Find The Perfect Royalty Free Music Track For Your Video
If you’ve been thinking about getting an explainer video made for your business, you may be interested to know where the music comes from. The vast majority of production companies don’t actually create their own music. Instead, they license it from services who, in turn, license it from musicians. There are options for every budget and style, and different sites have their own features worth considering.
Here now, in no particular order, are the 25 Best royalty free music sites.
1. Artlist
Look, there are quite a few options out there for royalty-free music sites, but Artlist is quickly rising in the ranks — and for good reason. With the introduction of their new personal plan, at only $9.99 a month if you go for yearly billing, or $14.99 if you go for the monthly, that’s a pretty sweet deal. And it’s not like it limits you, you’ll have access to the full music and SFX catalog and a license that covers all your social channels, so it’s perfect for content creators.
2. Premium Beat
Premium Beat is one of the better-known royalty free music sources. Because of this, they are able to get music from talented musicians who know they’ll be able to sell more licenses because of Premium Beat’s reach. They’re so popular, if you spend just a few minutes listening to samples, you’ll be sure to recognize clips used in ads you’ve seen on television and online.
3. Amazing Music Tracks
What makes Amazing Music Tracks stand out is their extremely detailed search filters. For example, if you’re looking for a rock soundtrack, there are dozens of sub-genres just for rock alone! You can search by decade (need something that sounds like 70s rock but not 60s? No problem), tempo, BPM, and much more.
4. Tunefruit
With a comprehensive search function front and center, Tunefruit is a go-to when you’ve got a song or band already in mind. For example, I was looking for a royalty-free rock track that sounded like something the 90s grunge legends Nirvana would have made. I simply typed “Nirvana” into the main page search and was instantly given over 20 tracks that fit the sound.
5. . POND5
While mainly known as a stock video footage site, POND5 also has a strong selection of music tracks available to purchase — over half a million, in fact. With an easy search system that has filters for style, budget, length, and more, they rank highly as a royalty free music option. They even have over 2,000 tracks available completely free of charge!
6. Music Vine
When it comes to royalty free music, you’ve probably noticed a wide range of quality. Sometimes you come across tracks that sound as if they were made by some guy in his bedroom in two hours. And sometimes that’s all you need — just a simple beat that gives a bit of life to your explainer video. Music Vine is the opposite of that. Music Vine may only have a couple thousand tracks to choose from, but they are all extremely high quality orchestrations. Pricing is based on what you’re using it for (i.e., student film vs. international commercial), and while most tiers are higher than average pricing, again, you’re going to notice the difference. If you’re looking for the best in pre-produced music options, Music Vine is a great choice.
7. Epidemic Sound
In a world of corporate jingles, Epidemic Sound is a premium service for those who are looking for the best-sounding tracks available. With a layout that looks more like a record store, Epidemic is almost as much of a journey into new music as it is a royalty free music site.
8. Jamendo
Continuing the trend of hip-ness, Jamendo also works with talented indie musicians and songwriters. With an equally as impressive layout as Song Freedom, you also can easily browse spotlighted and exclusive tracks.
9. Shockwave-Sound
Shockwave-Sound is a website for royalty-free music and stock music, with a wide selection of carefully curated and hand-picked music tracks available for immediate licensing and download. Full tracks, sub-mixes or stem files are available, as are all kinds of different music styles from Hip-Hop / R&B, to corporate background music, royalty-free music for technology and science, classical music and even royalty-free vocal music.
10. Bensound
Bensound is a fantastic choice for royalty-free music for people of all needs. While most sites focus on business licenses and a few focus on personal use, Bensound makes it easy to do either with a click of a button. If you find a track you like, simply click “download,” and it gives you the option to choose either a free version for personal use, or a reasonably-priced paid version for corporate use. Few sites make this as easy as Bensound does!
11. Soundstripe
While some of the sites mentioned in this blog also provide sound effects, Soundstripe features them prominently as an add-on to their subscription service. With pricing available monthly or yearly, Soundstripe has a solid library of good music and FX to choose from.
12. MixDown
Music veterans, Mixdown Music, formerly stockmusic.net, has been licensing music for almost two decades. Subscriptions start at $19.95 for unlimited access to over 85,000 music and sound effects. Their license is quite flexible, covering usage from personal to commercial with no limitations on production budget, advertising spend, or audience size. If you don’t want a subscription, you can still purchase individual tracks for $39.95 and sound effects for $2.95 with no future commitment
13. Hook Sounds
So far we’ve talked entirely about music sites for business use. Hook Soundshas a good selection for that, but what sets them apart is their “Use and Mention” program for personal use. Let’s say you’re interested in putting together a family vacation video and tossing it up on YouTube. Hook Sounds has an entire collection available free of use! All that’s required is to give credit in exchange for using a track. It’s a great option for anyone looking for ways to make their personal videos stand out.
14. Dig CC Mixter
What does the name mean? I’m not sure. What I am sure of is how cool Dig CC Mixter is. All their music is free — yes, even for corporate use. Simply give proper credit where credits are put and you’re free to use their tracks any way you like. It’s a fantastic option for startups on a shoestring budget.
