After the GDC09 I have been wondering what good option are available to get good music in your game(s). I know this might be a already answered question for most/some of you but I still like to point out some options (4 might be the unknown one).
1: stock music. Might not be the most exciting music around but it is often cheap and good to edit to your game.
2: buy the rights. Just buy the rights of the song you like. Can be very expensive, especially when you want the new Madonna single in your game. But if you have to money, go for it!
3: hire a (freelance) composer. He/she will make exactly what you want. Isn't the cheapest option, could be the most suiting.
4: find "rights-free" music. Creative Commons licensing made a lot possible for a lot of creative people. Unfortunately it still has to be picked up by the majority. As to music in games there are lots of websites which offer music under a certain Creative Commons license. With most of those sites you need to; attribute the composer, not edit the work, not commercially use the work, share the new work under a same license (share alike), but the work is free to download and use in your game!
If you look a bit further you can find websites that offer CC-licensed music only with the attribution and share alike part. You can use the music for free and for commercial purposes as well! Websites like Jamendo.com offer a few tracks with these kind of licenses but our site, Tribe Of Noise.com offers over 4,000 of these works.
5. Record it yourself. Buy a computer with a good sound card. Buy an interface. Buy a music editing/recording program (Logic, Fruity Loops, Reason, Qbase, etc.). Buy a microphone. Buy an intstrument. But all the other stuff you need. Learn to play and record. Done!
I hope some people might think; "hey, that's new!!" and look into it. It's a booming field which isn't discovered by many people yet and that's good for the newbees!