Free Music for Online Videos
Music for online videos has become more important in our digital world where videos dominate. According to Cisco Annual Internet Report (2018–2023) White Paper, 82 percent of the global internet traffic will come from video streaming and downloads by 2022.
Online video marketing carries a lot of weight in online marketing nowadays than just a couple of years ago as illustrated in the 10 video marketing statistics that you need to know in 2021 article published by Oberlo, Shopify’s dropshipping arm.
One aspect of creating online video content which may make or break your audience’s attention is its music. We’ve handpicked some of the best music websites for your online videos.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Licenses and Costs
There are a couple of ways to get music for online videos.
First, public domain music is music to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Public domain doesn’t require permission from the music creators.
Secondly, Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization created for sharing knowledge and creativity by overcoming legal obstacles. Some musicians choose to release their music under Creative Commons licenses. It allows you to legally use music with reserved rights for free. It offers free copyright licenses to mark their music with the freedoms they want it to carry.
Thirdly, many royalty free music websites allow you to use their copyrighted music. Royalty free music doesn’t mean that you can use the music for free. It simply means you can use the music for unlimited number of times by paying a licensing fee. You don’t need to pay for the royalties to the music publishers and composers.
You can use public domain music, Creative Commons music or royalty free music to audibly enhance your online videos.
Creative Commons Websites
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Audio Library searches, catalogs, sorts and publishes no copyright, royalty-free music from artists around the world for YouTube content creators with attribution required. You cannot claim, sell or remix the music. You must contact the artist if you wish to use the music outside of YouTube. Audio Library Plus is a record label providing free and safe music for independent YouTube, Facebook, Instagram & Twitch content creators with attribution required.
Audionautix.com features free and downloadable music created by Jason Shaw. You are free to use the music even for commercial purposes with attribution required. The music is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
BeatPick allows you to obtain master and synchronization rights. You can then use the music in your film, TV, ad, public spaces, DVDs, sonic branding, telephone on hold and any other media use. Music licensing ranges from €30 to €30,000 depending on the type of project you are working on.
ccMixter offers thousands of hours of free music by genre, instrument, and style for commercial projects. It has three types of CC licenses. You can get a free to use license in both commercial projects and non-commercial projects with attribution required. It is also available without any restrictions for a sliding scale, royalty free fee.
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Free Music Archive (FMA) offers free access to open licensed, original music from many curators, netlabels and independent musicians around the world. Most of the music is licensed under one of the Creative Commons licenses. This means the music is copyright protected and some conditions apply before you can re-use the song.
Icon8 lets you use their music for free for non-commercial use. You can pay US$13 a month or US$119 a year to get 15 downloads a month (320 kbps MP3 and 44 kHz lossless WAV) and US$3 per track thereafter.
Internet Archive’s Netlabels Collection hosts complete, freely downloadable/streamable, often Creative Commons-licensed catalogs of ‘virtual record labels’. These ‘netlabels’ are non-profit, community-built entities dedicated to providing high quality, non-commercial, freely distributable MP3/OGG-format music for online download in a multitude of genres.
Jamendo offers monthly and annual subscriptions of unlimited access to 250,000+ curated tracks which you can synchronize and broadcast on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Instagram, etc. without budget restrictions. You can also buy single track licenses instead.
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Magnatune provides instant music licensing from a catalog of 20,000 songs of CD quality which you can download and use in your commercial projects. You can also buy the Magnatune Music Library for US$299 for personal use only. On iLicenseMusic for US$89/month, you can use their music for your film, video, website, presentation, or any commercial project. On MoodMixes for £200/month, you can use their background music for your restaurant, store, office or other public space.
Musopen is a 501(c) 3 non-profit based out of San Francisco, CA. They offer royalty-free classical music.
Purple Planet Music is a collection of music written and performed by Chris Martyn and Geoff Harvey. You can download the music for free for personal use, but attribution is required. You can also purchase commercial licenses for standard use and broadcast.
TeknoAXE brings you downloadable techno, rock and orchestra music covered by a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which gives you the right to copy, redistribute, remix, transform, and build upon for commercial use with required attribution.
YouTube Audio Library provides royalty-free, copyright-safe production music and sound effects to use in your videos. Some music requires Creative Commons attribution to the artist.
