Kevin MacLeod ( ; born September 28, 1972) is an American composer and music producer.
MacLeod has composed over 2,000 pieces of
royalty-free library music and made them available under a
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
copyright license.
This licensing allows anyone to use his music for free, as long as he receives credit for the song, and has led to his music being used in thousands of films, millions of videos on YouTube,
and in video games such as ''
Kerbal Space Program
''Kerbal Space Program'' (''KSP'') is a space flight simulation video game developed by Mexican developer Squad for Microsoft Windows, macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system de ...
''. As of 2017, his music is featured on one of the live feeds from the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
, ''Earth From Space.''
One of his compositions, ''"Monkeys Spinning Monkeys,”'' is among the most-played on
TikTok
TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes.
TikTok is an international version ...
; from January through June 2021 it was played 31,612,975,915 times.
Early life
MacLeod was born on September 28, 1972, in
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...
. He went to the
University of Wisconsin–Green Bay
The University of Wisconsin–Green Bay (UW-Green Bay, UWGB, or Green Bay) is a public university in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with regional campuses in Marinette, Wisconsin, Marinette, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Manitowoc, and Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Shebo ...
, where he studied music education.
Career
Music distribution
MacLeod states that he releases his music under
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
licenses to maximize the number of people who can use his music.
On his website's FAQ, he expressed disdain for the current state of
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
; he hopes to create "an alternate body of works that is able to compete with them".
MacLeod's most popular license is the
CC BY
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyrics ...
; his music is free to use but must be credited.
A no-attribution license is also available for people who are unwilling or unable to provide credit to MacLeod; the license costs $30 for one song, $50 for two songs, and $20 per song for three or more songs.
MacLeod has also created FreePD.com, which collects new
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
sound recordings by various artists. Rather than waiting for old copyrights to expire, he hopes to provide a quality library of modern recorded works by artists who explicitly release their music into the public domain.
Some of MacLeod's own music is available on the website as well; he explains that these songs are "not commercially viable in the traditional sense, and just add clutter
n his primary websitewhich hinders people in finding the pieces that they may want."
Subject of documentary
MacLeod is the subject of a documentary film titled ''
Royalty Free: The Music of Kevin MacLeod''. The film had a limited release in October 2020. Ryan Camarda, the film's director and producer, ran a fundraising campaign on
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
with a goal of $30,000; by the end of the campaign, 524 backers had pledged a total of $30,608.
According to the Kickstarter page, the amount was needed for transportation in order to conduct in-person interviews with the various subjects featured in the film.
The documentary has received positive reviews from critics.
Awards and accolades
In 2015, MacLeod was awarded the International Honorary Web Video Award at the 2015 German Web Video Awards by the European Web Video Academy for his lifetime achievement in influencing the German web video community.
Discography
Albums
* 2006: ''Dorney Rock''
* 2006: ''Missing Hits 2''
* 2012: ''Cuentos de Recuperación'' (with Sonia Echezuria)
* 2014: ''Horror Soundscapes''
* 2014: ''Highland Strands''
* 2014: ''Ghostpocalypse''
* 2014: ''Calming''
* 2014: ''Hard Electronic''
* 2014: ''Madness and Paranoia''
* 2014: ''PsychoKiller''
* 2014: ''Supernatural Haunting''
* 2014: ''The Ambient''
* 2014: ''Cephalopod''
* 2014: ''Dark World''
* 2014: ''Disco Ultralounge''
* 2014: ''Polka! Polka! Polka!''
* 2014: ''Primal Drive''
* 2014: ''Sadness''
* 2014: ''The Descent''
* 2014: ''Dark Continent''
* 2014: ''Wonders''
* 2014: ''Action Cuts''
* 2014: ''Aspiring''
* 2014: ''Light Electronic''
* 2014: ''Medium Electronic''
* 2014: ''Mystery''
* 2014: ''Tenebrous Brothers Carnival''
* 2014: ''Atlantean Twilight''
* 2014: ''Healing''
* 2014: ''Latinesque''
* 2014: ''Take the Lead''
* 2014: ''Thatched Villagers''
* 2014: ''Happyrock''
* 2014: ''Music to Delight''
* 2014: ''Silent Film: Light Collection''
* 2014: ''Vadodara''
* 2014: ''Bitter Suite''
* 2014: ''Comedy Scoring''
* 2014: ''Reunited''
* 2014: ''Funkorama''
* 2014: ''Oddities''
* 2014: ''Silent Film: Dark Collection''
* 2015: ''Christmas!''
