All language subtitles for Royalty.Free.The.Music.Of.Kevin.MacLeod.2020.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

Downloaded from
YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

One two three four five,
five four three two one.

End of test.

Kevin MacLeod.

More people recognize his music

around the globe then than
almost any other artist.

And they might not know who he
is, but they know his music.

It sort of like slowly built
over time until you're like,

this stuff is everywhere.

I'm taking your word for it,

that he's a guy and he exists,

but he could be Father Christmas

or Scooby-Doo or Jesus
Christ for all I know.

There are millions of people

who are affected by his music every day,

who have no idea.

If you just like know some of his

most famous sound and music and songs.

And then you listen to like
everything like cat content,

or YouTube tutorial, and then porn,

then you see like everywhere.

I will often use certain
of his songs with rhythms

to beat my slaves in
the rhythm of his music.

He takes this idea that it's so crazy

to give out music for free to just allow

anybody and everybody to use his content.

When you think about it,

on paper it sounds
ludicrous, it sounds crazy.

But here he has taken that idea

and made it into something profitable,

made it into something that's very viable

in a business sense.

What? Why?

How do you,

how do you make a life
work then that doesn't,

that doesn't make sense.

There's just this one dude
who has taken it upon himself

to provide free music for the world.

And that is, I think,
what is so transformative,

so unique about him, and that has made him

this phenomenon, you
know, really on YouTube,

he is the music.

Then he is an evil genius, right?

Like that's what I was saying.

He's taken over the world
and eventually one day,

there'll be a dark dystopian future,

where there is no other
music licensable anywhere.

It'll only be Kevin, and
he will rule the world.

Kevin MacLeod has released

over 2000 tracks for free

to millions of people around the globe.

Anyone can use this music as
long as they give him credit,

and this has allowed
his tracks to be heard

everywhere you can possibly imagine.

On Internet Movie Database, IMDB,

he has the highest number
of unique music credits

of any composer on the site.

On websites like YouTube,
Facebook, Vimeo, and beyond,

the videos with his music in
it count into the millions,

with views into the billions.

His music is used in virtually
every form of artistic media,

from video games to amusement parks

and even rocket launches.

His music is danced to, it's on the radio,

and in video, spanning from
television, the internet,

from short films made on the phone,

all the way to big Hollywood productions.

He's the world's most
heard living composer,

and yet almost nobody knows who
he is and why Kevin does it.

Okay, this is cipher.

Kevin MacLeod.

Kevin MacLeod,

Kevin MacLeod.

Well, my name is Kevin MacLeod.

What do I do?

That's problematic.

I write a bunch of music
and I run a website.

Yeah.

What do I do?

I'm not surprised that it's one person

who's released over 2000 songs for free,

because of how long it's been around.

Oh, I won like a
lifetime achievement award

from basically like the German Oscars.

What was the name of it?

I don't remember, it's German.

But it was like a big black
tie televised event thing

where they give awards to people.

You went to it?

- No.
- You didn't go?

No, they invited me.

But I don't speak German.

To win this award, you
have to make a difference,

not just within a year, but
all over and over again.

And you have to really make a difference

in the whole community,
not just for yourself.

I'm really happy about all
the awards that I have won.

And I feel

valued by the people who awarded them,

but I can't say that that's my goal.

That's not my goal.

I still don't know that I would know

what makes Kevin tick.

It's an enigma.

Okay, I've got scale, right?

A lot of people have heard my music,

and by a lot, I mean, at least,

at least hundreds of millions,

possibly in the billions, and yeah no,

and I go play a bar gig

with an attendance of 24.

Why do I do that?

I think the
beauty of using his music

is that it doesn't jump out at you,

and that it sounds perfect
for whatever you're doing.

When I wake up in the morning,

I feel like I have a bonus day.

Like I didn't die last night.

Oh my God, this is awesome.

And I've talked to a lot of people

and like nobody else thinks that.

I'm like, really?

This is how, this is how like,

this is how like, I live my life.

It's like, I get another free day.

Every day I get to do I get to do a thing.

Kevin's kind of like a big kid.

Like he's sort of,

he's got like this childish
wonder that I think like,

that kind of gets beaten
out of people a lot,

like as they get older,

and somehow Kevin's able to retain it.

So the first time I
went to his apartment,

we were sitting there and,

and he brought out the puppets
that he'd been building.

We were just talking about
the construction of them.

He said, oh oh, do you wanna
see the innards of the puppet?

Good, good evening, everyone.

And today we're going to learn
to program a little bit of

the control surfaces of the
Roland, A-800 mini keyboard.

I said, oh, you mean, Kevin.

He said, is that his name?

I said, yeah.

And we're all just hanging out.

He's a cool guy.

You'd really like to meet him,

you really should meet him some time.

And she said, yeah,
he's a little different.

One night Kevin and I

went to a piano bar on the east side,

and we were actually talking

to a bunch of different people in the bar.

And he said, oh yeah, no, no,

some of my music was in Hugo,
the Oscar-nominated film.

And I went, I'm sorry, what?

And we sell the
theater, and everything we had,

so we could build our own movie studio.

He was working on the
computer and all of a sudden,

some guy calls him up, blah, blah, blah.

Hello, my name is such-and-such,

and I represent Martin Scorsese.

And Kevin's like, oh,
well, okay, thank you.

We'll talk to you later,
click, and he hung up.

And so then the guy calls
up a little bit later,

and it's like, are you serious about that?

And the guy's like, yeah,

I really represent Martin Scorsese.

And so the guy's like,

I've been using your music
as temp music in our film,

and we'd really like to just
purchase the film rights to it

so that we can use it just outright.

And Kevin's like, okay,
that'll cost you 30 bucks.

And the person on the phone was like,

we were ready to pay you
a lot more than that.

And Kevin's like, okay,
you can do that too.

I remember asking him like, okay,

well he had like a little
dry spell and like,

I haven't been doing anything.

Like what makes you create things?

I gotta be miserable.

He hates movies.

He doesn't like going to see
movies at the movie theater.

So I dragged him along to go see a movie.

And with the intention of him to be upset,

aggravated and miserable.

What works out best is if
we go see a shitty movie,

then Kevin is like, I can do that better.

I can make people feel this way

better than this music has done.

I went to a Cirque du Soleil show

and the music wasn't good.

I mean, it was dated and it didn't

work well with the show.

And so that day

I went home and I fixed it.

I downloaded their show
and I re-scored their show.

Yeah, that is an example of
music coming out of like hatred.

It's like, it just didn't work.

And well, obviously it did work

because more people know
who Cirque du Soleil is

than know who I is.

Something has to be wrong

for Kevin to get

into that

creative mojo, to get his mindset going.

My first instinct is
to ignore the director,

and ignore what they ask for,

and do what I think is the best.

And then come back with revisions
if revisions are needed,

but people ask for bad things
and wrong things all the time.

And sometimes I'm super wrong.

I got a film that I thought was hilarious.

I'm like, yes, I can knock
this out of the park.

And it turned out to be a horror movie.

I didn't know it.

I thought it was supposed
to be a campy thing.

Like, no, it was straight up horror.

Like, oh shit.

Well, I wrote that completely wrong.

So sorry about that.

At a lot of people don't realize

the amount of work and skill

that goes into creating something.

It just, to them, it just appears.

They don't know how the sausage is made.

Anyone can write a piece of music.

If you want to write a piece of music

that makes the most amount of people

in a particular culture
feel a particular way.

Oh, now got some problem solving, okay,

what are we gonna need here?

We're going to need to pull marimba.

We're going to need to
pull an oboe for the thing.