Royalty-free Websites
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AKM Music provides royalty free music for videos, films, apps, games, TV and online productions including YouTube, Facebook, Zoom, Instagram and Vimeo. The copyright is cleared for unlimited worldwide use. You can buy tracks, albums and CDs for fixed prices. You have the right to use the music in perpetuity.
AmazingMusicTracks.com is a hand-picked royalty free music platform. They provide thousands of music tracks for ads, TV shows, videos, films, games, and mobile apps. They offer standard (web-based or non-commercial) and extended (non-web ad or income-generating) per-track license options and perpetual use.
Artlist is a music licensing site for video, film and multimedia. You can buy an annual unlimited license to use any music and/or special sound effects in their entire catalog in your commercial projects, and on YouTube, Facebook and any social platform worldwide without limitations. You can monetize your Youtube videos. Any assets you use in a project during your active subscription are yours to use forever.
AudioJungle, part of Envato, offers royalty free 1,584,490 music and audio tracks from a community of musicians and sound engineers for $1 up.
Bensound is home to 419 music tracks (as of May 15 2021) run by Benjamin Tissot, a composer and musician based in France. You can use Bensound’s music under the Free License in your online videos, websites, animations, and other multimedia except audio podcasts or audiobooks for free with attribution. If you want high-quality files (MP3 and WAV) and premium tracks, you can buy a Bensound Pro License.
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Epidemic Sound offers over 35,000 royalty-free music tracks and 90,000 sound effects to use in videos, podcasts, social media and for commercial use. For unlimited personal use on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch and podcasts, you pay £10/month or £96/year. For unlimited commercial use on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, podcasts, all online platforms, websites, and digital ads, you pay £39/month or £239/year.
Filmmusic.io offers royalty free music. Its standard license is free with required attribution while its extended license costs €20 per song without attribution except for premium songs.
Filmstro features music tracks from nearly 200 freelance contractors and composers. Their annual or monthly subscriptions allow you to download unlimited copyright-cleared music for unlimited projects for worldwide and perpetual use.
Freeplay Music has over 50,000 royalty-free music tracks. Their pricing depends on where you will use their music. For instance, you pay US$250 to use one track in one ad on unlimited URLs for one year. However, all the tracks are free for personal use on YouTube.
Hooksounds is a curated, exclusive, handpicked, royalty-free music site. They offer annual or monthly premium subscriptions (for individual creators, YouTubers, and own productions) and business subscriptions (for agencies, large businesses, and stores). Both subscriptions come with unlimited downloads of music and sound effects. Alternatively, you can also pay for each track.
IncompeTech is a small royal-free music website run by Kevin MacLeod. The Standard License is available for projects without attribution on radio ad, TV ad, corporate presentation, commercial short, and on-hold music. There is no charge for a Creative Commons license. It does require that you credit the music.
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Music Vine provides a platform representing independent musicians for marketing agencies, global brands, independent filmmakers, and hobbyists. Their pricing includes yearly or monthly pro subscriptions (for small and large businesses) and creator subscriptions (for personal use) for unlimited music.
Pond5 provides a marketplace of video and royalty-free music media assets for filmmakers, media organizations, and marketers worldwide. You can get royalty-free stock music with expanded licensing rights starting at US$15 per track.
PremiumBeat, a Shutterstock company, provides exclusive music tracks and sound effects. You can use the music in videos, films, apps, games, and TV programming. PremiumBeat subscription gives you 5 music tracks every month for US$64.95 with a 3-month commitment.
Soundstripe offers annual or monthly memberships for unlimited licenses for thousands of songs, 50,000+ sound effects, and 70,000+ HD to 8K video clips.
StockMusicSite.com brings you over 684,000 royalty-free music tracks from over 6,700 independent artists, bands and producers from around the world. They offer pre-cleared downloadable music and sound effect tracks for creative and commercial uses. You can the music in feature-length films, TV shows and commercials, documentaries, radio and Internet, software apps, etc. For every track or SoundPack you purchase, you get a license for that track/pack in all media, worldwide in perpetuity.
Storyblocks offers unlimited royalty-free music downloads of 73,000+ stock music & sound effects for £149 a year.
Conclusion
There are so many creative commons and royalty-free music websites to choose for video marketing. It depends on whether you are an individual or business, how many music tracks you need, where you want to use the music tracks, what budget you have, so on and so forth. So, make sure you spend some time to explore each creative commons and royalty-free music website to find the right music for your next video marketing project.
