You can use our Royalty-Free Music in such places as YouTube or Vimeo videos, commercials, films (television and cinema), radio, documentaries, reports, podcasts, websites, corporate movies, apps & games or for background music in public spaces. In addition, we also offer complimentary Royalty-Free Music under a creative commons license. Exclusive and curated royalty free music, produced by our hand-picked artists. Music on HookSounds is released free of copyrights under Creative Commons, you may download and use it in a wide variety of uses.
Do you face issues to get royalty-free music for YouTube videos? Here is a list of the best websites that offer copyright-free music for YouTube video makers. It also includes a few sites that do not even charge the one-time royalty amount, provided you give credit to the maker in your video.
What Is Royalty-Free Music?
Royalty Music is a category of music that is produced for unlimited use anywhere. There is a one-time fee that must be paid to the music creator, and the buyer can then use this music in his applications or videos for an unlimited number of times. The buyer does not have to pay the creator each time the music or any part of it is used.
So, the music is not free totally and has a one-time charge. But there are certain tracks which require a certain fee each time it is used and sometimes charge according to the number of views of a video on YouTube. On the other hand, there is a public domain where free music is available. However, the collection of a free public domain might not have a collection of your taste and likes.
Best Places to get Royalty Free Music for YouTube
1. Audio Jungle
One of the most popular sites, where you can get royalty-free music for YouTube is Audio Jungle where tracks are available starting from $1 for lifetime usage. It provides all genres of music from Instrumentals to vocals. The website offers a range of music kits and sound effect packs. Audio Jungle also features Envato Market where you can request for music and there are over 35000 professional music makers who can cater to your request for a small price. It also offers monthly free stuff which includes music tracks, video effects, and stock images.
2. Premium Beat
Premium Beat is another website that offers copyright-free music for YouTube. The website has an easy to use and navigate interface and does not require specialized skills to search what you require quickly. All tracks available on the Premium Beat website are exclusively cleared for copyright.
Premium Beat is a subsidiary of the global image provider Shutterstock, and with the backing of a big brand name, you can be assured that the quality of music received is excellent and grabs attention. The prices to get it can put a hole in your pocket, i.e. $199 for a premium license that allows you to use the content for commercial use.
3. Pond5
If you are making videos and require YouTube copyright free music website, then you should try Pond5 as it is one of the largest collections of royalty-free creative assets including videos, images and audio files. The audio content alone boasts of 500,000 tracks to pick from. It boasts a wide range of music in all genres including meditation and warfare. Pond5 charges its members a sum of $22 for each track, and the annual memberships cost a little over $1000. However, there is an option to choose Public Domain Music and any tracks within this category can be used free of cost.
4. Soundstripe
Soundstripe offers a subscription license that enables a user to access the entire music collection available and that too unlimited. The lowest subscription cost around $135 a yea,r and hence makes to the list of the best royalty-free music for YouTube. It provides one of the best quality music for advertisers, wedding filmmakers, creators and most importantly, for YouTubers. The library is designed to make it easy for users to find the right royalty-free music that they require.
5. Audioblocks
With 100,000+ tracks and constantly updating newer ones, Audio Blocks makes its entry in the list of royalty-free music for YouTube video creators. It charges the subscriber a monthly fee of $79 and an annual fee of $149 with access to unlimited downloads from their websites. All the tracks available can be used for personal or commercial projects for an unlimited number of times. The search engine embedded assists the users to search the music by a series of prompts that allow choosing moods, genres, and instruments.
6. Amazon
YouTube video creators with a budget constraint looking for copyright-free music for YouTube videos can visit the Amazon music website for royalty-free tracks. Currently, it lists over a thousand tracks with newer ones updating constantly. The cost of a track ranges from 79p to 99p, which is less than a dollar. Although the tracks aren’t what you call as great, however, they can surely serve the purpose. The tracks are not grouped into themes or genres, and the users must play around the tracks to know them. The search function is below average and requires time to explore through the entire content.
