All filmmakers need music to complete their videos. In this article, we will go over the best 5 sites to find royalty-free-music for your next project.
YouTube
Yup, you heard that right. YouTube actually gives you access to royalty-free music to use in your videos. If you have a YouTube account (who doesn’t) you can already access it! To see your options, all you have to do is visit your YouTube Studio account and you will see a menu on the left side of your screen. At the bottom, you will see Audio Library and this is where all of the music and sound effects are housed. From here you can download any and all music for you to use in your videos. One thing to note, some songs do require attribution but if you don’t want to mess with that, you can filter the list to only show the songs that don’t require attribution.
Soundstripe
Soundstripe is a great service that has a huge selection of music to choose from. They are also relatively cheap and you have unlimited access to the entire catalog. You are able to search based on genre, mood, BPM, length, and more. Once you find the song you like, you simply fill out a form to describe what the video will be associated with then you are free to download. They will even give you a copyright release for proof that you own the song for that specific use. Currently, at the time of this article, pricing is $11.25 per month for the Standard Plan and $21 per month for the Premium Plan.
Epidemic Sound
Epidemic Sound is another popular royalty-free, especially among YouTubers. Their music has been used with big brands such as GoPro, Chedder, and Netflix just to name a few so they definitely have some great music to choose from. They have a huge catalog that has new songs added each day as well as niche playlists so you can easily find the songs you want for a specific situation. Pricing isn’t bad either. They offer 3 different packages but I recommend the Personal Package for $15 per month as it has almost everything that a filmmaker might need.
AudioBlocks / StoryBlocks Audio
StoryBlocks, formally AudioBlocks, is a royalty-free music service that has been around for a while and they have a large catalog of music to use but they also offer access to their loops and sound effects. You can bundle all of the StoryBlocks services together (stock videos, audio, and images) at a higher monthly cost but if you just want access to the music, you can get this for only $8.25 per month (limited to 3 downloads a month). The Unlimited Plan, their most popular, is comparable to the other services for $12.42 a month but you actually get more for your money because of the loops and sound effects being included.
SoundCloud
When you think of places to look for royalty-free music, most people don’t even think of SoundCloud but they have some great music to choose from. The cost is actually free as most of the music is licensed under Creative Commons, which means you can use the songs for free. You will just have to make sure you follow the specific guidelines made by each artist. The only drawback to using SoundCloud is that it takes a bit of time to search and filter through the huge user-submitted list but you can really find some amazing music to use in your videos.
