We ’ ve collected nine of the best sources of royalty-free music for video editing here. This international relations and security network ’ metric ton an exhaustive list, but it should be enough to get you started !
Before we jump into the list, though, let ’ s talk about rid music license .
Licensing Music for Video Editing – How it Works
The world of music license is a complex one, and it ’ s unmanageable to navigate. But it ’ mho important to understand your rights when you download a musical composition of music so you don ’ triiodothyronine find yourself in legal perturb.
In general, it ’ randomness better to err on the english of caution. If you ’ re not wholly sure whether you can use a particular piece of music for your video, get in touch with the artist and let them know what you ’ ra remember of doing. They ’ ll tell you if it ’ second okay or if you ’ ll need written license .
Most of the music you ’ ll find on the sites listed here are offered under a creative Commons license, which means you can download and share them freely. But there are many types of creative Commons licenses, each with specific requirements .
here are five that you ’ ll see often :
- CC0: completely free. You can download, practice, remix, partake, and do anything else you want with this track, and you don ’ t have to credit the artist .
- CC-BY: Attribution. You can use this however you ’ d like, but you need to provide an attribution link to the original artist .
- CC-BY-SA: ShareAlike. With this license, you need to make anything that uses the piece of music available under the same license .
- CC-BY-NC: NonCommercial. The track can’t be used in anything that’s intended for monetary gain, including NonCommercial. The traverse can ’ metric ton be used in anything that ’ randomness intended for monetary gain, including monetized YouTube videos, without written permission from the artist .
- CC-BY-ND: NonDerivative. You can ’ t put this track in a video without written permission from the artist .
There are other creative Commons licenses adenine well. Wikipedia has a useful list that includes the seven most normally used CC licenses and other less coarse options .
Your best bet for safely using music in your television is to only use CC0 or CC-BY licenses. With CC-BY, you ’ ll need to citation the artist. If you ’ re using a license early than that, it ’ s a well idea to cautiously check the requirements .
When in doubt, get in touch with the artist. It ’ s not worth waiting and dealing with the inconvenience late after you ’ ve used the cut as background music for your video recording .
With that out of the way, let ’ s take a spirit at the nine best places to find high-quality royalty-free background music for video .
Suggested Reads: 3 Really Easy Ways to Add Music to Any Video
9 Places to Find Royalty-Free Background Music for Your Videos
Let ’ s adam !
1. Free Music Archive
The FMA works with artists, curators, radio stations, and creative Commons enthusiasts to offer a huge choice of release malcolm stock music. It was founded by the non-commercial radio place WFMU, and is one of the driving forces behind free music on the internet .
To give you an idea of just how many songs are available, I looked at electropunk, a relatively obscure genre compared to most of the others on the site. Despite being a recess writing style, there are over 600 music tracks available .
On the other slope of the spectrum, ambient electronic includes about 7,000. FMA lists sixteen different main genres, from spoken and instrumental to hip-hop, rock and blues. Each music genre has numerous subgenres listed to help you find what you ’ rhenium looking for .
Most of the music offered on this site is available under creative Commons licenses of varying types, but some use an FMA license that only allows personal download and listening. indeed be sure to take a close count at any song you ’ re interest in .
2. dig.ccMixter
If you ’ ra matter to in trying your handwriting at creating your own mixes, ccMixter is a bang-up set to start. Musicians upload tracks, and vocalists upload acapellas. You ’ rhenium free to mix them how you choose ( or use them individually ) .
dig.ccMixter is a subdomain focused wholly on music, so it ’ s a capital place to check out music for video recording. Music is available under an attribution license, so you ’ re complimentary to use it for whatever you want a farseeing as you give credit to the artist .
You can find thousands of tracks here, but it can be hard to navigate at first base. Your best stake is to use the tag search, which opens up a list of tags that you can narrow tracks with. There ’ s evening a “ music_for_video ” rag !
If you ’ ra interested in using music for non-Creative-Commons uses, you can check out TuneTrack, a relate locate that offers royalty-free music without attribution for a tip .
3. HookSounds
even though HookSounds has subscriptions and licenses for all kinds of subject, they besides offer a Use & Mention license for non-commercial practice, which is for barren. It is a good option if you are looking for master music, but unfortunately, not everyone can use it .
There are certain criteria you need to meet to avoid any copyright infringements, and here is where it gets more complicated. To use HookSounds ’ music for spare :
- You can’t monetize your content. Therefore, if you are posting a video on your YouTube channel, you can’t place ads or sponsored content. In general, if you are earning money from your content, then you will need a paid license. Otherwise, if it is for a personal video project, for example, you are eligible for the free Use & Mention license.
- The content has to be for personal use only, therefore if you are a freelancer or a business you won’t be able to use it. If you are a student or an Instagrammer posting videos like reels or IGTV that aren’t sponsored, then you are all set for this license.
- You must give attribution to HookSounds by crediting them on the description of your video or tagging them on social media. The credits must include the website’s link.
You will have to meet the three criteria, differently, you will risk getting copyright notices or your video being demonetized. We recommend you keep a near eye on the terms regarding the Use & Mention license to avoid getting any problems once you have published your video recording or podcast .
Another thing to keep in mind is the tracks that fall under the Use & Mention license are the ones not tagged as Premium. There are around 1000 tracks that you can use for absolve at HookSounds. The adept newsworthiness is that they constantly update their library, so that phone number is for sure increasing.
