Background Music Made Easy

Jul 15, 2022

Music tracks are a great way to add real value to your video content and can be a key factor in audience engagement. Choosing great background music is an important part of the creative video process, but many clients have been telling me they are finding it harder and harder to find the right tracks at the right price at the right time. Don’t worry, I am here to help and stop this becoming a time-consuming, confusing exercise . . . There are tons of new sites popping up all over the place, but remember not all music sites are the same! So here is my lowdown of the best free music sites to use right now to find what you need fast.

FOLLOW THE RULES

You need to note that on every website with “free” music, you will find usage rights information that you need to comply with. Ignore this and your videos can get flagged or taken down. Most sites ask you to give the composer a credit, whether it is a commercial or non-commercial video. If this is an issue then you will need to go to the sites that offer paid stock music and I will be doing a list of the best of those sites to help you out really soon. My list of our current favourite sites offering music and sound effects.

FREE MUSIC

A good selection of free royalty-free music for social media videos. They do ask you to put an attribution in your credits, and they explain on the site how you include a credit and link in your video description or somewhere in your internet profile on your blog, vlog, podcast or social network platform.

Another good and simple to use website that offers free music for all platforms, but again you may have to agree to credit the composer. Tunetank have made this process extra easy as they provide a ready written credit statement that you can drop into your video description, which is really handy.

There are an increasing selection of tracks in the YouTube library found in the library, in the creator studio section of your YouTube account. You can search by genre, mood, or track name, and you can sample what you want using the play button. There is also a tab offering sound effects. However, you need to be aware that you cannot use the track on any videos not hosted on YouTube, so if you want to make one video and share it across various platforms it can be seriously restrictive.
Facebook has a sound collection that is part of its creator studio. It looks very similar to the YouTube library and offers free music for Facebook and Instagram accounts that won’t get you flagged for copyright infringement. The collection is not huge and many clients have said the collection is a bit bland, but it is growing all the time and a safe option for these platforms.
A fun looking site, this offers you music under different collection search options. They state clearly that they operate under the Creative Commons Licence which means you can use their music on all platforms if you credit Bensound, and they also offer you the option to buy a licence at reasonable rates.
This site was previously called Audiotea, got renamed and allows you to use tracks for videos, personal projects, YouTube, vlogs, podcasting, and every background music use you want in return for a credit. They have a small collection of around 800 tracks, but clients report their music is of high quality and not found anywhere else.
This site is directed by WFMU which is a well known and respected freeform radio station in the USA. Their library is extensive, and they have tracks from musicians all over the world. You do have to credit the artist, and they also offer the facility to tip the artist via PayPal.
This site is run by composter Jason Shaw, and he produces all the tracks on this website. Another site that operates on the Creative Commons Licence, the one that means you have to credit the website in any derivative works, and all is explained clearly on his website. You can also donate to Jason via PayPal to keep the site going, which most people are happy to do.
Described on the site as “songs for people who like things” Josh Woodward is a composer who has recorded all the tracks on this site around 300. You are free to use his songs as long as you credit Josh and mention his website. Again, clients like the fact they can find music not so often found.
This is not actually free, but it does have a large number of tracks for $1 so worth mentioning! This site also comes up as Envato Market and is has a large number of global contributors that keep it constantly updated with new music in all genres. Currently, they have almost 3 million tracks. This is one of the most easy sites to navigate around finding tracks by genre, time, cost whatever you want.

www.pacdv.com is not a music site . . .

But if you are looking for some sound effects, then this is a really good place to look. There are a large selection of all categories here, and they recommend that you credit them, but it is not compulsory. Clients report it is really easy to navigate around.
So there you go, my round up of music made easy for you. I hope that this encourages you to try some new tracks and saves you some time with all your video creating.

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