15. Audio Network
Audio Network has been in the game almost 20 years, and it shows. With 150,000+ tracks to choose from and a large multi-continent team, they’ve got you covered for music. With a specialty in global licensing and high-quality fully produced musical tracks from established artists, they are a leader in the royalty free music world.
16. FilmStro
As you may imagine by the name, FilmStro tends to be based more on soundtrack style musical cues. They offer a great selection of instrumentals,and are another site that have multiple monthly pricing plans and discounts for long-term subscriptions. They do, however, allow usage of their music free of charge for anyone making creative short films.
17. Marmoset
Marmoset is a full-service music agency — their catalog of music representing everything from vintage to emerging artists, bands and record labels. Looking to license that Jackson Five song you love for your project? You can with Marmoset. And if you can’t find the right music to fit your needs, they have an in-house original music team ready to create something completely customized to fit your needs. As one of the first certified B Corporation music agencies, Marmoset also donates 10% of their profits to partnering nonprofits and organizations every month.
18. Stock Music Site
With over 800,000 available music tracks (100,000+ of which are exclusive), Stock Music Site has a mega-collection of audio to choose from. What sets them apart, though, is the featured tab on the main page. Whenever a big holiday or event is coming up, you’ll see a curated list of tracks that make it easy to browse and choose for those special occasions.
19. Song Freedom
With a slick layout and a unique playlist browsing feature, Song Freedom offers an easy way to search for the music you want. But what makes them really stand out is their focus on lyrical-based songs from up-and-coming musicians. While most of the other royalty free sites offer mostly instrumental pieces, Song Freedom is a great choice when looking for quality music with lyrics.
20. Moby Gratis
This one is just plain cool. You may not immediately know Moby by his name, but you’ve definitely heard the influential DJ’s music featured in countless movies, TV shows, and commercials over the past 20 years. As a passion project, he’s made over 200 of his own tracks available, completely free, for people wanting it for personal projects. While not an option for corporate videos, it’s still a great site to check out, even if you’d like to download some of his music just to listen to for free.
21. FoxiMusic
Foximusic provides commercial and individual licensing for royalty-free background music to be used in endless projects with no strings attached and no subscriptions.
Foximusic’s licensing structure is ideal for SMBs, entrepreneurs, and creative individuals alike. With a prestige catalog of powerful background music, there’s a category for every musical element.
You can even create your very own discounted music package
22. The Music Case
The Music Case combines a large library (100,000+ tracks) with reasonable pricing. Many tracks are sub $30 USD, and the licenses cover a wide range of lifetime usage. And, with an easy-to-navigate browsing system on the main page, finding the style of music you’re looking for is a breeze.
23. Audio Jungle
One of the most popular sites, and for good reason. With almost a million tracks available and many at extremely cheap pricing (tracks begin at just $1 USD), Audio Jungle is the supermarket of royalty-free music websites. They also have an inexpensive monthly subscription fee that rivals anyone else’s. When you need a lot of options to choose from and aren’t too picky about having to browse through tracks that vary in quality, Audio Jungle is the place to go.
24. AKM Music
Also hailing from the UK is AKM. One of the big providers of tracks for the BBC and SKY, they’ve got an extensive collection of well-produced tracks that are all globally cleared and licensed for wherever in the world you may need to use them.
25. YouTube
Yes, that YouTube. A few years back they started offering their own collection of licensed royalty-free music tracks and effects for use in videos. But not many people realize that you don’t just have to use them on the YouTube platform. The songs are all available for download to mix into your video offline as well.
More Royalty Free Music Websites
26. W.O.W Sound
W.O.W Sound has a library of royalty free music tracks that are geared towards games, anime culture, and short videos – perfect for explainer videos in that realm of pop culture.
Their music tracks are categorized into various music genres, game genres, moods, and emotions. This makes it easy for you to find what you need. If you are creating explainer videos in gaming or anime style, W.O.W Sound is the place for you.
27. Purple Planet
In a world of giant corporations, Purple Planet are just a couple of guys from the United Kingdom making music and making a living. All the tracks on their site are created by them, and just like the big boys in the industry, they offer different plans depending on usage. From personal free use to reasonablepriced business-use tracks, Purple Planet has it all, even if it’s just a couple of blokes from England doing all the work.
28. Pyramid Tracks
Pyramid Tracks is a curated royalty free music website specialising in high-quality retro, alternative and obscure music. The Swedish company offers music from as little as $19.99 for use in new and traditional media projects, including films, apps, games, online media and advertising. Find genres such as Synthwave, Drones, Lo-Fi, Cinematic and more. They are quickly becoming the go-to place for alternative music loved by filmmakers, brands and agencies worldwide.
30. Audioblocks
Another one of the heavy hitters of royalty-free music, and for good reason. Audioblocks has multiple monthly plans starting as low as about 8 bucks a month for five downloads and stretching to $30 USD for unlimited downloads of music, sound effects, stock video, graphics, and more. They are another one of the “supermarkets” of royalty-free, and a must-visit.
Conclusion
As you can see, there is a wide range of royalty free music choices available online. While this is our choice for the top 25 sites, there are plenty more out there to explore. Hopefully, this post gives you a solid launch pad to start from.
Additional Resources
• How to choose background music for your videos