What is gonna be the tempo

that's going to get
the most people to feel

the same thing that are
from the same culture?

And it's really all problem solving,

and that's what I love doing.

I just, I love doing that.

Nearly anyone in the world
can listen to my stuff.

This has never happened before
in the history of history.

How awesome is that?

If you think about it,
the music of every nation,

the music of the last thousand years,

globally, you can access any
of it within a few seconds,

and that is absolutely incredible.

It's a resource like none I've ever seen.

It's literally been a revolution of like

what you're able to do

and how you're able to get it out there.

You know, from everything from

the instruments being cheaper,

you know, specific to music, to you know,

cameras and software
and everything becoming

cheaper and cheaper and cheaper.

I remember, you know,

I used to buy Adobe software

and it was something like
800 bucks for a program.

And now you can buy the
whole suite of 20 programs

for 20 bucks a month.

30 years ago,

a guy in a bedroom would
not be able to make

the music of the same sonic
quality as they are today.

For a couple of grand,

you can take your art and
you can put it in the world.

And the amount of people it
reaches is potentially endless.

Will technology ever replace musicians?

It's happening right now.

This is actually not
a theoretical debate.

I think this is actually
coming up in symphonies

all over the country where they want to,

they want to replace real live symphonies

with recorded bits for like
operas and other performances.

History has
shown that every time

there is a new medium or business model,

the old ways try to
attack and snuff it out.

When photography was first invented,

painters and critics demeaned
it, saying it takes no skill,

and lacks an artistic touch.

Then when motion pictures came around,

theater critics scoffed at it,

saying it was nothing but a fad,

and that film actors paled in
comparison to the true stage.

When FM radio was first invented,

the Radio Association of
America, run by David Sarnoff,

managed to persuade the US government

to delay the deployment of FM radio.

This was because FM was seen

as a business threat to AM radio.

As samples get better,

and musicians such as Kevin
become more and more capable

of replacing orchestras,

people have lost and will
continue to lose jobs.

It is already happening,

and we as a society have to come to grips

with technological unemployment,

and reconcile the enormous
benefits we receive from it,

and what we inevitably lose
as technology marches on.

Creative work is hard, right?

It's hard to do.

It's also hard to make a living.

In the pre-internet days,

you had a number of middlemen

who basically controlled
access to the business.

A very small number of creators

ever got to distribute their
work to the public at large,

through these middlemen,
through big record companies,

through big movie studios,
through big publishing houses.

So what does the internet give us?

It gives us another option,

which is the option of kind
of direct to the consumer.

The digital audio revolution

obviously changed the landscape

for how music is created
and how it's sold,

and how it's consumed and all of that.

But I don't think it's
anything that musicians

haven't already dealt with
in some form or another.

I'm saddened by the,

what I'm doing is not catching
on as fast as I wanted it to,

because I'm a horrible optimist,

I'm an extraordinary optimist.

And I thought,

once people look at this like new way

of dealing with copyright,
they'd be like, yes, yes.

Let us all jump on this bandwagon.

This is clearly a better solution.

And maybe it will be,

and maybe I just thought
it would happen faster.

I still hope it does happen,

and we can set aside

like all of these problems
that we're having.

Yes, I have definitely heard this.

Oh yeah.

A lot of Minecraft videos again.

Good morning, John, it's Pizza Mix.

Everybody that you know
wants a piece of this.

And if you miss the fun we're gonna have,

we'll rub your face in it.

Blog brothers videos every day-

Kevin's
music has been covered

across the internet from
professionals to amateurs alike.

You gotta do it later man,

you've gotta do it later!

You gotta do it later!

♪ Here comes Bonnie now to kill you ♪

♪ Gonna eat your face off ♪

♪ Then I'm gonna murder frosty head ♪

♪ And eat all of your limbs
and stuff you in my face ♪

Every now and again,

I'll like go to somebody's house

that they have television
with broadcast TV.

And I'm like, oh, wait somebody,

somebody used my music
in that commercial there.

That's weird.

It's weird.

I'm not gonna say it's
not weird, because it is.

Dear diary, I have been stalking

that insect on the wall for
the past three days now.

All of my attempts to capture
it have been thwarted.

However today, on further inspection,

I found out that the insect
was in fact, a thumbtack.

There is no logic in this place.

Okay, so funny, those are
obviously funny YouTube videos,

but what we're talking about

is the music that was accompanying.

Yeah, yeah.

All the music that you
heard in those four videos

were from a guy named Kevin MacLeod,

who is originally from Green Bay,

and he still comes back to the area,

but he lives in New York now,

and he is a freelance composer out there.

His stuff has gone all over.

I read in this article,

it was surprising to see all
the different famous people,

the famous TV shows, the
movies that use his stuff.

His stuff has also been used

by like Conan O'Brien's
team, College Humor,

yeah Buzzfeed, yep.

Kevin told me that his music
was being used worldwide.

I think it was,

he was going on a trip, like
where are you going, Keven?

I'm going to

Switzerland, Sweden, something,

some place that starts with an S.

They're making a theme park,

and I'm doing all the
music for the theme park.

What?

So jealous, and Kevin's
like, you could go for me.

I hate traveling.

I've done a lot of editing
on and off over the years,

and done sometimes pro bono
projects for nonprofits

where they don't have a budget for music.

So my first place to go to is Incompetech

for places like that.

It's also extremely valuable
because they don't have,

they're already usually stretched
to make a video, you know,

about something that they want to use.

You know, want to put it on their website,

but they're already,

it's already a stretch for
them to make the video,

but to even pay for music on top of that

would be impossible.

I volunteered for
Sundance Film Festival.

And as I'm out there watching
some of the shorts packages,

I'll be like, holy mackerel,
I recognize that tune.

And immediately after the show
I'm on the I'm on the phone.

I'm like, Kevin, guess what I just heard?

Kevin's music is used
by the porn industry.

Like, like all the time.

I think he might've won
an award, I'm not sure.

I said, really, that's awesome.

I talked to Kevin about it.

And he's like, yeah, yeah.

You know, the porn industry
uses a lot of music,

and they seem to like mine,

and they called me and they said,

we'd like to use your music.

And I said, great, great.

And?

And they said,

we don't want to put a
credit on the movie for you.

And he said, oh, that's fine.

That's great.

And then they decided
they'd pay me for it.

So that was okay, too.

It is the act of
flogging somebody is my,

my art and my love.

And I wouldn't hit somebody

unless I actually really liked them.

And so his music is that light side

that I try to express,

that happy joyousness,

not just the visible of,

I can use the music to build mood,

to give me cues as to
what I wanted to do next,

since I often plan out sessions.

Nothing's in stone,

but I have an idea of what I want to do.

And so I work with the
music in the background

to let me know, hey,

this would be a good time
to incorporate a flogging.

Wow, I'd never thought that
it would be used in porn,

but I guess with Creative Commons, right?

I mean, you don't really
get the opportunity

to refuse whatever, right.

You know, that's really into,

that's actually really interesting.

Anybody can use your music.

They can even use it for evil.

He might talk about
hearing a song in a porno

that he was watching,

'cause he does that every
once in a while, I guess.

And he said, and then a song
came on that I knew was Kevin's

'cause it was also in a play that I had,

a musical I had wrote.

And it just ruined everything.

I love that when you
hear his music in the wild,

because I've heard pretty
much 90% of his library

at this point, hell, I've
used 90% of his library.

When I hear something
that uses it, I'm like,

oh, that's Kevin, I need to buy that.

I need to go there.

I need to do whatever that
commercial is telling me to do,

because I love that man.

