Free Cheerleading Music

Free cheerleading music is easy to get in this age of digital media. Contrary to popular belief, it can be worth far more than what you pay for it. Thousands of musicians are hungry for exposure, and having your cheer team use their songs can be just the thing to get their songs in the ears of hundreds of cheering fans.

One thing that needs to be addressed right away is the fact that copyright violation is illegal. This applies first to the means of getting the music in the first place. If your cheer team is going to use some popular song to accompany their dance routine, it needs to be purchased through iTunes, on a CD or by some other legal method. Downloading it from a peer-to-peer network such as Limewire or simply making a copy of a friend's CD for all the members of a squad is illegal. Worse, it's unethical, as it takes money away from the person who created the music in the first place.

Second, there is the issue of using popular music in a performance at all. While it is used with abandon in many games, the larger squads and universities run the risk of violating copyright unless they are licensed to use the music by an agency such as ASCAP or BMI. While it might be really neat to use the latest top ten hit for your squad, it's not so fun when the lawyers slap thousands of dollars in fines on the school. Usually the fines are in proportion to the size of the crowd and the length of the performance.

One method around this issue is to hire someone to mix the music professionally. These businesses usually charge a great deal of money, sometimes thousands of dollars, but some services can be found for less. Occasionally it's possible to find a company that will offer a mix for free, either as a sample or as a premium for registering with their site.

All of these options cost too much if what you're looking for is really cheerleading music you can use for free. Luckily, there are even more alternatives.

Creative Commons is an organization and concept designed to allow musicians and other artists to share their works and define the limits and scope of distribution. Put another way: it's a way for you to legally find and use music for your squad.

The actual Creative Commons website doesn't have the music, but it does have links to many other websites that would. Sites such as CCMixter are places where musicians trade and listen to each others music, and then put them online for others to use. Myspace also has many musicians eager to showcase their music.

Each song has, in the information, a reference to the type of creative commons license it is under. For example, a song might say "non-commercial/no derivatives/attribution" which means that the song can be used as long as it is:

• Non-Commercial: You cannot make money from this song directly (as in selling it or using it to sell products).
• Non-Derivative: The song needs to be played as a whole piece, not chopped up or remixed into other works.
• Attribution: The composer needs to be acknowledged in the work. For example, the announcer might say "And now here's East High School with a routine to the stylin' rhythms of DJ HoneyBeat and Red Star Productions!"

One of the beauties of the Internet is that it is very easy to contact the composer and let him/her know where, when and how the music is going to be used. This is not always required under the terms of the Creative Commons, but it can be very beneficial to both parties. The composer gets to add "Used by East High School Cheer Squad at State Cheer Competition" to his/her resumé, and the squad establishes a personal relationship with the composer. Later, when a ten minute remix or a themed song is needed, the composer might just create it specifically for the squad.

Finding free cheerleading music is a matter of networking and using the power of the Internet revolution to your squad's advantage, all the while keeping it legal.

• Cute Hello Cheers
• Freshman Cheers for a Pep Rally
• School Cheers
• Cheerleading Quiz

• Words for Cheerleading Cheers
• Popular Cheers for Cheerleading
• Cheerleading Chants
• Football Cheers Chants
• Cheerleading Routines

• Free Clipart Cheerleading
• Cheer Dance Mixes
• Cheerleading Music Mixes
• Cheerleading Mixes
• Hip Hop Cheerleading Music