Aside from the royalty free music available made specifically for magicians, I'm wondering what other sources of royalty free music people have had good luck with? So much of it sounds really terrible, but I'm sure there must be winners out there?

http://www.freeplaymusic.com

Wow! What a great resource! Thank you, thank you!

For DYIS types, making your own music using Garageband and loops (the audio kind, not Yigel's) is easier than ever, even if you don't play an instrument. If you play even one instrument - particularly piano, but others as well - you can use a MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) to make it sound like any number of other instruments, so you can layer an entire band performance using Apple's Logic, or ProTools or something similar. It sounds to me like a lot of royalty-free music, including the kind sold on DVD's through the magic shops, is assembled using that method.

This is a good source of music, but it is NOT royalty-free. Read the terms:

http://www.freeplaymusic.com/licensing/termsofuse.php

...you still need to make sure (if for example) the venue you're performing in has the proper PRO blanket license(s).

Not trying to tell you that you can't use them, just be careful how you use them. They (and the composers of the songs) make their money the same way traditional licensed artists do (see link for their 'free' music):
http://www.freeplaymusic.com/licensing/ratecard.php

Again, this is NOT a royalty-free company.

Good luck,
Tommy

Opus I has done a great job for my friend Jody Baron in his music. They did custom music for Jody which may be beyond most guy's budgets but they also have some great standardized music. They have a search feature on their sites that lets you sample the style of music you might want.

Check it out as I think you will be very pleasantly surprised at the wide variety and high quality of the offerings there. http://www.opus1musiclibrary.com/index2.html

Richard