Nearly Every Song You Hear Online Was Written By One Man

“Arguably the most prolific composer you’ve never heard of.”

(By Wikibob — This is a composite of several works. The audio file whose spectrum this shows is copyright Kevin MacLeod from http://www.incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html?keywords=930 (CC-BY-3.0. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. All pieces © 2001–2008 Kevin MacLeod.) The screenshot shows elements of the Audacity software which is copyright authors of Audacity software version 1.2.6 which is freeware licensed under GPL version 2. My own work is merely the conversion from mp3 to ogg., CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5176663)

If you look up lists of the most prolific modern composers, you will see names like John Williams, Howard Shore, and Hans Zimmer. But there is one name that never appears on any of these lists — Kevin MacLeod. Kevin MacLeod is a composer who has created dozens of songs, and you have likely heard many of them without even realizing it. MacLeod puts together pieces that are often used for background music but whose credit is rarely acknowledged. That is because MacLeod allows people to use his work royalty free with the goal of giving creators access to affordable music.

MacLeod has a problem with the modern copyright system and believes that people should have access to quality music without having to shell out thousands of dollars and open themselves up to copyright strikes or lawsuits.

How prolific is Kevin MacLeod? One of his songs has been streamed on TikTok over 40 billion times. Have you ever heard this song before?