Most people don't think about

the audio when they watch a movie.

You know, they're thinking
mainly about the visuals,

but audio is so important.

I would say it's more important
than the vision on screen.

You know, the sound
has to be really crisp,

but also the music helps create the tone,

create the atmosphere.

You know, there's some
great clips on YouTube

where you can see the difference
the music makes, you know,

like just with a different track,

it can go from like a
horror movie to, you know,

like a fun comedy rom-com.

Meet Jack Torrance.

I'm outlining a new writing project.

He's a writer
looking for inspiration.

Lots of ideas.

Kevin was studying Nosferatu as a film,

and he really wanted to see how,

how music played a difference.

And we both learned something interesting.

He pointed out to me where
if he would play a song

with a certain mood to it,

our eyes would focus on one character.

Whereas if he'd play a different tune,

and it was a different melody,

all of a sudden, we're not
focused on the other character

that was the main focus of the first shot,

we're now focused on
the secondary character.

And I thought that was fascinating,

that music could actually
have you direct your attention

to one thing on the screen,

versus another thing on the screen.

Music can do a lot of things.

It can help guide the emotions,

it can show the unseen in the scene.

I think soundtracks, you know,

bubble along and help support,

they subtly support the action,

but then there are times when
they like overtake everything.

And that's what's great
about Jaws or Star Wars

or a lot of films that have
great soundtrack moments.

I'd like to
show you a scene from Jaws

without John Williams iconic score.

Kill it Quin, kill it, now!

Shoot!

Now here's the same scene,
but with the original score.

Kill it, now!

Shoot!

We've all had that experience
where we're sitting there,

like, you know, you
bastard, don't make me cry.

This film is not gonna make me cry,

but you know, there they go.

And the strings start, and
we actually start crying.

Writing music is a complicated game,

and I WILL

go through on a regular
basis and I will check

all of the music on like
the Billboard Top 100,

and like go through all
the different charts,

and like find out like, what is like,

what does the production sound like now?

What are people looking for, now?

I do a lot of research on that.

The pieces that people
tend to respond to the most

out of Kevin's music are the ones

that kind of reflect this bouncy
or happier characteristic,

like sure, the darker pieces get some use.

But I think the things
that people are like,

oh, I love this, are like kind of like

it's quirky, it's funny, it's like,

it's kind of the Kevin that
I think a lot of people know.

There's just a simplicity
to the songwriting

that can make anyone connect with it.

I like to look through his
catalog of most popular songs,

and the stuff that stands
out to me right away

is that you can click right down them,

and within one or two seconds,

you know exactly what
the style is of the song.

I think one of the reasons
that Kevin's music is popular

is that it immediately summons up a scene.

Like you hear his little spot,

Life of Riley, and immediately
you're in a convertible,

like with the wind
blowing through your hair,

and you know it's a convertible.

It has to be a convertible,
you know what I mean?

There's sort of a genre feeling to it

that's instantly recognizable.

I think every time someone hears

a Kevin MacLeod song, they say,

oh, that's familiar.

It's maybe not, I don't have,

I haven't heard that precise
piece or that precise song,

but there's always a
familiar quality to it,

because there's always
a familiar quality to it

means he's not trying to
bring about or present people

with some new aesthetic idea about music.

Like for example,

Beethoven or Stravinsky might be,

or John Cage, he's not doing that.

He's presenting something that he thinks

will already be satisfying.

Everything has its purpose.

It doesn't have to be serious
in order to be effective,

and in order to be great.

His music doesn't really say something.

I wouldn't call it music

that is trying to make a statement at all.

And that's a little bit unusual.

Maybe

for that reason, this song,

which is called Carefree
and sounds Carefree,

maybe fits that scenario best.

It doesn't care to want
to make a statement.

It just lets itself be.

Kevin has so many musical styles.

I mean, you can find

almost any musical style
you like in his music.

He seems to have this uncanny ability

to do all sorts of genres,

great horror, great comedy,

great sort of backing tracks.

Like anything you want,
you can find that tone,

which is there, and I think
that's what makes him a genius.

The genre, he hasn't let anything

define him that way.

That's probably good for what he's doing,

because as game developers,

for us, it's good,

because we make so many
different, you know,

it's not like, I mean, if
you're a band, for example,

a musician in a band, you're like, oh,

I play all electronic or
I play country or play

whatever, rap or whatever,
you've got your style.

But game developers aren't
like that, we end up, you know,

we end up making a game
based on the wild west,

and then we make a game based on space,

and then we make a game
based on whatever, you know,

we're kind of all over the place,

so having a good variety is really cool.

If you're really into making your art,

you're gonna do it whether
you get paid for it or not,

and you need your supplies,

and Kevin is part of your art supplies.

I write music best

when it's for something,

when I have a target.

Every piece of music you write

will have an emotional impact.

If you stand out in a
field and fire an arrow

into the field of all possible emotions,

it will land somewhere,
it will do something.

Oh, hello everybody.

My name is Professor Peabody.

The producers have asked me to explain

Creative Commons by,

and royalty free music,

Creative Commons by AKA CC Pie,

is a licensed determined
by the content creator

that allows people to use their
copyrighted music for free,

as long as they give
credit to the artist, yay!

It's like if I gave you a free T-shirt,

but it has my logo on it.

Creative Commons by is a
license that is royalty-free.

Royalty-free can apply to
a regular copyrighted work,

and a Creative Commons piece.

It does not mean the work itself is free,

just that once the user of the art piece

has a license to the work,

they do not have to pay again,

again and again and again

and again, and again, and again.

To use it royalty-free,

it's like a gym membership
where you pay once

and it's free for a lifetime.

Or if you know the owner and
get a free lifetime pass.

Kevin primarily uses
Creative Commons by license.

No one other than the
artist or copyright holder

can apply a Creative Commons
by license to their work.

It does not mean the work
is in the public domain.

By giving work away for
free through attribution

it allows people to
easily find Kevin's music

through the credits.

Thank you, this is Professor
Peabody signing off.

I didn't know
that I was poor growing up.

Like we had a house.

My dad had a reasonable
job at a paper mill.

I didn't grow up in Green Bay.

I grew up outside of Green Bay,

about a half hour outside
of Green Bay, Sobieski.

It's a town of about 150 people,

two streets, four bars, and a church.

Anyway it's kind of a blue collar town.

I never think of that way,

'cause I don't know
any blue collar people,

but we have that blue collar work ethic

that you go in and you do your job.

You punch out when you're done.

So there are a few sort of

clear parts of being from Wisconsin.

There's a certain earnestness

and an acceptance of the world as it is.

And not trying to sort
of pretend that the world

is something other than
exactly what it is,

which then leads to a lot of hard work.

I think this comes largely from
the agricultural background

of a lot of the people there.

His dad's really into old tractors.

Like he collects old
tractors and he shows them

and it's such like a,

like a freak of nature.

Where did Kevin come from, you know?

My parents have been
nothing but supportive.

They don't understand anything that I do.

One of my favorite things that

Bonnie has said about Kevin,

when asked what he was like as a child,

is that he was really just
like a tiny man, tiny old man.

And I think to a certain
extent, that's true.

One time,

a bunch of my friends got
together in a Ford LTD.

And we went to the local club,

and we were playing Dixieland
music live in the car.

Like, you know, everyone
else was like, you know,

trying to like out blast
each other with their things.

It's like, yep, no, we got a
trombone, we got a clarinet,

we got a banjo, we got,

we got all this stuff
and we're just playing

live Dixieland music, you know,

it's like being cool in high school,

in this Ford LTD driving around.

That was interesting times.

