Royalty Free Music Library from PremiumBeat.com

One of the hardest things for videographers is finding reasonably priced and good quality music.  Premium beat is one of the best websites I have ever used to find great audio tracks.  The prices are very reasonable and once you purchase the music it is royalty free.  They also offer loop packs to allow you to make transitions and complimentary passages within your edit.  It is extremely easy to preview music with their built in web player and you can even start a “wish list” or a collection of music you like for easy reference.  If you’re struggling to find just the right song try them out!

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Source: Royalty Free Music Library from PremiumBeat.com

Bluetooth Audio – The BOP is music to my ears…and my wallet (with sound sample)

Sometimes the smallest and least expensive toys can be the most satisfying. Enter the “BOP”.

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I was at my friends lake house not long ago when he brought out this little blue rubber gadget and said “lets listen to some music”. At first I wanted to laugh seeing how small it was I really expected it to sound terrible like most devices this size often do. To my surprise it had a pretty decent sound. I was impressed but when he showed me how it would stay suctioned to his forehead…I was SOLD!

The BOP is available in multiple colors. It is comprised of a speaker, some sort of small amplifier (built in) and a rubber housing. The rubber housing doubles as a suction cup and will stick to almost any flat surface making it very flexible for placement. It communicates with any bluetooth device and will play music or audio from that device. The price is only $30 which I think is a great buy.

Bop Bluetooth Speaker

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Set up of the BOP was a cinch. Turn it on and it immediately showed up on my iPhone as an available bluetooth device. I selected “bop” on my bluetooth device page and it connected in seconds. Once connected it will reconnect when the two devices see one another again. If there are several devices nearby that have been connected to the BOP prior the BOP will randomly select any device to connect to which can be a little bit of a nuisance. This is not unlike other bluetooth devices though.

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The controls for the BOP are simple. There are three buttons. The center switch is the play/pause button while the two buttons on the outside change tracks if clicked once or act as volume control if you hold the buttons down. Once the BOP reaches its loudest volume an indicator beeps to let you know its maxed. There is also a pinhole mic on the upper rim but my experience is that the device needs to be fairly close to your mouth to be truly useful. The BOP charges via a micro usb port and will last more than 4 hours on a single charge playing music. Along side the micro usb port is the on/off switch.

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The sound quality may surprise you and if you need a compact audio device this is a no brainer. Once the suction cup is tightened down to a surface the sound quality actually improves a little. It is only a mono sound source but compared to the iPhone speaker it is 10 times better and much louder. Camping, beach trips, boating there are just too many places that someone could use one of these.

You can buy a BOP here: