One thing I see time and time again that needlessly opens REALTORS® up to possible litigation is the choice of music in the video tours they use for their listings. Namely, many people use copyrighted works from famous artists without permission.

DO NOT DO THIS! While it is true that the record industry is suffering (mostly due to the internet eating their lunch), and while it may be true that Joe Smith, REALTOR's® video home tour is probably on the bottom of the list for any record label attorney, you DO NOT want to be on the wrong end of a cease and desist letter, or worse yet, a summons to appear in court.

So you need to have music on your tours to punch them up a bit, but you don't want to break the law. So what do you do? Here are two places you can look that will get you what you need, without the fear of litigation.

The Free Route

If you are looking for free music, it is actually right at your fingertips, in abundance.

Simply do a quick search on Google for 'royalty free music' and you'll see a wealth of results for sites that offer it.

Finding good royalty free music definitely follows the "You get what you pay for" adage. Much of what you find will be horrible. It is going to take some time to find something that will work for you. Once you find that great site that has what you need, you can bookmark it and use it for many tours to come.

Pay The Way

What if you would like higher-end music, but don't want to pay the huge royalties that may be required to use a famous, mainstream artist's track? The good news for you is there are many sites on the internet featuring up and coming artists' tracks that are available at very affordable prices.

One of my favorite sites for finding music such as this is iStockPhoto. While they did start out strictly as a stock photography company, don't let the name fool you. They have a huge catalog of music to suit anyone's needs. For instance, I just did a quick search for Jazz and received 4,609 results.

Now this is a pay-for-play service. The average songs run between $20-50 to purchase. The great thing, though, is that once you've purchased the music, you can use it as many times as you wish. So you can get a lot of bang for your buck.

I hope these tips were helpful. No matter what, remember this: You have enough stresses in your busy career. Don't add a legal battle with a record executive to that list.

To view the original article, visit the Leading Agent blog.