Kevin has always had a
certain capacity for improv.

Like even as a child apparently,

according to his mom, anyway,

he would just sit at the piano
and just noodle things out.

He just, he always kind of had an affinity

for hearing, repeating, parroting,

and doing things on the fly.

So he was always a composer,
even as a little kid.

I had a few lessons.

I had lessons through the school,

like where they'll like pull
you out of English class,

like once a week and put you
with an apathetic piano teacher

who would sit and knit.

When Kevin
was nine years old,

he was not into sports,

but he was interested
in music and computers.

His brother was walking
around with his friends

when he came upon a cheap
Casio keyboard in a pawn shop.

He bought it for Kevin who took
to it like a fish in water,

and soon attached it to
his Commodore 64 computer

and started recording
his first compositions.

This was his first taste of the
capabilities afforded to him

by the marriage of music and technology.

It makes me feel
a bit bad to say, like,

I didn't think it was gonna take off,

but I don't think Kevin thought

it was gonna take off either.

Initially, I'm not sure if Kevin knew

how big his website would become.

I fail all the time,
almost everything I do fails,

almost everything.

Kevin started
Incompetech in 1996,

when there were only
100,000 websites on earth.

Today, there are over one trillion.

At first, Incompetech
didn't host any music.

But that changed when in 2000,

Kevin started giving
away his music for free.

I had a job as a web developer,

and I thought it would
be really funny to have

like, you know, the fusion of
incompetence and technology.

And so Incompetech was born,

and it was really just a playground for me

to try like new

like programming things and server stuff.

It was just a playground.

It wasn't for anything or anyone but me.

I think he just wanted
a creative outlet.

And at the time people were posting,

they're creating websites
about themselves.

You know, like this is my homepage

and here's the things that I do.

And I don't think Kevin wanted to do that.

I think he thought that
was kind of stupid.

Incompetech still is a joke.

It was a joke, it continues to be a joke.

If it stops being fun, I'm done.

There's no, there's no
reason for me to continue.

He like thought in maybe
a little different way,

as far as the web is concerned.

So he had like this background
knowledge that made him think

maybe I could present this
stuff in a different way.

I thought when I started doing this,

like what are the possible,

what are the possible
areas that I could go to?

What are the possible
things that I can do?

And I could go to LA and I
could do big budget films.

And I don't think I want to do that.

That seems like the
dream of a lot of people,

but it's not the dream of me.

Kevin lived in Wisconsin

for a really, really
long time before leaving.

Pete was showing him
bars in New York City,

and he'd be like, all right,

these are where you can get
like really great cocktails.

And I think like at one
point they met people

who were in the entertainment industry.

They did like video
production or something.

They were somehow tied
to some sort of network,

and they were like, Kevin MacLeod.

I love Kevin MacLeod, and then
they kind of tagged along.

Kevin was having such a good time

that by the end of the night he was angry.

He was like, this is not possible.

This should not be happening.

How can this be?

This should not exist.

And I said, Kevin,

I think you're having such a
good time that you're angry.

He's like, well, so.

I think that was like a real,

that was a cool moment for him,

because he realized that
there were people out there

who knew what his music was and you know,

they were really, really into it.

And I think that was around
the time that he started

thinking about moving to New York.

When I went to New York,

I was outside a 3LD
Theater and just, you know,

talking to some local
theater people and like,

hey, what do you do for a living?

What do you do?

I said, oh, I'm a composer.

It's like, oh yeah, but what do you do?

Like, I'm a composer.

Yeah, but for like a job.

I'm like, I am a composer.

Like oh shit, seriously?

And I'm like what?

Because apparently
everyone's got a day job,

and then this is the stuff
that they do on the side.

I don't know if Kevin
moved to New York to make it,

or I don't know if that really
played as much of an element.

I think it was more of a friendship thing.

The energy there is
exciting for all of us,

but I think it was in part
because he had some friends there

and he really liked community.

Kevin loved living in close proximity

to all those other musicians.

I think it was exactly what
he wanted, and he got it,

and they played music together.

They collaborated.

I think he was inspired just
by living with other musicians.

Somebody's on the piano
at seven in the morning.

People are writing out to 2:00 a. m.

And I'm like, well, I got
to keep up with these guys.

And I didn't realize at the time

that I was trying to keep up
with four different people.

So I got really good at
like really long hours

and working quickly during that time.

One of the roommates
decided to experiment

with sleep deprivation.

And so she just stopped sleeping
and went totally insane,

and was running around
the apartment naked,

and started messing with Kevin's puppets,

and if you know Kevin,

he takes his puppets extremely seriously.

Be gone crazy lady.

You don't mess with his puppets.

It was just chaos.

It was pure chaos.

It's sort of like what we imagined

Brooklyn would be like from college,

came out and set up all this stuff and

we could kind of be loud
and do what we wanted,

and just sort of lived together.

He got a really dumpy apartment

because he was afraid that if he spent

too much money on rent or signed a lease

on an apartment that was too expensive,

that he was gonna find
himself in financial trouble.

You know, if you're the
biggest fish in a small pond,

you got to move to a bigger
pond to see how good are you.

And yeah,

I sort of went there and then I proceeded

to get exactly no jobs.

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa,

they created a animated series

based on the mascot named Zakumi,

who was this lovable lion.

So we worked out the details.

He's like, this is,

we're not really sure how
much it's going to pay,

but right now, like I need
to make them an offer.

We're gonna kind of negotiate it.

But I want to know that if I pick this up,

that I'm gonna have somebody

who's gonna be able to help me

because it's gonna be a lot of work.

And I was like, yeah,
dude, anything you need,

absolutely I'll do it.

The first couple of episodes came out

like with a lot of space in between them.

And we'd have a couple of
days to complete an episode.

After that, things started to
get really condensed though,

because as the animation got backed up,

they still had to adhere
to their release schedule,

and episodes are still
coming out on television.

So if anything happened
in the production process,

all of a sudden we'd have
to make up for that time.

So there was a point where
I think we had to score

over an episode in 24 hours.

Deadlines are motivational.

They really help you stop

second guessing yourself.

So Kevin and I ended
up sleeping in shifts,

where he would write for a
while, for as long as he could,

I would sleep.

And then he would wake me up.

He'd go out and get food.

I would sit down and start scoring.

He'd bring me back something to eat,

I'd eat while I was scoring,

and then he'd fall asleep,

and then I'd work for as long as I could.

And then I'd stop, wake him up,

and then we'd swap places
and just kind of keep

going back and forth like that

until an episode was done, basically.

I was told initially when I
was brought on to the project

that I was gonna get a certain amount.

We got some of the money upfront

and then I don't think we got
paid after that again, ever.

At the time Kevin knew that
I was not doing super well

and that I had basically quit a job

so I could work on this
project for the entire time.

And I needed to pay rent,

I needed to be able to
buy food and everything.

So fortunately he was
good enough to pay me

out of his own pocket,

exactly what he promised
that he would pay me.

And I knew that he wasn't
getting paid for this.

Like I knew the financial situation.

In the end I made about how
much he told me I would,

I didn't get any of the bonuses.

But then again, he got nothing.

Kevin told me a story
where he did get ripped off

for like thousands of dollars,

like a director just skipped
out and didn't pay him.

And to me that would be, you know,

earth shattering or whatever.

And to Kevin, it's just like,

yeah, I'd work for that director again.

He was a good director.

Kevin, again, can be stressed out

by a lot of external stimulus,

so when there's a lot of
people constantly around

or people shouting or loud
noises from like the subway,

or cars, just being like
honking horns and stuff.

I think it's really difficult sometimes

for him to shut all this out.

