanced Search page.
://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=29508

Magnatune has exactly what you are looking for.
From the page : http://magnatune.com/info/licensing
Magnatune maintains generous policies regarding non-commercial use of
our music. To request music for use in a non-commercial project, you
must first meet the legal requirement for "non-commercial use" as
defined by the Creative Commons License which governs all Magnatune
MP3 files. If you meet these requirements, simply find the Magnatune
music you want, click the "license" link and then select the option
that reads "non-commercial and student projects." Follow instructions
from there.

archive.org has a large database of public-domain and Creative Commons
licensed music and other media

I would try contacting bands on "Myspace" that are NOT signed to a
label, tipically they are more then happy to get there music out
there.

<a href="http://www.myspace.com/thisevening">This Evening</a>

<a href="http://www.thiseveningmusic.com">This Evening</a>




this band will write a song tipically for free, or for cheep depending
on your needs.