Podington Bear, a musical artist known for releasing 3 songs a week during 2007 – all under a CC BY-NC license – recently began an exciting new project titled Sound of Picture. The project finds Podington Bear scoring ‘single-frame films’, adding an atmospheric/mood driven musical piece to a particular photo he has taken. These compositions are all similarly licensed, allowing for free sharing and reuse with hopes of commercial licensing intact. From WIRED’s Listening Post:

“The idea is that I take a picture and write a score for it,” wrote Podington Bear, whose only known portrait appears above. “It’s very simple. The hope of course is that they enhance each other, or that it provides a means of entry to those not generally inclined to listen to atmospheric music, or for that matter, those who do not visualize things when listening to music. It’s a bit different than my former output. The compositions tend to be short, simple, & experimental. Conspicuously beat-less.”

Podington Bear allows free non-commercial use of these compositions under a Creative Commons license, but one of his goals is to license them commercially (perhaps the images and their associated adjectives will helpproduction companies find a song that suits the feel they are going for). The Bear has had some recent success in this area, licensing songs to the This American Life television series and the video blog Rocketboom.