Do you know these royalty free music sites? – Updated 2017

Are you looking for royalty free music sites for your current video project?

Sure there are plenty of ways to download ‘free’ music but you don’t want to get caught in a costly legal battle or worst still have to back pay royalties to the owner of the music you’ve used. You should always make sure the music you use is royalty free and is attributed correctly to the artist if this is a requirement of the licensing agreement.

Seriously, the easiest way to avoid all the legal BS is to use trustworthy royalty free music sites. But yes you still need to check out their license agreements.

What is Royalty Free Music?

Royalty Free Music refers to the right to use copyrighted material or intellectual property without the need to pay royalties each time the material is used. Often Royalty Free Music still has an initial licensing cost, it’s just the ongoing royalty costs are waived.

What’s the difference between Royalty Free Stock Music and Free Royalty Free Stock Music?

Yes, I know they sound familiar, but Royalty Free Stock Music is just music without any royalty claims on it. You might still need to pay a licensing fee to gain access to this music.

Whereas Free Royalty Free Stock Music is music that’s free to use without any ongoing royalty claims. Yes, people do give away the rights to their material as it’s a great way to get your work distributed quickly. Although you should always check the licensing agreement as you may still have to attribute the work to the artist.

Regardless if you need to or not, it’s always a good idea to attribute the music directly to the artist, as it’s the fair thing to do.

Where to Find Royalty Free Music?

You’ll be surprised on how much free legal music there is available on the Internet. Here’s some of the best royalty free music sites we found…

Epidemic Sound (subscription)

I’ve added this royalty free music site to the list because I use it regularly and it saves a lot of hassles searching through the free royalty free catalogs.

There are literally thousands of songs and sound effects you can use from this website and the small monthly fee ($12) makes it worthwhile if you upload a few times a week.

Epidemic Sound also partners with a few YouTube Network Partners so you can get it for free if join one of them. (But I’d advise against this when new as you’ll only see your  ad profits dwindle)

YouTube (free)

Yes, even Youtube wants you to use awesome music and provides Free Royalty Free Music in their Audio Library. This library is continually expanding and whilst the music is free, some do require owner attribution, which as mentioned earlier should be a given anyway.

Youtube even provides royalty free sound effects for those people working with stop motion animation.

Incompetech (free)

One of the artists that publishes work on YouTube goes by the name Kevin Macleod and he actually has a lot more Royalty Free Music on his own website called Incompetech. Here you’ll find a number of different music Genre’s and hundred’s of songs to choose from. Kevin just asks for attribution when using his music, but you can also purchase a no-attribution license too.

I’m glad I found this site because he also has a Donate button which is a great way to pay what you think the royalty free music is worth. I plan on using some of his music and will be back to donate for sure. He also has a cool blog too so check that out!

Update – Incompetech continues to be a great source of royalty free music for your videos and is hugely popular. Here’s a compilation of all the Incompetech Music you can use Royalty free. It’s in sample form and has some nice pictures, so grab a coffee and sit back relax and jot down the royalty free music that interests you.

Moby Gratis (free)

Yes, that’s the Moby you know and love and yes you can get some of his music without paying a licensing fee. WTF! The catch is it’s limited to non-commercial or non-profit use only. {Sad Face} Which obviously indicates it’s also royalty free music. Check out what’s on offer at Moby Gratis.

Oh and if your work does become commercial then any money that’s collected is donated to the Humanesociety.org which is a very noble gesture.

Hey, if you are mad raving Moby fan then you can just listen to some of his unreleased music, Bonus!

Free Sountrack Music (fee & free)

F.S.M contains a lot of royalty free music for videos and most is free to use. For the music you want that isn’t free, the cost is almost negligible and can be purchased for as a low as a dollar, if you stock up on credits.

This website isn’t as easy to use as some of the other free music websites but if you’re looking to buy royalty free music then you won’t find it cheaper anywhere else. And unlike the saying you actually get more than you pay for at F.S.M

DanoSongs (donate)

There is not much to see at DanoSongs, but after listening to his work I’m convinced they’ll all make great royalty free background music for your video. Dan-O is an acoustic rock singer-songwriter and some of his tracks would be perfect for those short upbeat advertising whiteboard animation videos you see. Check out ‘The World At Large’ if you are looking for that type of music.

Although the music is royalty free, there is a licensing cost associated to each to each song.

Partners In Rhyme (fee & free)

If you’re a musician and looking to publish your work, for a fee then Partners in Rhyme might be a perfect fit for you.  There’s an obvious promotion of paid work, but unlike many of the other sites, they are selling songs in bundles.

The pricing of this royalty free music depends on the way in which you intend to use it, so make sure you’ve purchased the correct license for your needs.

Although there is free royalty free music on this site it’s mainly short loops, so I’d use one of the other websites that’s devoted to sharing music for free.

Beatpick (fee & free)

Beatpick has a great selection of licensed royalty free music. However, it also offers a restricted license for non-commercial and non-profit organizations.

With hundreds of songs to choose from you might be browsing all day, although the do offer a ‘Picked for You’ service and are happy to use their knowledge of the music catalog to find the right songs for you.

I guess this is a good example of adding value when money starts to change hands.

PacDV (free)

PacDV is a basic website offering royalty free music with attribution to back to the owners. I was unable to determine if this was a mix of artists or was produced by a single person.

The music sounded fine, but there is something wrong with the way the website is presented. With no link to a formal licensing agreement, I’d be wary of using the music for commercial use.

ccMixter (free)

ccMixter is a community of around 45,000  musicians and artists contributing to a common goal. It uses the creative commons license structure although check the license terms for each song you’re wishing to download. Although it’s not specified, attribution of work is usually common under the creative commons license.

This free music website has an enormous amount of quality, but to avoid being overwhelmed start in the ‘Picks’ section.

The thing I like most about this community is the collaboration between different artists, which is not normally available if you are justing sitting in your bedroom at home surfing the net and looking for inspiration.

Public Domain 4U (free)

Public domain music exists when it no longer has intellectual property rights attached to it due to forfeiting or expiration. Just like a lot of old books, music also eventually ends up in the Public Domain.

Typically there’s a lot of old music and authentic recordings but if that’s what you are looking for then Public Domain 4U is the place to go.

The license is a little open ended so proceed with caution, as there are no guarantees this music should all be in the Public Domain.

If in doubt, leave it out.

Musopen (free)

Musopen is your classical music option when looking for free royalty free classical music. There is an extensive list of arranged music by all major composers and performers.

A bonus feature of this free classical music website, is some of the downloads are available by instrument, which is great if you want to make your own arrangement or are just learning to play a major piece.

Classical Sheet Music is also available for free on this website.

SoundCloud (free)

Ok, you can’t just use music from Soundcloud without contacting the artist first, but most artists would be happy to have their music featured on your video with attribution of course. It’s free publicity for them and royalty free music for you.

Just make sure you get the licensing agreement in writing so it doesn’t come back to haunt you later on.

Shutterstock (fee)

Normally known for their extensive photo stock, Shutterstock also has an extensive catalog of music available at a price. The music catalog is searchable by genre and there are few different license types available, depending on your needs and budget.

You can certainly benefit from their user-friendly interface to find the right royalty free music, for your project,  but I’m not convinced about the value for money on offer.

Perhaps you could track the artists down yourself to see if they have an offering on their blog. It never hurts to check.

So there you have 12 of the Best Royalty Free Music websites and a mix of both paid and free music for your project. I could extend this list even further, but I don’t want you to be paralyzed by choice.

If you found this post to be useful then please like and share as this will help me to spread the love.

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I also have another blog post if you are looking for Royalty Free Images.