You can spend hours (or longer) crafting an amazing video – but get the music wrong, and your video could still flop.
The right music can add continuity, create atmosphere, and even disguise any issues with your video’s audio. But finding music online can be difficult – especially if you want to break away from using the ‘same old’ tunes that come free with editing software.
Today, we’re sharing 10 websites that offer royalty free music – this means music that can be downloaded and used without needing to pay royalties to the copyright owner. It does NOT necessarily mean you don’t need to credit the music. So even if you’re using royalty free music, check the usage license carefully!
Ben Sound
Ben Sound is absolutely full of music that you can download and use for free! You don’t even have to make an account. Just download your song of choice and stick it on your video. As long as you credit the site in the description then you’ll be right as rain.
YouTube Audio Library
YouTube itself has realised the need for royalty free music as vlogging is becoming more and more popular so they’ve gone to the trouble of making a full library of music just for you! The music downloads with just a click of a button. You can search by mood, length or keyword – finding the right tune can take a bit of time, but there’s plenty to browse.
Moby Gratis
This website is run by Moby…yes that Moby. He decided to make a lot of royalty free music. It is all free to use all you have to do is log in to your account and choose a song or two! Be aware, though, the music on this site is ONLY available for non-profit use, so if you’re monetising a video, this isn’t the site for you.
Purple Planet
The Purple Planet holds a selection of free of charge music for your vlogs that it takes directly from sound cloud. You can choose to quickly download any of the free music that the site offers or make a premium account and get access to a few more tunes. The commercial music costs just $8 per track and can be searched by mood, tempo or instrumentation.
Audio Network
Like Purple Planet, this is a paid site but is on the more affordable end of the spectrum. It is around £8 per song if you plan to use it on a YouTube video. If you plan to use the music for a commercial then the price will be considerably higher. Be careful to click the ‘creator’ box when ordering. The number of tracks is huge, and you can search by instrument, tempo, mood, composer and more.
Free Music Archive
Yet another this site. This one offers you the option to donate to them, but there is no obligation. The site charts the popularity of tracks and as long as everything is not for profit there is no need for licensing.
Amazon
Did you know Amazon can be a source of royalty free music? It’s got a HUGE library of almost free (£1 per track) music – and some of the albums are available for free if you’re making a non-commercial video. Definitely worth a look!
CC Mixter
This music site has a section dedicated to free, royalty free music – the search on CC Mixter is a bit broader than on other sites, but it’s worth hunting around because there are some great options on the site.
Incompetech
This site is HUGE. You can browse by keyword (which might be by instrument, mood etc) or go for collections, which are fun to browse. With Incompetech, you can filter by royalty free, or royalty free and FREE music.
ArtList
If you regularly use music and you’re keen to get professional quality tracks, then Artlist might be worth a look. All the music is professionally produced, and sourced from indie bands and musicians around the world. For $199, you get unlimited access to digital downloads from this site. What’s great about ArtList is that the license covers commercial use – so if you want to monetise your videos, or use them for a brand collaboration? No problemo. The $199 fee is higher than many sites but for commercially licensed music that you can use in perpetuity? It’s a bit of a bargain.
Do you have a favourite site for vlogging music? Let us know in the comments!
Discussion3 Comments
Thanks, this is a really great resource
I’m a composer, I make music for commercial videos. Some good suggestions here already. I’ll just throw one more in the mix.
Recently, I started writing for a startup music library that offers unlimited royalty free music download for members. That is, you pay the annual fee and get access to their entire catalog. Download as many tracks as you need.
This can be a good alternative if you produce lots of videos and need music on the regular basis. Check it out: https://www.tunepocket.com
Yes, it’s not free but you get professional quality music, a catalog that you can search and filter, and support for any YouTube copyright issues. They are very much new, so they as of now have 600+ tracks but new tracks are added daily.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for sharing!
Another great resource for vlogging music is:
https://www.totalmediatracks.com/
They have a great selection of music and are VERY affordable.
Hope this helps 🙂