cues
Free music cues for your independent film, podcast, video game, corporate video, or otherwise. Find the cues below and check out the FAQ below. All cues are subject to a Creative Commons (CC BY-ND 3.0) license. If you need an extended cue or something more bespoke for your project, please e-mail cues@digientcollective.com, we’d be delighted to work with you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is it?
digient(cues) is a library of free music cues for use in independent film, video games, podcasts, or otherwise. These cues are exactly as described: free musical cues licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-ND 3.0) for you to use as you see fit. All we ask is that you respect the CC license.
Why do this?
Many of us at Digient Collective are composers and sound designers, some full-time professionals with film and tv credits, and all of us make music every single day. Oftentimes music ends up on the cutting room floor, so to speak, and a lot of it is good music, just not a fit for what was intended at the time. These little sonic scraps end up just taking up space on a hard disk, collecting dust. Other times we might be inspired by a sound, a mood, a film or a piece of music and we’ll end up with a 16-bar ambient loop, for example, but it has no place in a current project, so it might get tucked aside for a rainy day. Thus, we put our heads together and decided to start offering these clips up to the world, for free, and for your use in whatever you see fit, perhaps a podcast, an independent film, or a video game.
What is a cue?
A music cue is a short piece of (usually) instrumental music that can be used at a particular point in a film, television show, or play, etc. A cue is generally somewhere between 30 and 120 seconds.
Are the cues tagged and searchable?
All cues are tagged on Soundcloud with the appropriate descriptive moods, vibes, most prominent instruments, etc. If you find the tags, or their search-ability, lacking in any way, please let us know – we want to make sure we’re making this easy and painless for you and we’re not committed to any particular system other than what works best for you. We welcome your constructive feedback.
What style of cues should I expect from digient(cues)?
Musically speaking, Digient Collective is focused exclusively on forms of electronic music, from ambient to industrial techno, house, electronica, and downtempo, to drone and left-field experimental stuff, and always electronic in nature. So, that’s primarily what you’ll find here. Some cues, though very few, are more rock in nature, or have strong jazz, blues, hip-hop, punk, or psychedelic vibes, all genres that influence us.
How do I get access to the cues?
We post cues to our digient(cues) Soundcloud playlist. Anything listed on that playlist (and on this page) is fair game. All digient(cues) are made available as 48kHz/24-bit wav files, and available for direct download from their respective Soundcloud page. Follow Digient Collective on Soundcloud here to be notified when a new cue is posted. (Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a way to subscribe to a specific playlist via RSS or otherwise.)
If you find something you like on this page, in the embedded playlist above, click the ‘view track‘ button to be taken the Soundcloud page for that cue. Download the cue by clicking the ‘More‘ button, then click ‘Download file.”
What are the terms of use?
You may use digient(cues) in your works completely free of charge as long as you comply with the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-ND 3.0) license. This means a) you must provide appropriate credit (“Attribution”), provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use, and b) you may not remix, transform, or build upon the material (“NoDerivatives”), and if you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. Read more about the license here. If you are unclear about anything, please don’t be shy, just get in touch with us at cues@digientcollective.com.
Can I have an extended version of a cue, a custom cue, or custom score?
Yes you can! We’d be delighted to help. Please e-mail cues@digientcollective.com with your requirements.
Can I use Digient artist releases as cues?
Any music from a Digient Collective artist that is freely available as a downloadable music cue will be made available here on this page and on our Soundcloud digient(cues) playlist. If you don’t see it here or on the playlist, then it’s likely an official release (e.g., a single, EP or album) subject to other terms than the digient(cues), and while it may not be freely available here we do feature our artist’s music in film and we’d be delighted to discuss our artist’s music in your project. Please get in touch to discuss your requirements at cues@digientcollective.com.
All digient(cues) works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.