Top 6 Places to Find Royalty-Free Music For Videos

Music is one of the most important parts of any video – be it a product video, a home movie you made using a camcorder, or just a birthday video you made for your friend with your iPhone.

Now, you can always look for awesome music, rip it off, and face litigation. Or you can pay an exorbitant amount of money to license a song. But for a home movie, that doesn’t really make sense. So it’s better to stick with one of many awesome royalty-free music sources available on the internet (really, you’re flooded with choices here). If you’re starting out with YouTube videos, this list will help you out as well.

1. YouTube Audio Library

Probably the best place to get royalty-free music for your YouTube video is… YouTube. YouTube Audio Library has a really great collection of free music, and their web interface for sampling the music is way better than any other site on this list. The music is broken down by categories and downloading takes one click. All songs are available in 320 Kbps MP3 files.

2. Incompetech

Incompetech is a one-man royalty-free music shop run by Kevin MacLeod. Here you’ll find an extensive collection of free-to-use music spread across various categories – from hard rock to electronic. If you want all of it, there’s a single click download option for $49.

3. Musopen

Musopen is a music library that hosts all sorts of out-of-copyright music. Music that’s older than around half a century is usually in the public domain. So you’ll find music from the likes of Beethoven and Mozart for free. Forget adding them to a video, these are great pieces of music that belong in your music library anyway.

4. Archive.org Music

Archive.org is the best place to find things from our history, and not just the internet. On Archive.org you’ll find old documents, and even console games you can play right in the browser. Their music collection is as you’d expect, extensive. You’ll find the site broken down by categories, genres, and artists.

5. Opsound

Opsound is an alt music website where artists can upload their song to be distributed for free. Because it’s user-curated, you won’t find a uniform music pattern here. Instead, the music collection is all over the place but if you spend enough time here, you’re sure to uncover a gem or two.

6. Open Music Archive

Open Music Archive is another great place where you’ll find out-of-copyright music that you’re free to use commercially.

More Sites

Here are a couple more royalty-free music websites worth checking out.

• Soundclick
• Derek Audette
• New Royalty Free Production Music

What Will You Make?

What are you going to make using all of this royalty-free music? Share with us in the comments below.