7. Artlist
Artlist is a website that offers royalty-free music for YouTube videos built with such passion that every content present on its database is special in itself. For $199 of annual subscription fee which is under $17 a month, Artlist provides its users an easy to navigate and search a database with an extensive list of highly artistic and aesthetic tracks from all types of genres. It also allows the users to pick out songs based on the basis of the duration of the video and the tempo they require.
8. Machinima Sound
Another simple but filled with an interesting content website for users who want to create videos and require YouTube copyright free music is Machinima Sound. Although the library is small as compared to others in this list, however, the content is of high quality and demands $8 per track which is a fairly low price for purchasing a track for unlimited use. The genres include Ambient, Jazz, Comedy, Horror, Cinematic, Glitch and Trance. It also offers a legacy section that can be used to download tracks for free that are licensed under Creative Commons which only require a mention of the creator in the description.
9. Music Revolution
One of different kinds of royalty-free music for YouTube websites that allows the users to download 50 tracks for an annual subscription of $400 making it $8 per track. In other cases, a single track may cost between $10 to $90 depending on the type of content and its creator. It offers thousands of songs along with totally free music that is in the public domain. Free music does not require a fee, but you must give credit to the maker.
10. Partners in Rhyme
This website offers a mixture of free and paid copyright-free music for YouTube and has a huge collection of royalty-free music, sound effects, background music, loops and more. The music genre includes a variety of Romantic, Dance, Rock, Pop and Corporate music. As stated earlier, any content downloaded from here would not have you receiving any copyright notices. You do not require to create an account but can directly purchase the tracks ranging from $70 to $200 per pack.
Also Read: Best Music Streaming Services
Best Places To Get Royalty-Free Music For YouTube Without Paying Royalty Fees.
11. YouTube Audio Library
The best place to get royalty-free music for YouTube videos without paying a cent to anyone is the site for which you wanted to create the videos in the first place. It consists of a vast library of free tracks and sound effects to choose from. The audio content is categorized by Genre, Mood, Instrument, Duration, and Attribution. It is, of course, easy to use and has compiled all its data into the create section where you will have to locate the Audio Library. However, YouTube requires all those who use this content to attribute the owner of the track. Do check the Music Policies section of YouTube for more details on how these tracks can be used and if there are a few simple restrictions.
12. Free Music Archive
This website is created by the U.S. radio station WFMU. It features many tracks that carry different licenses. The general category of this license is Creative Commons which are all free to use but with certain conditions. Some of them cannot be used commercially to make money but can be used in your personal videos as many number of times you require and you don’t have to pay anything. Others can be used for commercial purposes but require attribution. Free Music Archive has made it easy for users to filter search results, and they can choose the commercial use option. This website has pleasant music and fulfills the requirements of video makers for YouTube copyright free music.
13. Incompetech
Incompetech has a large selection of royalty-free music for YouTube. It is a personal website that features over 2000 tracks, all of which are created by Kevin MacLeod. The only condition to fulfill while using any of the music tracks is to credit the musician and site. It has a section Film Scoring Moods which contains tracks like Horror, Mystery, Noire, and others. Plus, you can download absorbing African and Brazilian beats. You can download single tracks one-by-one for free but for the entire library in one go it requires a one-time fee of $38.
14. ccMixter
If a community of musicians, singers, and DJs come together and share their work for free on a website then that would be the best place to get royalty-free music for YouTube. Like other free sites, it also requires users to credit the creators. Due to such a high quality of creators, the music available on this website is unique. You can also sort your searches by choosing a particular artist. The website navigation can be improved, but the original content makes up for that deficit.
15. Netlabels
Netlabels provides music for video makers who want YouTube copyright free music under Creative Commons license. At present, there are over 65,000 tracks of music on the site. It is one of the few sites which provides a small section of foreign-language music. Another unique feature includes a track view count which actually counts the number of times a track has been download. This helps to identify popular tracks which will make your videos more interesting.
Your Views On Best Places To Get Royalty-free Music For YouTube.
Creating videos has become a serious and important task within the past couple of years. Enthusiasts create videos either for YouTube or their personal websites. A video without audio would not attract the attention of many users. Music creates an impact of our mind and judging the right music for your video is more difficult than actually making the video. I hope the above list caters to your needs of getting the best music tracks and that too royalty-free.
