Finding a great tune for your next video might be a real challenge. If you manage to find the right music, it can enhance your video message like nothing else. At the same time, a bad tune might ruin the whole thing, giving it the wrong tone and message.
If you take a look at YouTube, almost all videos have music. Every day, it’s becoming a real challenge for video-makers to find the best royalty-free music, especially if they are on a shoestring budget.
Before we continue, we need to address what royalty-free music is and what it isn’t.
What Exactly is Royalty-Free Music?
Royalty-free music is a type of music licensing that grants the buyer the right to use the music in different applications upon a one time purchase, without having to pay royalties to the owner for recurrent use.
So, are there free royalty-free music?
Some artists and audio providers do allow you to use their music for free without paying the upfront fee. However, they retain the copyright to the song. The artist decides the type of license the music has. For more on licenses, check further down this blog.
Free Websites To Find Royalty-Free Music
Now that you know the basics of royalty-free music, I’ll share some great websites with royalty-free music. You will also find my tips on how to search and use music in your videos.
I hope it will help you find compelling music files and make your videos even better.
1. 15 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free
Music -Latest Video Marketing Tips & News
AIVANCE.KIMIT.US
2. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
News
Finding a great tune for your next video might be a real challenge. If you
manage to nd the right music, it can enhance your video message like
nothing else. At the same time, a bad tune might ruin the whole thing,
giving it the wrong tone and message.
If you take a look at YouTube, almost all videos have music. Every day, it’s
becoming a real challenge for video-makers to nd the best royalty-free
music, especially if they are on a shoestring budget.
Before we continue, we need to address what royalty-free music is and what
it isn’t.
What Exactly is Royalty-Free Music?
3. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
News
14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty- Free Music -Latest Video Marketing Tips & News
Royalty-free music is a type of music licensing that grants the buyer the
right to use the music in different applications upon a one time purchase,
without having to pay royalties to the owner for recurrent use.
So, are there free royalty-free music?
Some artists and audio providers do allow you to use their music for free
without paying the upfront fee. However, they retain the copyright to the
song. The artist decides the type of license the music has. For more on
licenses, check further down this blog.
Free Websites To Find Royalty-Free Music
Now that you know the basics of royalty-free music, I’ll share some great
websites with royalty-free music. You will also nd my tips on how to search
and use music in your videos.
I hope it will help you nd compelling music les and make your videos even
better.
Here’s the list of best royalty-free music sites (researched and tested):
4. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
News
. Icons8
. HookSounds
. YouTube audio library
. Facebook sound collection
. Purple Planet
. Soundcloud
. Bensound
. Epidemic Sound
. TeknoAxe
. Josh Woodward
. free-stock-music
. Artlist
. Soundstripe
. PremiumBeat
. Bonus: Audiojungle
Here’s what I liked or didn’t like in each one of these websites.
1. Icons8
Great place to nd some cool tunes. You can nd thousands of tracks from
small indie and jazz groups to classical pieces. Moreover, Icon8 provides not
only music but video and photo stock, icons, as well!
5. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
News
2. HookSounds
HookSounds gives you access to exclusive royalty free music that you won’t
nd anywhere else as it was composed speci cally for the website. Users can
browse the catalog by artists, tags, moods, and more, which makes the
navigation easy and smooth. HookSounds offers several music licenses that
serve different purposes – the free license is for personal use only.
3. YouTube audio library
The of cial sound library of YouTube offers useful lters (genres, instruments,
vocal, duration) that make your search process as short and precise as
possible. In addition to that, the YouTube audio library also has a sound effect
library, which makes it worth to be bookmarked.
6. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
News
4. Facebook sound collection
Facebook sound collection is a part of Creator Studio. It strongly resembles
the looks of YouTube audio library. However, they offer fewer lters, and some
of the songs I found were quite heavy (30-70 Mb). But give it a try anyway:
your next best free music might be hiding here.
7. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
News
5. Purple Planet
As the name implies, this website is indeed purple. It is an independent
library of royalty-free music that has been sorted according to how music
makes you feel instead of by genre. If you still need the traditional genre
lters, you might want to look elsewhere. It doesn’t exactly have a robust
collection of royalty-free music, but they are all free to use with attribution. It
offers commercial and broadcast licenses starting from $8 and $40.
8. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
News
6. SoundCloud
If you are a YouTuber, this refreshing collection of royalty-free music on
SoundCloud can be handy. I used this collection many times and here’s my
verdict: you can always nd some cool background tunes for your travel or
talking-head videos. But don’t forget to put credits in your description.
9. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
News
7. Bensound
Bensound offers a nice collection of music from different
collections: cinematic, acoustic/folk, electronica, etc.
royalty-free
As they state on the website, they operate under the Creative Commons
license. This means that you can use the music on YouTube, Facebook, and
other purposes. But you will need to credit Bensound. If you don’t want to
credit Bensound, you can buy the license.
8. Epidemic Sound
Epidemic Sound offers a vast collection of music for any social
channel. Although not free (subscription starts at $15/mo), there is a free trial
to give you a feeling of what you can get with the full subscription.
royalty-free
10. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
News
9. TeknoAxe
These folks have a weird-looking website, which might be a little challenging
to navigate. There is no search box, so you’ll have to click through different
categories in order to nd the right track. All the music is under CC4 license
(which means you will have to give credits when using it in your project).
10. Josh Woodward
Josh Woodward is a real person who wrote and recorded all the 200+ by
himself. You are free to use any of the songs for whatever person, as long as
you credit Josh and mention his website.
11. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
News
11. free-stock-music.com
This website with a pretty straightforward name offers royalty-free music for
your YouTube videos or projects (blog, vlog, podcast, social network, etc.) All
they ask in return is to give them credit.
12. Artlist
12. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
News
Artlist partners with a large number of indie artists to make original tracks
that are used by companies like Microsoft and Toyota. It takes an unusual
approach to its pricing with a at $199 annual price for unlimited downloads
on all the music it offers. It does not offer free music, but the paid
plan gives you access to its advanced ltering system.
royalty-free
13. Soundstripe
13. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
News
Soundstrip lets you create your own playlist if you don’t want to explore their
well-curated playlist that already features genres like action and weddings.
Apart from music, they have over 40,000 sound effects for your . Like
Artlist, it offers a yearly subscription plan starting at $11.25, and it doesn’t have
a free plan.
video
14. PremiumBeat
PremiumBeat has a diverse collection of music that might make
great soundtracks for your videos. The site is backed by Shutterstock, so you
can expect quality music and playlists. PremiumBeat boasts that you can’t
nd its music anywhere else on the internet. You can get all its tracks for $49.
royalty-free
Bonus: Audiojungle
14. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
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Audiojungle makes our list of best music sites due to its cheap $1
tracks. Also known as Envato Market, it has a global community of musicians
and sound engineers that keep it stocked with the best stock music in all
genres. One of its unique features is its music kits, which you can use to
customize your music to your taste.
royalty-free
How to find the best music
royalty-free
When you look for a music track for your , the main goal is to match
your and audio perfectly. There are many dimensions of how your
videos (and music) can be described: tempo, mood, theme, style, and many
more. Trying to describe your videos can help you nd the best music for
your .
video
video
video
Here are some examples of how you can nd the right track using keywords
from different dimensions:
Adjectives:
Inspiring, relaxing, romantic, groovy
Emotions:
happy, sad, cheerful, anger, surprise
Music style:
Rock, jazz, jazzy, rap, electronic, idm
Instruments:
Acoustic guitar, piano, blues sax and etc.
Tempo:
Slow 45–70bpm (beats per minute), Fast 120-200bpm
15. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
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Themes:
background, relax, city, forest, sport, travel, etc
If you still don’t know what kind of audio you need, try to nd a
professional piece with the same style and topic on YouTube and
describe what music they use in the . This way you can understand
what kind of instruments, genres, and tempo you’re looking for.
Pro tip:
video
video
How to choose the best free music for your
?
video
Here are some tips to nd out which music track best suits your and
how to understand it:
video
. It can be a romantic one,
rock’n’rollish, dark, mysterious, etc. Choose a track to highlight the
mood.
Find the common mood of your .
video
.
Be sure the volume and
dynamics of your music work well throughout the whole and that
the voice and other sound effects play along well together.
