Every YouTube video creator wants their audience to feel a certain way after having watched the video. More than 300 hours of videos are uploaded every minute on YouTube. But are they all able to evoke that feeling in the viewer that the publisher wants? I doubt it.
Background music plays a crucial role in any video. Having just the right music is a powerful way to evoke emotions associated with your video’s message and drive the video forward. Even the song structure affects the flow of the video. However, when choosing music, new vloggers might first look for free music.
There are a lot of websites that offer royalty-free music, where the user isn’t required to pay royalties to the copyright owner to use their music for commercial purposes.
Here are ten websites to get free music for YouTube videos.
In this article...
1. YouTube Audio Library
Launched on September 25, 2013, with 150 tracks in genres ranging from funky dance and electronic to soppy country tunes, YouTube Audio Library is a YouTube channel on which content creators and filmmakers can search for, catalog, sort and publish free music for commercial purposes. The songs and sound effects available in this free audio library are actively used in YouTube videos. The music here can be accessed through your Google avatar on YouTube. Access your Creator Studio and click on ‘Create’ in the menu on the left side.
2. Purple Planet
Divided into versatile music categories like upbeat, reflective, creepy, funny, cute, relaxing, jazz, motivation, dance, and more, related to mood, tempo, music type, and instrumentation, Purple Planet has something for everyone. Music can be taken from the sound cloud, free of cost. Although there is abundant music for you to download, you can also create a premium account to get access to some more mind-blowing tunes.
3. Ben Sound
A fairly good site, Ben Sound offers royalty-free stock music in genres like electronica, dubstep, house, techno, and dance. All the music pieces from different genres are neatly organized at the top of the website, which can be quickly navigated. You can use this wide variety of music in animations, slideshows, web advertisements, website backgrounds, and more. Benjamin Tissot, a France-based musician with more than 10 years of experience in music writing for commercials, short films, corporate videos, and animations, owns and operates Ben Sound.
4. Free Stock Music
True to its name, this site offers a huge stock of free music. Just sign up for free on Free Stock Music (discontinued) and you’ll find hundreds of music tracks in a range of genres, available for free. There is no need to give attribution. The music tracks are available in formats like MP3, WAV & AIFF.
5. Synkio
Just like any other free music site, Synkio has a vast and unlimited community of musicians and music experts and offers a plethora of options for free music to take your YouTube videos to the next level. However, there is one aspect that makes Synkio a superior option. Instead of making you browse through an endless list of songs, genres, moods, etc., the site allows you to take a brief survey. After which, the team at Synkio do the hard work for you and present to you a selection of tracks, based on your idea and budget, with each track being clearly priced with no overhead charges.
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6. Incomptech
One of the top sites for copyright-free music, Incomptech features royalty-free music and creative commons music by Kevin MacLeod, a famous composer. The music can be easily searched and filtered by keywords like mood, instruments and more. MacLeod has composed over 2,000 pieces of royalty-free library music, which is available under a Creative Commons copyright license that allows you to use his music for free, as long as you give him attribution for his work. Kevin’s music has been used in countless movies, including Hugo, which received 5 Academy Awards. His music pieces have also been used in some commercial video games and videos by online content creators, such as Good Mythical Morning and College Humor.
7. TeknoAxe
If you are looking for the best royalty-free heavy metal and rock music, TeknoAxe is one of the best choices. The site features over a thousand tracks, covering all genres in MP3 format. The music, however, requires you to cite the source, including links to the TeknoAxe website, the TeknoAxe YouTube Channel, specific webpage on the site where the track is located, complying with the CC 3.0 license when using the music.
8. Josh Woodward
Josh Woodward is a prolific Indie acoustic-rock songwriter and musician from Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, who has released 10 albums and more than 200 songs in the past eight years. Woodward is famous for recording a variety of music, mainly with vocals. All the music pieces available on his site are sorted by genre, mood, and theme, filtered by length and tempo. And the best part is that they are all free to use. However, you’ll need to give him credit whenever you use his music. This will promote his site.
9. ccMixter
An opportunity to collaborate with 45,000 musicians around the world, ccMixter is a great choice for license-free, royalty-free music. The music from this site can be used for YouTube videos, games, podcasts, etc. On the site, musicians post and share music samples and acapella, music specifically including group or solo singing, without instrumental accompaniment, for free.
10. Machinima Sound
Machinima Sound is an amazing website, offering a load of great music pieces, divided on the basis of genre, mood and singer, all available in MP3 format. However, you’ll need to give attribution under a specific license format. I would especially recommend that you try tracks marked “Legacy” here.
Remember, music will only add to the impact of your video but only if you choose wisely.
Note: When using any website for royalty-free music, make sure you understand the license for the audio you download off the internet. Don’t forget to give attribution to the creator or leave the original audio unmodified, if asked for in the free music resource.