Waiting for your comments and suggestions!
Video marketing should be an essential part of your marketing strategy in the future, if it isn’t already. 72 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. And according to Cisco, by 2021, 82% of all Internet traffic will be video!
You’ll want to get in on the action. But the question is: how do you do that when you don’t have a big budget for it?
There are a lot of costs involved in making a video, from equipment to post-production. Thus, you’re going to have to find areas where you can cut costs.
Thankfully, background music is an area where you can save your precious budget. Reducing costs doesn’t mean cutting quality in this case. There are lots of great resources for free or cheap music to choose from.
What Are the Costs for Background Music?
Before we begin, let’s quickly review the costs involved in acquiring background music for marketing videos.
Royalty-free music doesn’t mean that the music is free; it merely means that you spend a one-time licensing fee and you can use the music however and whenever you want to, for infinity and beyond.
Public domain and Creative Commons works, on the other hand, are free. The difference between the two is that public domain doesn’t require permission from whoever created the work, while Creative Commons often involves permission or attribution.
Now, let’s get into the music sources!
1. YouTube Audio Library
In the “Create” section of YouTube, you’ll find their Audio Library. It contains a bunch of music from different genres, from Dance & Electronic to Country & Folk.
You can use any track for free in your video content. The music is a mix of public domain works and Creative Commons. All you have to do is to attribute the owner of the track.
To get the most out of the library, make use of its search functions. For instance, you can search according to mood such as “calm,” “dramatic,” or funky.” Or you can search according to the duration of the track, which is a good idea to make sure it fits the length of your content.
Another area that’s interesting to check out on YouTube is their Music Policies section. Here you’ll find a list of popular tracks and details on whether you’re allowed to use them in YouTube videos or not, as well as how you can use them.
2. Free Music Archive
The U.S. radio station WFMU runs the Free Music Archive. In the Music for Video section, there are various tracks which carry different licenses.
These are mostly different types of Creative Commons licenses. Some are for non-commercial use only, others require attribution, and so on. For more info on the particular licenses, you can visit their FAQ section.
The good thing is that you can filter search results by license. So, because you want the music for marketing purposes, you would go ahead and uncheck the “non-commercial use” box.
As you’ll see with most of these sites, you’re not going to find a Beyonce-level track or anything. But the music at FMA is very pleasant and certainly suits the purpose. At the end of the day, it’s free to download.
You should also check out the site’s Music for Video blog, which showcases the music and where it might fit into different types of content.
3. Incompetech
Incompetech has a large selection of royalty-free music. All together, there are around 2,000 tracks created by musician Kevin MacLeod. You can download for free as long as you credit the musician and site.
Incompetech arranges the tracks in collections according to genre, such as “Disco and Lounge” or “Rock Classic.”
There’s also a section of “Film Scoring Moods” where you can download tracks that would fit “Horror,” “Mystery,” or “Noire” themes, for instance. Plus, there’s world music inspired by beats from different countries such as Africa and Brazil.
You’ll definitely want to check out the lists of most recent music and most downloaded. These will help you to discover what the site has to offer.
If you want to download the entire library of music, it’ll cost you a one-off fee of $38.
4. Envato Market
Also known as AudioJungle, Envato Market offers royalty-free background music. Paid tracks start at $1.
The site has a global community that uploads their own tracks. You can browse tracks through categories, recent items, or most popular. Once you find music that you like, you can download single tracks or bundles of tracks, called music packs.
The site also has an exciting new feature, music kits. These kits offer music in a modular way so that you can manipulate the tracks yourself. It’s a neat feature if you want to customize your music. That way, you don’t have the same jingles as everybody else.
Sign up for the site, and you’ll get a package of premium freebies each month, including music as well as stock footage and premium video effects.
If you’re a regular creator, that’s a great deal.
5. SoundCloud
You’re probably familiar with SoundCloud already. Amateur musicians and DJs use it to upload and share their music. That’s why you sometimes come across tunes that are … questionable.