And he just like internalizes
it and it becomes too much.

It was like the adjustment
of being in New York

and all the noise that's
constant in New York,

versus here is always quiet,

but both sides he's told
me that it affects him too.

In New York, sometimes the constant noise,

he just can't handle it.

And that's why he would come back here.

I listen to podcasts.

This is because I have to stop my brain

from going into overdrive all the time.

And so I have to listen to
people thinking, people talking,

and I don't listen to music
for fun, 'cause it's not fun.

He's a small town guy

who loves a lot of the
things in the big city,

but ultimately he has a hard time

just like existing in the big city.

He knows that there's nothing wrong.

I know there's nothing wrong.

I know that if I act happy
and do stuff and smile,

that smiling actually releases
endorphins and will help,

and pretending to be happy

releases endorphins and will help.

And yet that's too much
effort to do right now,

so I'm not gonna

Yeah, depression sucks.

People having access
to too much of his life

can also be hard.

So especially, when you're in New York,

people can just drop by your apartment,

especially he lived in Chelsea,

he was like this meeting place.

So people could just stop by all the time.

And I think he has a very
difficult time saying no,

because he likes people.

So yeah, just stop on
by, we'll go hang out.

And I think he also
sometimes underestimates

how much he's able to take on.

And you can see him sort of like

getting worn down a little bit.

He'll start kind of
withdrawing more and more.

It's happened a couple of times now

where he's retreated back to Wisconsin.

There's a lot things that I
just attribute as Kevin-ous.

That's Kevin, that's who he is.

Kevin is Kevin, you know,

but there may be certain things from

that he's wrestled with,

anxiety or depression-wise that have like

molded his entire personality.

The only thing that matters
is from now going forward,

what can I do from now going forward?

Everything in the past, that's past,

and I have no patience for
it, I don't care about it.

Did it form what I do?

Probably,

but I don't think about it.

I don't remember well,
because I don't care about it.

Every year, in
the small town of Pulaski,

not far from Kevin's hometown of Sobieski,

they hold the Pulaski
Polka Days Music Festival.

This offbeat music festival

was just the type of thing Kevin needed.

On the insistence of his brother,

Kevin began his journey

into the quirky musical
genre that is polka.

Within a week, an enamored Kevin

made an entire polka album

and gave his brother a copy.

Polka songs are among Kevin's most popular

and memorable compositions to this day.

Kevin has a way of making songs

people don't think they need,

but wind up needing all the same.

So Kevin and I go way back

from into to Green Bay, Wisconsin,

I used to go to the comedy,

it was called Comedy
Sportz then in Green Bay,

and Kevin was the piano player there.

Kevin was all, he was Mister Music.

He was up in the voice
booth with a keyboard

kind of playing along with everybody else.

I happened to be a performer

and also play keyboard
for our improv troupe.

So he ended up doing the
improv for one night,

he did one show.

He trained and learned how
to do it and did one show

and decided he didn't like it.

I was looking to be relentlessly
happy the entire show,

and just be that guy,

who is just a fountain of joy,

which is not who I am, by the way.

So for an improv comedy show,

there would be these scenes that happen,

and people come out and
kind of perform a little,

and then they might all of a sudden,

burst into song if they feel like it.

Kevin was master at feeling,

when someone was moving in that direction.

And then he was really good at

making a song that had some,

even some predictable chord
changes and things like that,

so you could actually sing
along to what Kevin was doing.

♪ I know, I know ♪

♪ Oh my goodness ♪

There was no script, by definition.

So Kevin couldn't prepare anything.

And even, you know, moment by moment,

the actors would totally change direction.

Improv comedy is

just like the first take
of what I do in reality.

So when I get a film, I
will play along to it.

I don't even know where
it's going and you know,

I'll hit record, I'll play along to it,

and then I'll go, oh,
that's where it's going.

Going back to the improv comedy

straight through his
like royalty-free stuff.

It's all kind of they're related.

Like he needs those same
skills for all that.

In order to write tracks very quickly,

there definitely is an
improvisatory element.

You just kind of have to
pick an idea and go with it.

The advantage is that
he would quickly learn

to be able to make pastiches
of different styles of music.

A lot of music that you
think is orchestral in movies

is not completely orchestral,

because orchestras are expensive.

And if you just need a,

if you just need the viola
section to do a simple thing,

yeah, the software can do it just fine,

because they recorded a viola section

doing that simple thing.

I think the general public

probably doesn't know that
a lot of music is digital,

that is, music that
samples real instruments.

The production has gotten ridiculous

in the last, you know, five, six years.

Yeah, no, you can't tell the difference.

I can't tell the difference.

Nobody can tell the difference.

It's insulting to the
audience to say that an audience

can't tell the difference
between a karaoke machine,

basically a virtual orchestra,

and real live musicians

who have trained for many, many years.

To the person out there who
says and has already told us,

what, no live musicians?

I'm not going.

They're gonna get a great show.

In our judgment their show
that they're gonna get

is gonna be absolutely terrific.

It's not what people are
paying $100 a ticket for.

I mean, live theater is much different

than that's machine made.

I'm going
to play two recordings,

one of a real orchestra in a sound booth,

and the other covering the
music, using a keyboard.

Can you tell the difference?

In the first recording
you're hearing the orchestra,

and the second was the keyboard.

If you pay close enough attention,

you could tell the difference.

But for many producers,

it's close enough to justify
paying the keyboard player,

rather than paying the whole orchestra.

How many instruments do
I have available to me?

I haven't a clue.

Hang on, I'll be right back.

♪ Let's all go to the lobby ♪

♪ Let's all go to the lobby
to get ourselves a treat ♪

I'm back.

Yeah, I just checked instruments that,

it's thousands, it's in the thousands.

There's a lot of different things.

Like I have like seven different flutes

that I use for different things.

When you're working
on music on your own,

and you are the sole producer,

and you're using computers

to make an orchestral
soundtrack, for example,

I'm the violinist.

I'm the flute player.

I'm the conductor.

I'm the recording engineer.

I'm the person mixing
and mastering the score.

When you work with live players,

each one of those individual voices

brings something to your music.

You're gonna play all by yourself?

You don't need anybody else.

That's not music Martelli,
that's masturbation.

As early as 1980,

the film Fame shot down the idea

that one man could compose everything.

However, in 1982, Fame the TV show,

followed this up with the idea
that orchestras are dying.

Orchestras need strings.

Orchestras are an endangered species.

Really, you can do it
all on one instrument.

If you've got a keyboard
and some oscillators

and the right combination of wave forms,

you wouldn't need to make
all these dinosaur tracks.

Dinosaur tracks?

The question really is,

do people care enough
to have live musicians

in their soundtracks?

Do the consumers care?

I think that musicians care,

the composers care,
directors and producers care.

One of the things that comes up a lot

with digitally-produced music,

where you're using samples of instruments,

is that it can sound
very, very mechanical.

It can sound like a digital orchestra.

The way that Kevin

moves away from that,

is that he includes certain imperfections,

certain variations in tempo,

certain late or early onsets of pitches,

things like that,

things that a normal orchestra would do.

And, and it helps the music
breathe a little bit more

and have a more organic feel to it.

One of the major
problems that people who

start out writing like digital music do,

is they fix all their
mistakes that they play in.

And so everything runs right
on the beat, right on the beat,

right on the beat.

You don't want your live
recordings to sound too live.

But at the same time,

you don't want your electronic
music to sound too sterile,

too without soul.

An orchestra is

a community.

They breathe together.

They feel together.