* 2015: ''Darkness''
* 2015: ''Exhilarate''
* 2015: ''Film Noire''
* 2015: ''Netherworld Shanty''
* 2015: ''Romance''
* 2015: ''Video Classica''
* 2015: ''Virtutes Instrumenti''
* 2015: ''Ossuary''
* 2015: ''Pixelland''
* 2016: ''Maccary Bay''
* 2016: ''Mystic Force''
* 2016: ''Anamalie''
* 2016: ''Final Battle''
* 2016: ''Carpe Diem''
* 2016: ''Groovy''
* 2016: ''Mesmerize''
* 2016: ''Traveller''
* 2017: ''Shadowlands''
* 2017: ''Destruction Device''
* 2017: ''Spirit''
* 2017: ''Ferret''
* 2017: ''Teh Jazzes''
* 2017: ''Miami Nights''
* 2018: ''Spring Chicken''
* 2018. ''Sheep Reliability''
* 2019: ''Meditation''
* 2019: ''Epic''
* 2019: ''The Complete Game Music Bundle''
* 2019: ''Complete Collection (Creative Commons)''
* 2020: ''SCP-XXX''
* 2020: ''Relaxx''
* 2021: ''Missing Hits''
* 2021: ''The Waltzes''
* 2021: ''Missing Hits C to E''
* 2021: ''Missing Hits N to R''
* 2021: ''Missing Hits Calmness''
* 2021: ''Missing Hits F to J''
* 2021: ''Missing Hits K to M''
* 2021: ''Missing Hits A to B''
* 2021: ''Missing Hits S to T''
* 2021: ''Missing Hits U to Z''
Singles and EPs
* 2011: ''The Cannery''
* 2014: ''Tranquility 5''
* 2014: ''Sneaky Snitch''
* 2014: ''Fluffing a Duck''
* 2014: ''Orrganic Meditation''
* 2014: ''Touching Moments''
* 2014: ''Impact''
* 2015: ''Guts and Bourbon''
* 2015: ''Somewhere Sunny''
* 2015: ''Garden Music''
* 2016: ''Vicious
* 2017: ''Ever Mindful''
* 2018: ''Magic Scout: A Calm Experience''
* 2018: ''Laserpack''
* 2019: ''Dream Catcher''
* 2019: ''Flying Kerfufle''
* 2019: ''Le Grand Chase''
* 2019: ''Crusade: Heavy Industry''
* 2019: ''OnionCapers''
* 2019: ''Envision''
* 2019: ''Glitter Blast''
* 2019: ''Leaving Home''
* 2019: ''Magistar''
* 2019: ''Midnight Tale''
* 2019: ''River Flute''
* 2019: ''Symmetry''
* 2019: ''Sovereign
* 2019: ''Hustle Hard''
* 2019: ''Almost Bliss''
* 2019: ''Beauty Flow''
* 2019: ''Half Mystery''
* 2019: ''Past Sadness''
* 2019: ''Raving Energy''
* 2019: ''Rising Tide''
* 2019: ''Tyrant''
* 2019: ''Sincerely''
* 2019: ''Celebration''
* 2019: ''Deep and Dirty''
* 2019: ''Fuzzball Parade''
* 2019: ''Lotus''
* 2019: ''Realizer''
* 2019: ''Stay the Course''
* 2019: ''Verano Sensual
* 2019: ''Wholesome''
* 2019: ''Farting Around''
* 2019: ''Aquarium''
* 2019: ''Monkeys Spinning Monkeys''
* 2019: ''A Kevin MacLeod Xmas''
* 2019: ''Folk?''
* 2019: ''Menagerie''
* 2020: ''Worldish''
* 2019: ''Scheming Weasel (Peukie Remix)''
* 2020: ''What You Want''
* 2020: ''Island Music''
* 2020: ''On Hold for You''
* 2020: ''Canons in D''
* 2020: ''Project 80s''
* 2021: ''World''
* 2021: ''Now That's Now!''
* 2021: ''Night in the Castle''
* 2021: ''Adventures in Adventureland''
* 2021: ''WOTSITS!!!!''
* 2021: ''Space Jazz''
* 2021: ''Ethereal Relaxation''
* 2022: ''Journey to Ascend''
* 2022: ''Boogie Party
References
External links
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FreePD– MacLeod's public-domain music library
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{{DEFAULTSORT:MacLeod, Kevin
Living people
Musicians from Green Bay, Wisconsin
American film score composers
Musicians from New York City
20th-century American composers
21st-century American composers
1972 births
Creative Commons-licensed authors
American male film score composers
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American male musicians