But SoundCloud is an excellent source of music to use for marketing videos. You can filter your search to show tracks that are licensed for reuse. Type in “background music,” or try something like “uplifting background music,” “ambient beat,” etc.
SoundCloud has a social element, so you can see when a particular track already has a lot of “likes,” and you’ll know people will enjoy your video if you use it.
The best thing about getting your background music from SoundCloud is that the tracks sound more like real music, as opposed to a contrived track made for a marketing video.
6. Musopen
Musopen is a little different from the other options you’ll find here. All of the available royalty-free music is classical.
So, you’ll be able to download hits from my main man Johann Sebastian Bach and many more.
You can search according to instrument, composer, and author. This is useful if you have a specific idea or feel you want the music to have.
The music on offer may not be entirely modern. But it will fit well if you want to give off a sophisticated or educated vibe. Plus, it can be highly recognizable, which makes your video memorable to the viewer.
7. Audioblocks
Audioblocks offers royalty-free stock audio, including music, sound effects, and loops. (A loop is a short piece of music that’s repeated seamlessly.)
There are over 100,000 tracks on the site. Now, it’s not free, unfortunately. But they do offer a good deal: $149 for unlimited downloads for an entire year. That’s not bad considering you get access to thousands upon thousands of pieces of music.
You can filter your search to find music the exact length of your video. That’s a great way to save you some editing time.
They have some interesting categories for tracks, according to feelings or emotions, such as “Aggressive,” “Sad,” “Happy,” “Playful,” and so on. This is brilliant because you can choose music easily based on the emotion you’re trying to evoke in your video.
8. ccMixter
ccMixter is another site that hosts a community of artists’ work. Musicians, singers, and DJs share their work for free, as long as you attribute the music to them. You are likely to find background music that’s unique here.
To discover free music you can browse the editor’s picks or highest rated tracks. If you find a particular artist you like and want to see more from them, you can visit their profile in the “People” section.
Alternatively, there’s an old-school tag cloud you can use, which makes finding the type of track you’re looking for less complicated. When you click on a track, you can see a bunch of information about it, including its Creative Commons license.
It can be a little tricky to navigate, but ease of use aside, ccMixter is an excellent resource for finding original background music.
9. Jamendo
Jamendo was explicitly created for advertisers and marketers. You can search their music library according to project type, which is a fantastic feature for our purposes.
You have a couple of drop-down boxes. In the first, you choose the type of project. For example, “advertising,” “software,” or “video games.” Then you choose the platform where the music will be featured – for example, “Facebook,” “YouTube,” “Internet,” or “Kickstarter.”
I gave it a go and selected advertising and YouTube. It came up with some jazzy beats that you would expect to hear in those type of ads.
There’s also a search bar, and you can refine your results by genre, theme, instrument, speed, and duration.
Jamendo is impressive, though not nearly as cheap as other providers. It costs about $50 to license a track – which is not so bad if you’ve got at least a small budget to work with.
There’s also a subscription option to get unlimited access to all music.
10. Netlabels
Netlabels is a collection of music at the Internet Archive. Virtual record labels upload collections of music. You can download them for free and use them under a Creative Commons license.
At present, there are over 65,000 pieces of music on the site. You can search through them using filters such as year, artist, or genre. Netlabels also offers a small section of foreign language music, which could be useful.
Another valuable aspect of this site is that tracks have a view count. Most likely, those tracks that have a higher number of views are more popular. In a similar way to SoundCloud, this helps you choose good music for your videos that people will actually enjoy.
11. Audionautix
Composer/producer Jason Shaw runs Audionautix. All music is offered under Creative Commons. Cheers, Jason!
The process of finding your background track here is very simple. You check a box for the genre, of which there is a long list including things like “Acid Jazz” and “Techno.” You can also check a box for mood, e.g., “suspenseful,” “bright,” or “pensive.”
Finally, choose the tempo, and the site picks the perfect song for you. Alternatively, you can browse the music according to genre.
You should also know that Shaw takes commissions at a minimal fee. So, if you have something very particular in mind for your video, you can get in touch with him.