And sometimes you're gonna get something

out of an orchestra that a single brain

is gonna have an idea of what they want,

but a single brain is just a single brain.

It's not the group coming
together towards a common goal.

So I think there's a certain
amount of spontaneity

that occurs with live orchestral
recordings for film scores,

that can be lost if you
go strictly to digital.

It's still music if you create it all

with synthetic instruments.

It's still just as much music as

if you hired a whole orchestra to do it.

About 12 years ago,

I was in the Minneapolis airport,

and I was listening to a demo of

some software, I forget what it was.

And it was the Mozart Clarinet Concerto.

And I was crying,

and it was synthesized.

I can't tell, I don't care.

I don't care where the emotion comes from.

Just because electronics has
been made to do it, I mean,

there was still somebody
working that software

to make it evoke that in me.

It wasn't a real clarinet
player, but man, man it did good.

While there
are fears that music

is losing its soul by having more

one person orchestras doing everything,

the benefits have been explosive.

There are now more composers
than there's ever been.

Before, music was limited
to physical media,

and use was strictly controlled.

Now, with access to the internet,

music is everywhere.

Back in the day,

before you could download
anything from the internet,

before, even maybe before
the internet existed,

if you wanted sound effects
or royalty-free music,

you bought it on a CD,
and these CDs would be,

you know, they'd be fairly expensive.

I remember them being like $400

for like a four CD set of music clips.

And it would be like
Christmas songs or love songs,

or you know, sometimes they'd be themic.

I had one of these and
it was mixed music and

sound effects.

I never used any of it, it was horrible.

Yeah, I've suggested to students

a few different times like

to use Kevin's music, because
I think that, you know,

once we found out that it would work

in a professional level
video game, and it was free,

and students are like, well,

you know, they're making their games.

And then I would say,
well, did you add audio?

And they're like, no, how
am I going to do that?

I'm like, well,

there's plenty of sources
out there to do that.

I think the best
aspects of the internet,

and what it's able to do
is to bring people together

in a sharing economy or in
a way to help each other,

that you might not otherwise.

And one of the best ways that comes out

is through things like Incompetech,

where you can download music,

you can be a student in you know,

Westchester County, New York,

or in Brooklyn or in Green
Bay or in LA or in Alaska,

or Germany or Japan or anywhere,

and go to the same website and find it,

and take a song and use it.

I've had students come up to me,

even before I've shown them

the libraries of royalty-free music,

that I'd like them to take
a look at, they've got them.

They're like, can we use that one

that goes doo doo doo doo doo.

Yeah, I guess.

Now, when they used Kevin's music,

their final product sounded professional.

When they used some song
that they ripped off of,

you know, whatever CD or off of iTunes,

it sounded like a school project.

It sounded like some kid was desperate

and just pulled in some
piece of copyrighted music,

'cause they had to put
music in the background.

Someone will cut something
in and they'll hear that piece

cut in from another student, right?

If they're not using
headphones, they'll play it.

Or have a student say, hey,
take a look at my video,

and they play it out loud.

And if a kid hears like
a piece of Kevin's music

that they use in their
piece, they will say,

you can't use that, that's mine.

I put it in my movie
first, you can't use that.

They will fight over it.

Kevin's music
is changing education.

Teachers are now being educated

on how to integrate Creative Commons music

into the classroom.

They are then teaching their students

about Creative Commons.

For those who go out to make films,

they, in many cases, have
donated to or hired him

for custom compositions.

Even if they don't give Kevin money,

just by using his music
and giving Kevin credit,

they're advertising his music.

Kevin's business model
is a mystery to me.

I have no idea how, or if, he makes money.

That is, that is the end.

That is all I know.

Kevin saw a need in the industry,

that there needed to be music

that was free for producers to use.

And so he stepped up and
put his music in 100%,

and allowed these people
to build their careers,

build their YouTube channels,

their empires, using his music.

And so as they grew, he grew with them.

And now, yeah, they're coming back to me

and they're hiring me for like real jobs,

once they get like budgets and stuff.

Because he gets so much music out there,

people know who he is,

he's top of mind.

And that means if people
need a custom composition,

they need something of a certain length.

They need something of a certain mood,

he's likely to come to mind.

And so his custom business relies in part

on his Creative Commons output.

You're giving away your music for free,

but by so doing, it lets
people know who you are,

and it becomes viral.

People, that is your marketing tool.

So instead of spending millions
of dollars on marketing,

you're just giving away your music.

If you want to impact the
most people with your artwork,

you get your artwork in front
of the most people possible.

And if there's a barrier
to entry where like,

it's going to cost me, you know,
$12 to download this album.

Maybe I don't want to spend $12,

but I want to download the album.

Okay, how about we make it free?

Done.

I think that Kevin's business model

is a really interesting one.

It's a really great one
because he's found a way

to navigate this new landscape,

which is really disorienting

a lot of musicians and composers.

And I think that that's amazing.

The drawback is only really for those

who don't have the following that he has.

It obviously becomes complicated.

You go to his website.

You see that there's a guy
that gives his music away.

This was kind of unheard
of on this scale back then.

And so since he was one of
the first people to do that,

I think a lot of people
utilized his free music,

put it up on their videos,

and it kind of just continued
to propagate itself.

If he truly thought that,

if I crank out a shit-ton of music,

somewhere down the line,

something's gonna stick and
I'm gonna make money on it.

Boy, if that was his mind thought,

that's either total genius
or absolute insanity.

In 2002, after two years

of posting music to Incompetech,

Kevin quit his job as a programmer.

With $20,000 in savings,

he devoted himself to making music.

With debts and troubles plaguing his mind,

he was worried that he might
actually become homeless.

It took many years, but finally in 2006,

he could live off the revenue
his business model generated.

He now makes a living while
influencing and aiding

millions of people around the world.

Kevin stated that he's now

within the top 1% of earners in Wisconsin.

He gets his money through four sources,

ad revenue, $30 licenses,

if you cannot credit his work,

donations, and through
custom compositions.

By giving away his music for free,

he's generated a viral marketing campaign

without the intention of doing so.

This is an incredible musical moment,

because on the one hand,

there are tremendous
drawbacks that have happened

because of the technological explosion.

That for example,

it is hard for many musicians
to make ends meet now.

And the question is,

at what point does someone
pay them for their work?

Does someone pay them

for the songwriting they've been doing,

for the practicing, for all
the hours that they're doing?

And there was a very funny cartoon

that was circulating, for example,

that had one guy saying, hey, come,

I have this new restaurant.

Will you come play the restaurant?

It's great exposure,

while the restaurants
having its opening weeks.

And the musician writes
back and goes, yeah, yeah.

Why don't you come cook
dinner for me and my family?

And it'll be great exposure.

I'll have a bunch of friends
over, we'll all eat your food.

It's a party, Doris,

they need a singer and
you, you need exposure.

So, you're going.

I'm not.

I keep hearing about the Hugo license,

and I don't know what the
economic opportunity costs

would have been for the
one or several music cues

that would have gone
to some other composer,

but instead went to Kevin in that film.

And it's not just the movies

where Kevin could potentially
be taking away jobs.

It's for commercials, as well.

Big corporations like KFC and Vita Coco

have used Kevin's music for a fraction

of what they could have paid
for a custom composition.

Over the course of
making this documentary,

we approached composer forums,

and we've received constant attacks

about how Kevin is stealing their jobs.

We've even received emails to this effect.

Kevin, you're a great musician
and your music is wonderful,

but you are hurting many, many composers

who are trying to make a living

in this incredibly tough industry
by giving away free music.

You are getting game devs,
directors, and producers

used to not paying for music,

which they barely want to do as it is.