If you have a voice or voiceover in your , avoid using music with
words over another voice or important sounds.
video
video
.
It’s an easy way to make a great sound transition from one
part of your to another.
Sync an action in your with the music change or the “ rst” or the
“last” beat.
video
video
.
Send the version to a friend or two (perfect,
if they are sound designers) and ask for the opinion.
It’s always great to try out 3-5 different music tracks that seem to be
great for your footage.
video
How to use music and audio in
your videos
royalty-free
How many audio tracks should I use in my editing?
16. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
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How many music tracks and sounds should I use?
The answer to the question depends on the structure of your video.
If there are an introduction, main part and conclusion like in the movies, you
can use different music and sound effects for each one of these parts. It
helps you separate these parts for viewers.
It’s ok to use one music track theme during the whole
video.
But there’s still nothing wrong with using only one track on repeat for a
short video. Some creators use one track theme during the whole video,
mixing it with others.
Can I use royalty-free music for any purpose?
Be aware of and public domain usage rights.
Understanding of these two things will help you use your free music
properly in non-commercial and commercial use cases.
the Creative Commons license
Additionally, on every website with “free” music, you will nd usage rights
information, clarifying what you can do. Often the only thing you should
keep in mind using your royalty-free music is to give credits whether it’s a
commercial or non-commercial video.
What is a Creative Commons License?
17. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
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Creative Commons (CC) is a system created for classifying different kinds of
music licenses. Many artists want their music to be used and shared, but
only under certain conditions. Failure to follow the conditions can result in
your video being taken down on platforms like YouTube or a full-blown
lawsuit.
There are four distinct conditions of usage, attribution, and distribution:
. Attribution: The artist has to be credited whenever the music is used.
. Non-Commercial: Your work will be limited to non-commercial
purposes.
. No Derivative Works: Prohibits the production of derivative sounds with
the music.
. Share Alike: Allows copied production, but the work will retain the
original music license.
These four conditions are combined in 6 different ways to obtain six types of
Creative Commons licenses:
BY (Attribution)
BY-SA (Attribution and Share Alike)
BY-ND (Attribution and No Editing)
BY-NC (Attribution and No Commercial Use)
BY-NC-SA (Attribution, No Commercial Use, and Share Alike)
BY-NC-ND (Attribution, No Commercial Use, and No Editing)
Royalty-Free Music FAQs
Can I Use 30 Seconds of A Copyrighted Song?
Even though it is a popular opinion that under the “fair use” provision, it is
safe to use less than 30 seconds of a song without consequences, it doesn’t
make it necessarily true in all cases. Copyright law is complex, and your
business is safe when it uses or pays for music from legitimate sources
What is Public Domain Music?
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This refers to music that doesn’t have copyright protection. You can use
these songs without paying or receiving explicit permission from the artist.
However, there are very few of them, and they may not always suit your
intended use.
Is Royalty-Free Music Free?
Not all are free. You can make a one-time payment for the song’s license and
use it as much as you like. Although you can get some music at
no cost, its use will be limited.
royalty-free
Is there a difference between free and paid royalty-free
music?
Yes, free music has a lot of restrictions. On the other hand, you
can pay once for the music license to avoid any limitations to your work. Paid
music also generally have higher sound quality than free
music.
royalty-free
royalty-free royalty-
free
Is copyright-free music the same as royalty-free music?
No. Copyright-free music is songs with expired copyrights or whose rights
have been sold to a third-party. Essentially, you can attain the copyright of
music. With music, you can buy the right to use
the songs, not their copyrights.
copyright-free royalty-free
Can I make money from royalty-free music?
Yes. The music can be used for commercial purposes if explicitly stated in
the license agreement.
Conclusion
Now you know some great places to nd free music, and this article has
helped to understand how to nd the right one. Alternatively, if you’re
looking for something more unique, you could always
to create original, music for your project As with
everything in , it takes some practice to understand what type
of music works better for this or that kind of .
hire a freelance
composer royalty-free .
video editing
video
19. 14 Best FREE Websites to Find Royalty-Free Music - Latest Video Marketing Tips &
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What are your favorite websites for royalty-free music? Do you have any tips
for nding the best piece of music for your video? Share in the comments
below!