So you’re in need of some great music to make your videos stand out, but there’s a problem –  you’re not a musician, and you don’t have a big budget to invest.

Well don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

In this post we’re going to look at some great places to source royalty free music, quickly and easily, without breaking the bank.

First off what do we mean by royalty free?

When choosing music for your video, “royalty free” means that you won’t pay any royalties each time your video is shown. This means you don’t have to factor in this cost when using these tracks in your production – your total expenditure is the amount you paid for the track.

A lot of the music that comes royalty free falls into two categories – “paid for” and “free with attribution”.

Paid for music requires an initial fee, but often requires no attribution to the owner. This is great for times when linking to the original source may not fit in with what you are producing – for example in a corporate video, or commercial production.

The other sort of royalty free music you will find is free to use, but requires you to credit the source. These often fall under a creative commons (CC) license, so be sure to read the rules set out by wherever you get the tracks from.

So where do I get the music from?

These are some of the sites that we use on a regular basis, we’ve found them to be very user friendly, with flexible conditions of use. Combined, these sites should have you covered for whatever style of music you’re looking for.

Youtube

As part of their creator studio, YouTube provides a collection of royalty free music that you can use in any of your productions, free of charge and with no attribution required. You can even use this on commercial videos without fear of any copyright claims.

This is often our first port of call when sourcing music for our videos. It’s simple to use and you don’t have to worry about linking out anywhere, but the selection can sometimes be limited.

When we can’t find what we’re looking for here, we move on to:
 

Jewelbeat

One of the great things about Jewelbeat is it’s large variety of different genres – you’re sure to finding something that fits your project.

Tracks are $2.99 and they come with a fairly comprehensive license agreement which should cover the majority of your projects. Take a look at the video below for a bit more information:
 

For a lot of our projects the low fee is worth the benefit of not needing to credit, so we go with tracks for here when we can’t find what we need on YouTube.
 

Incompetech

For those who can’t find what they’re looking for in YouTube’s audio library, but don’t fancy paying anything, then Incompetech provides a great collection of free royalty free music on a creative commons license.

The attribution process is straightforward, just visit the license page, select the track you have used and the attribution details are generated for you.

In addition to the CC license, there is also a standard license available which doesn’t require the attribution and this comes in at $30 for the first track used in a project, $25 for the second and $20 for every one after that.

That’s all you need

So there you have it. If our experience is anything to go on, those sites should have you covered for most, if not all of your projects, while keeping things simple and cost effective.

If there’s any sites that you use on a regular basis and think we should include, please get in touch and let us know, we’ll aim to include it in the list.