You claim you're helping
people who can't afford music,

and I'm sure you are,

but you are also hurting countless artists

by making music free the norm.

So if a composer thinks
that I'm taking their job

by offering my stuff at a better rate,

what should you do?

If you're a hardware store and
Walmart moves in next door,

what should you do?

So,

Amazon, Amazon exists now.

Sorry, Amazon exists now,

you can't un-Amazon the world.

Yeah, I think that
the composers are right.

Other musicians works like Kevin's

is devaluing the work of composers,

but I don't agree that that's a bad thing.

I think that in some respects,

Kevin and other composers
that license music for free,

do have some de-valuing effect

on some of the music that is created,

and purposely built for film and TV.

I don't think there's
any question about that,

but you need to think about
the user, the licensee too.

And the fact of the matter is

that most music is not fungible.

Most producers of films,

especially indie film directors,

will always want to use
the best possible music

that they can get to fit
their particular project

at their particular budget.

If I sell a video right now,

if I sell a video I've been told,

never, ever give it away for free.

I was told this, you
know, my whole career,

never, ever give a screening for free,

never do anything for free, because why?

You're gonna hurt your business
for your sales end of it.

And I understand the
reasoning behind that,

but now you have a business model

that helps you gain exposure,

and get to be that person

so that people know about your work.

And there's a theory that the people

that are getting your stuff for free,

are not the people that would
ever spend money to get it.

Yeah, it is weird like that.

You know, I guess it's great publicity,

getting your music out there,

but do you really want your
music in a pornography,

as opposed to something as big as Hugo?

I think that's what
jumps out at me as well,

is that it's kinda like, is that,

I'm sure he's well aware of that,

but that seems like an inherent risk

in like letting anybody and
everybody use your music.

Music used against my moral conscience.

I don't think that's even possible.

I've what, like, when you go to like,

I don't like take, like,
what is the worst thing?

Nazi propaganda film,
where they kill puppies.

Let's take that.

Let's say I go to see that film.

And I'm like, oh man, this
composer is a terrible person.

Don't think the composer
is a terrible person.

They had a job to do.

Like, even if they wrote the music

specifically for Nazis killing puppies,

they just had a job to do.

They wanted to make
people feel a certain way.

They had a client, they did a thing.

It has nothing to do.

I don't have any musical political views.

I don't think political
views are possible in music.

There's nothing against
my musical conscience,

because it can't happen.

And contemplated Donald
Trump's visit to APAC.

As a historian, I can't help but recall

a famous quote of president Harry S Truman

when he was faced with enormous
Zionist pressure on Israel.

Let me just ask my audience.

Do you guys think Jesus is love?

Do you think that one of the
most barbaric torture devices

ever conceived of, represents love?

Our intelligence agencies,
such as the CIA, FBI, MI6,

keeping us safe from all

of the dangerous terrorists worldwide.

Once you publish something,

once something goes out into the world,

it's not yours anymore.

It takes on a life of its own.

And it goes to where it's going to go.

And sometimes assholes take it.

I can kind of envision maybe

one person with a lot of machines,

tapes and electronics setups,

singing or speaking, and using machines.

Jim Morrison
predicted the future

for the recording industry, but
he was also right elsewhere.

Live performance, which one would assume

would be the last bastion of live music

has been threatened as well.

In 2003, the Musician's Union
Local 802 went on strike,

due to the reduction of the minimum number

of required live
musicians in an orchestra.

This furthered fears over being replaced

by digital orchestras,

people like

And a machine is a dead thing.

That they're willing
to withstand a strike,

and the technology will
win out, no matter what,

and we might as well get used to it.

Which means what

for you and other musicians?

Maybe no job?

Definitely no job.

I don't know.

Other than that, we might
have to find new careers.

The fear of musicians

being replaced by synthesizer
artists like Kevin,

has been going on for decades.

Local 802 went on strike in 1975, 1993,

and the aforementioned 2003.

The minimum number of musicians required

for a large Broadway show,

has gone down from 26 to 19.

In other fields, such as
TV, movies, and video games,

synthesizer artists have
had a bigger impact,

especially in lower budget titles.

Rather than fighting technology,

the Creative Commons
organization, founded in 2001,

created a series of licenses,

allowing people to choose
how much of their rights

they want to give away
within the copyright system.

Thus, it allows musicians
more freedom of choice

in the distribution of their music.

This has led to an explosion
of creativity and sharing

never seen before.

However, some people have
issues with the license.

Copyright infringement is gonna happen.

Whether people give their
music away for free or not.

Someone's always gonna rip
something off the internet.

Creative Commons is like
a burglar alarm system

without the actual alarm.

It's like the sign on your
lawn without the alarm.

In 2009, Paul Williams,

the head of the American
Society of Composers,

Authors and Publishers, AKA ASCAP,

wrote a memo in which he
called on ASCAP's members,

in an effort to raise
funds for a lobbying effort

to destroy Creative Commons.

He fears that groups
such as Creative Commons,

simply do not want to pay
for the use of our music,

and that their mission
is to spread the word

that our music should be free.

The counter-argument some
make regarding the memo

is that Creative Commons
as an organization,

and as a license does
not function that way.

Creative Commons gives artists the choice

to give away their music for free

under certain specific conditions.

One cannot force other artists or works

to use a Creative Commons license.

It's fear-mongering and
it's a complete distortion.

It's also, you know,

articulated at a level
where I would be surprised

that intelligent people would read this

and think it's serious.

It's just kind of silly.

You see, you see?

Your stupid minds, stupid, stupid.

It's born from a
willful misunderstanding

of what free culture
is actually promoting,

and what it's about.

Would they rather I not exist? Maybe.

I mean, I would rather they didn't exist.

So I'm sure the feeling's mutual.

My initial reaction to the ASCAP memo

is that there is room for concern.

They do have a right to be concerned,

because one of their big
ways to generate income

is being challenged by this movement

of providing music for free.

The old systems are really upset,

otherwise they would not be fighting this.

They wouldn't see themselves in a position

where they have to form a lobby

to fight open source Creative Commons,

or do any of that, that
stops the conversation.

It's always the same with people.

I guess you always have to
realize that there are people

afraid of losing their jobs,

or losing what they
are doing in the world.

So sometimes I guess it's not about

arguments or politics.

Sometimes it's just really that
people are afraid of change.

Kevin's kind of a conundrum.

Kevin seems to like being
part of communities,

but large groups freak him out.

He likes to be by himself,

but he also sees the value in community.

And so he's found this
niche through the internet,

having both of those
things at the same time.

As much as Kevin thinks
he's not a people person.

It's a lie, I've seen it.

I've seen him connect.

I don't like hanging out with people.

I'm not really a people person.

This is a terrible thing to say.

This is gonna sound wrong, but it's not.

And I mean this in the best of all ways,

he is like

a mental train wreck,

but a train wreck in a positive way,

if there's such a thing.

Hey, it's your favorite
composer, Kevin MacLeod.

This is my piano, the Duchess.

Today, we're gonna do a
thing that I sometimes do,

which is just listen to chords.

I've got imposter syndrome, hardcore.

I have no idea why I'm successful.

And once people figure it out,

I think everyone's going to abandon me.

And the longer that I've lived,

it's gotten a little bit
better over time, but yeah,

it is a problem, it is a major problem,

which is why, like I
don't really spend money,

'cause I'm like, oh well,

this is all gonna collapse tomorrow.

Tomorrow, there's gonna
be a newspaper article,

Kevin MacLeod, shitty composer, ah crap.

Well, there goes all that.

I had a great life everybody, bye.

