Did you know that good editing can have a major impact on the views of your videos? It works in practice because once you upload a video on YouTube, the algorithm shows it to a few users on the homepage. Once it sees a response and engagement from those viewers, it gets shown to a larger subset of viewers on their homepages. The fact is more people engage with videos that are optimized for their viewing- arresting thumbnails, popular keywords, excellent audio, video quality, background music, and graphics are all ways to get your video to get more run time. In turn, the algorithm will show your video to more people.
Using a pleasing background score that instantly hooks attention is an easy way to get viewers to watch your videos all the way through. And it is so inexpensive too, with the endless options available for free music. You can license original music from your favorite artists if you can afford it. But in the meantime, check out our list of the ten best places to find free music for your YouTube channel.
YouTube Audio Library
Type of license: Royalty-Free and CC BY
Let us start with the big daddy of music libraries. If you make videos on YouTube, especially starting, the YouTube free audio library is easy to start.
The YouTube Audio Library provides the option to filter audio and music clips by genre, instrument, mood, and duration. You can even use the YouTube audio library to search for free sound effects for your videos.
InVideo
Type of License: Royalty-Free
InVideo gives you access to thousands of royalty-free audio tracks and sound effects for completely free. Not only that, the platform provides over 5000 customizable templates and stock photos to pull together your video marketing efforts professionally. You can find the best free music for your video by using the search functionality and filtering by genre and mood.
Free Music Archive
Type of License: Public domain & Creative Commons
Free Music Archive (directed by WFMU) is one of the best places online if you are looking for a super curated list of sounds. Free Music Archive also has a “Spoken Word” genre. All the tracks available on FMA are pre-cleared legally. FMA offers more than 1,500 public domain tracks and many more under Creative Commons, giving marketers and creators a wide variety of options to choose from.
Incompetech
Type of license: CC BY
If you are looking for ease of search and do not like being inundated with endless options, Incompetech is the website you should look at. The music offerings on this site are limited compared to other websites on this list, but that helps with decision-making. The platform is the work of American composer Kevin MacLeod and allows users to search for background music based on genre, topic, feel, length, mood, popularity, and more.
ccMixter
Type of license: CC BY and CC BY-NC
ccMixter is a collaboration platform for musicians to create exciting and novel derivative works. It works by singers uploading original music, then combined with music samples from musicians by a DJ. On the dig.ccMixter subdomain, you can find thousands of free music that can be searched by genre, instrument, style, and more.
SoundCloud
Type of license: All CC types
SoundCloud has an extensive library of more than 125 million songs. What is more, do the songs sound like real music instead of cookie-cutter background scores? The default licensing type on the platform is “All rights reserved.” However, users may choose to protect works under a Creative Commons license. You can specifically search for works under CC by changing the default “To listen to” filter setting.
Free Music Archive
Type of license: All CC types and Public Domain
Free Music Archive provides one of the largest free music selections for videos which can be searched via song title, clip duration, or type of license. Creators can also search through multiple genres and hundreds of subgenres available. Keep in mind that some tracks on the platform might only be available for personal download so use only after doing due diligence.
Jamendo
Type of license: All CC types
Jamendo is the only platform on this list that provides an option for both licensing and free music. Jamendo Music is a streaming platform where you can find free music licensed under a Creative Commons license, while Jamendo Licensing offers royalty-free music for commercials and such. Remember that you will need to open each song to access license information to ensure you can use it for commercial purposes. This is an added bit of legwork which makes the site slightly difficult to navigate.
Bensound
Type of license: CC BY-ND
Bensound provides thousands of royalty-free music for videos, websites, animations and allows search by genre, popularity, uploading date, or tags. The site contains the works of multiple musicians and its namesake founder and composer, Benjamin Tissot. The majority of clips on the platform are offered under an attribution no-derivatives CC license. However, you will need to credit the site and not create new works such as remixes using the original song.
Musopen
Type of license: Public Domain and all CC types
Musopen offers free music for video editing, educational materials, and sheet music. However, the music available is very specific, with the majority of the files being orchestral pieces. The music is either registered as public domain or offered under a Creative Commons license with the option available to search via composer, orchestra, period, mood, length, and more. One great aspect of this site is downloading free music from historical composers like Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert.
ccTrax
Type of license: All CC types
ccTrax offers royalty-free music under a Creative Commons license under various genres such as dubstep, techno, and even classical and rock. You can search for albums or individual songs and add bonus search via license type. This is super nifty as you do not have to play each piece of music and then search in details. The option is to browse music by genres, tags, labels, and artist names.
AudioNautix
Type of license: CC BY
This platform was created by Jason Shaw to share his music clips for free. The only requirement is to give credit to the composer, whether Jason or a guest composer. The music library on AudioNautix can be browsed by genre, tempo, and keywords, and you can even select specific moods to ensure that the results are as close to your vision as possible. Searching by moods is an excellent boost for creators who might not have a set song in mind for their projects but do know the overall vibe they are going for.