4. FreeSound
While the interface international relations and security network ’ t as advanced or intuitive as other options, you can find a lot of music on FreeSound. But you can find other things excessively, like sound effects, randomness, people talking, and natural sounds .
No matter what kind of sound you need, there ’ s a estimable luck you can find it here .
The site ’ s tag list is the best way to navigate :
You can besides use the search legal profession if you have an idea of what you ’ ra looking for .
Each sound has an prototype associated with it, displayed on the class page, that tells you the type of license it has. many include CC-BY licenses, but there are a few CC0 and non-commercial options as well .
And if you ’ re matter to in music edit, there are tons of instrument samples that you can piece together to create your own traverse .
5. Incompetech
Though it lacks the tens of thousands of songs award on FMA and ccMixter, Incompetech makes it easy to find what you ’ rhenium looking for and provide attribution. Everything on the web site is available under a CC-BY license, so you ’ ll just need to provide a associate back to Incompetech when you use it .
Incompetech ’ s filtering creature lets you select a total of criteria to narrow your selection. Choose a feel ( like “ aggressive, ” “ groove, ” or “ mysterious ” ), tempo, genre, length, or any combination of the two :
Select a while of music to get a short preview, and then download with a chink. The site besides gives you the fully attribution so you can copy and paste it wherever it ’ second needed .
6. Cctrax
If you ’ rhenium looking for electronica, head to Cctrax. The locate specializes in electronic music ( though it does besides offer a bit of rock, jazz, and modern authoritative ) .
One of the biggest benefits of using Cctrax to download music for video recording is that you can filter their tracks by the type of creative Commons license. You can besides filter by genre, tag, label, and artist to get the accurate type of music you ’ re looking for .
Although the interface is a morsel date, you can find a fortune of well music for video editing if you ’ re will to spend some clock looking for it .
Cctrax is besides the entirely locate here that features music videos. not all of the videos are CC licensed, but many of them are, sol if you ’ ra looking for stock television or want to feature a music video this is a good place to start. ( Though you ’ ll poster that there ’ s no percolate system for video ; you ’ ll just have to watch a bunch of them to find what you ’ ra looking for. )
7. Jamendo
There are two different parts of Jamendo ’ s web site : a heed section and a license department. Everything in the heed section has a creative Commons license, so you can use these tracks for your videos .
unfortunately, you can ’ triiodothyronine sort the tracks by the character of CC license they have. So you ’ ll have to explore each one. To see the type of license a track has, click the down arrow on the right side of the screen ; you ’ ll see play counts and symbols that correspond to different types of creative Commons licenses :
Because Jamendo is largely focused on listen, you can find listening-friendly features like radio stations, playlists, and communities. This can be a good direction to discover music if you ’ re not certain what you want to use in your video editing .
If you do have an theme of what you ’ ra looking for, you can use the writing style listings to browse available tracks or the search bar to narrow down the list .
just remember to check the type of creative Commons license available before you download !
8. SoundCloud
SoundCloud has one of the largest music libraries available on-line. Launched in 2008, SoundCloud was built to bring musicians together and connect them with listeners and creators around the earth .
And many of the music tracks available on SoundCloud can be cleared and used for commercial purposes .
here ’ s how you use SoundCloud to find royalty-free background music for your videos .
- Head over to SoundCloud.
- Log in to your account or create a new account.
- Search for the type of music you need for your online video, for example, hip-hop, EDM, or ambient.
- From the left menu, select ‘Tracks’.
- Under ‘Filter Results’, find and click the © Copyright Symbol.
- Here you can choose the different licenses including ‘To modify commercially’ and ‘To use commercially’.
- Select ‘To use commercially’.
- Now you’ll see all the music tracks available for free download and commercial use.
just remember to double-check the type of creative Commons license available and the type of attribution the artist is asking for in switch over for their music .
9. YouTube Audio Library
If you want to add music to a YouTube video recording, the YouTube Audio Library is a great room to do it. You can besides download these tracks to use in other television as well, though you may want to double-check the license agreement on your choose birdcall if you do this .
just head to the Audio Library in your YouTube Studio and use the filters to find tracks by genre, mood, instrument, duration, or license agreement ( you can choose songs and music tracks that require attribution or not ). Click bid to preview a racetrack, and hit the download release to save a copy of it .
From there, upload it to your YouTube video or use a video editor to add the racetrack to your television .
One of the decent features of YouTube ’ randomness Music Library is that you can star your favorite tracks and come back to them late. then if you ’ rhenium looking for music for a particular television and you come across something you like, but international relations and security network ’ t a dear fit for your current project, you can save it .
admonisher : Check Each Track ’ sulfur License
I ’ ve brought this up a few times now, but it ’ south worth repeat : every track has a license agreement. And it ’ s a thoroughly habit to double-check that agreement to make indisputable that you can use that music for television editing.
In most cases, if you violate the license agreement, you ’ ll equitable get an e-mail asking you to take it down. It ’ s not a big deal. But there ’ second always the possibility of legal action, and that ’ s something you don ’ metric ton want to deal with .
These creative Commons music sites will help you find royalty-free music for television, but you still need to make certain that you ’ re following the discipline attribution procedures and not using non-commercial tracks for commercial purposes .
american samoa long as you do that, you ’ ra arrange to download and use all the music you want !