He did experience some panic,

like severe panic attacks,

and I know there were times
where he wasn't feeling well,

then I'd kind of like, you
know, visit him and we'd talk.

It's not just depression,

I think he's got manic depression.

He's got the highs as well as the lows.

And I think if he's not
straight up like involved

in some music production of normal work,

he'll try one of these other avenues

and get really excited about
this thing and do that.

He released a series of tracks,

and I think they were called Ossuary.

It was like Ossuary,

and they were just numbered

Ossuary, like one, two, three, whatever.

And I think those to me seemed
like they were definitely

much more like naked and emotional,

like that was him sort of saying things

that he wanted to say without,

that he wasn't able to say verbally.

Right now.

Yeah.

I treat a lot of my
depression with alcohol,

and it kind of works.

There was a period where I think

at least on two occasions,

Kevin had called an ambulance

when he was living in his apartment,

because he was feeling so panicked

that he was afraid that something
might be seriously wrong.

Like there might be like a heart attack

or something like that.

I know he was like,

he was having trouble
controlling his breathing

and there was, he was
feeling faint and you know,

better safe than sorry.

But I think on both occasions,

the first time it happened,
they were like, you're fine.

You know, it was fine.

Then it happened again fairly
I think soon afterwards,

it happened again,

and he was like, okay, now this is really,

he was trying to like
rationalize his way through it,

because he's very intelligent person,

I think at some point
it just became too much.

And he was just like,
I can't deal with this.

So he ended up calling them again,

and I think on the second
time and they were like, hey,

so this is the second time
that you've done this.

Again, you're fine.

What do you think the problem is?

And then he was just like,

I know I've wasted everybody's time.

He felt really badly about that.

I know Kevin works through

anxiety issues,

and I've been with him at times

when stuff gets overwhelming.

But I see him as somebody
who has it under control,

who has kind of overcome these struggles.

What's next?

Anxiety,
and maybe something-

That's really kind of important.

Well, and the
panic attacks in New York.

That happened.

Because let's
talk a little bit about that.

Because was that something
that triggered you returning?

No.

Sort of.

Kind of.
- What happened?

We're still rolling.

Kevin's destiny
was tied to the explosion

in user-generated content,

and the increase in amateur videography.

With the rise of YouTube,

more and more people needed
music for their videos,

and Kevin had been making
two to three songs a week,

for six years.

The major factor that launched Kevin

was when YouTube cracked down

on the use of copy-written music,

introducing pay partnerships in 2008.

Suddenly people could
make money through YouTube

and all they needed was music

that was free and legal to use.

As YouTube has gained popularity,

and more and more people in today's age

want to create content
instead of just consume it.

Music is part of that.

Music is part of nearly
every video on YouTube.

So there is a huge increase
in demand for music.

I mean, you could shoot video,

and you could put it online before,

but it was expensive and
it was weird and like,

there was no central place for it.

Yeah, YouTube was absolutely huge,

in getting my music out to
a lot of people really fast.

The question has to
be the other way around.

Do I know online creators who
have not used Kevin's music?

Because I think like nearly all of them.

I think I first heard
about Kevin MacLeod

and incompetech. com when
I was at a YouTube event,

and we were talking about
copyright-free music,

and everyone there knew
about it except me.

So I feel like I was being
brought into this club

of independent filmmakers who
desperately need good music.

And that was like the secret
that was being shared with me.

It was like a rite of passage

being introduced to Kevin MacLeod's music.

It's easy to forget that
this was just one website

and everybody was using it.

One guy, one website.

Everybody was using it
because it was the only place

that you could like get music
to help level up your content.

In my mind, like Kevin's like that guy

that helps out YouTubers, right?

But it never really occurs to me

that his music reaches that far.

I've never really thought

that his reach was that incredible.

Like, at that point
that's worldwide, right?

So that shows you what
Creative Commons can do,

it can take over the world.

The thing I love about
his music the most honestly,

is just listening to song
after song after song,

and being inspired by the music,

to go out and shoot something

that I didn't even think of before.

I think Kevin is a great guy.

I think what he's done

for the independent film
business is phenomenal.

He's had more impact than
perhaps any other single person,

because he's provided us with all of these

really high quality tracks.

And I mean,

you can tell by the number
of people who have used him,

by the a number of videos that
are published with his music,

by the views on those videos.

You know, by his status
in this whole industry,

you can tell that he has had
like a revolutionary impact

on independent filmmaking
and especially YouTubers.

I know he rarely does things

to benefit himself solely.

Like that's not why he would do a thing.

I'd say what makes Kevin tick

is generosity and

a desire to be recognized.

Creative side is what makes him tick.

It makes him try new things,

it makes him,

do new things and

listen to new things
and look at new things

and play with new things.

I do think it is the
optimism that makes Kevin tick.

It gives him a reason to
get up in the morning,

a reason to keep doing anything, honestly.

His belief in

the goodness of humanity,

and in the continual betterment of people,

it gives him a reason to go on.

Is that what makes him tick?

I don't know.

Kevin is Kevin, so he's not
an easily read human being.

People, people die.

And it's horrible.

There's no,

there's nothing good that comes from this.

He,

when I went to his funeral,

a lot of people came up to me and said,

how much of a difference
that he made their lives.

And,

he impacted me quite a lot.

And,

I don't know, I don't know.

I don't know who I'd be without him.

I really don't.

I really live by what he said to me,

'cause he didn't say he didn't pronounce

a lot of things to me.

I really just lived by what,

how he lived,

because he was very well
respected by everyone.

And,

that's kind of how I go.

I wish to be well-respected by everyone.

How do
you think you're doing?

How do you think I'm doing?

You can't ask me that

because you know what I would say.

How do you think I'm doing?

It's very cute.

This is kind of a cheesy music.

Sounds like a circus song.

I think it's from a movie, right?

I know this, too.

But I have no idea where I know them from.

I can't remember, I don't know.

The TV, coffeehouse.

This I know.

Is this from an advertisement?

I've heard this one at
the concerts in my city.

I heard it in some cinema,
or maybe animation thing.

Sounds like an intro for a
cartoon or something like that.

Kevin did a lot of music
that will always be there.

That's a good thing about trading music.

It's not like making
bread and somebody eats it

and then it's gone.

His music will be there forever.

And I guess it will be used forever.

I think even when he's dead and I'm dead

and our kids are dead,

if the world is still here,

we're all gonna be singing at some point,

dah dah dah dum,

dah dah dah dum.

Kevin means more to me

than, you know, just
the website or the music

or the fact that he's famous

or the fact that he's

the most interesting person

in any room that no one knows, you know,

because he's not pompous.

He's not gonna prove he's
the most interesting person

in the room.

I know that if society
doesn't collapse completely,

I'm going to be around for a long time,

because at least one of those

millions and millions of
things that my music is in

is going to last hundreds of
years, possibly thousands.

And that's pretty cool.

Oh, do I have anything I want to say

specifically to Kevin?

Just in case you ever see this,

thank you so much for
everything you've done

for the YouTube community,

for what you've done
for aspiring filmmakers,

and what you've done for me personally.

Without your music,

I would not be as much of
a success as I am today,

so thank you.

First person to 10,000
pieces of music wins.

Thank you for bringing

your voice into our language,

and into our works,

and helping us create and
become better artists.

Thank you.

If he was sitting here,

I'd want to go up and
give him a great big hug.

Tell him I'd love to go
to a Packers game with him.

We should hang out more.

He should come to,

he should perform more here at the bar.

Hi Kevin.

If people take the time to

get to know you better,

they're gonna discover you're
one hell of a human being.