Violin Music for Video: Solo Violin, String Quartet and Concerto

Which violin music fits which scene?

Pick the violin by the job it has to do in your edit, not by the composer:

• Wedding films and love stories: warm, singing lines. Elgar: Salut d'Amour (violin and piano), Massenet: Méditation, Ave Maria, violin version, Pachelbel: Canon in D for string quartet, Tchaikovsky: Waltz from the Serenade for Strings.
• Luxury, fashion and brand films: poised and precise. Bach: Gavotte from Partita No. 3 for solo violin, Handel: Violin Sonata No. 7, Bach: Violin Sonata BWV 1015, Mendelssohn: String Symphony No. 2.
• Tension, drama and thrillers: driving bows and fast figures. Vivaldi: Winter from The Four Seasons, Schubert: Death and the Maiden, Paganini: Arpeggios, The Black Masks of Venice.
• Grief, memorials and documentaries: slow and bare. Tchaikovsky: Élégie, Puccini: Crisantemi, Grieg: Aase's Death, Violin Concerto No. 2, Largo con dolore.
• Epic and cinematic: the violin over a full orchestra. Violin Concerto No. 2, Moderato giocoso, Celtic Dreams, Like Sunrise on My Soul.
• Playful adverts and explainers: light and quick. Carnival of Venice, Violin Concerto No. 2, Allegretto con spirito, Grieg: Holberg Suite, Rigaudon, Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
• Christmas: carols with solo violin and orchestra, collected on orchestral Christmas music.

Is classical violin music free to use?

The piece often is, the recording never is. Vivaldi, Bach, Paganini, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky have been dead for far more than 70 years, so their compositions are public domain. But every recording of them is protected separately: in the EU and the UK the performers and the producer hold rights for 70 years from release. That is why a famous recording of The Four Seasons still needs a licence from its label, and why a YouTube upload with it usually gets claimed.

What you licence here is the recording. One licence covers both layers, the recording and, where a modern composer is involved, the composition. The public-domain guide explains which classical works are free and which recordings are not.

A real violinist or an AI violin?

AI music generators now offer "violin music" on demand, and stock libraries mix live strings with sample libraries. You hear the difference in exactly the places a violin is used for: the bow change, the vibrato that widens on a long note, the breath before a phrase. Nothing on this page is AI-generated. The flagship is Paul Lorenz's Violin Concerto No. 2, recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in July 2022 under Donato Cabrera.

What does a licence for violin music cost?

€29.90 once per track (Basic licence). It covers your video on every channel: YouTube, social media, adverts, film and TV, websites and presentations, worldwide, without an expiry date, client work included, with no additional collection-society fee on the licence. If you need a piece exclusively or a violin part written to your picture, ask for an exclusive licence or a commissioned score.

Playing a track in a public venue (a shop, a hotel lobby, an event) is not part of a sync licence: that public performance is settled by the venue with its collecting society, as with any music.

Violin music on YouTube

Artyfile registers its catalogue with YouTube Content ID. On a monetised video a claim may appear: it is not a copyright strike, and your licence certificate is the proof that you are licensed. The YouTube page explains how the claim works and what the Limited Edition changes.