If you run a video production company, it must be evident by
now that music is an essential component of your projects. To have a video
without appropriate music in it is like having soup without the right amount of
salt in it to taste.
However, the challenge is not just finding music for your
video; it is in finding the right theme which can be time-consuming and costly.
And more so if you need to license it for commercial use. Luckily, there are
now many royalty-free sites that allow video production companies to access
high-quality tracks at no cost. Below, we outline nine of the best ones:
1. YouTube Audio Library:
This site provides a large
collection of songs that an individual or video production company can access
without cost, including a wide variety of genres and moods. YouTube's Audio
Library, was launched in 2013, to help video and content creators to find music
for their videos. The site is a free built-in service that affords YouTubers to
find tracks for their video productions quickly and without any difficulties.
As a resource tool; the tracks in the library are licensed
under Creative Commons, which guarantees that you can use them without you
having to worry about any infringement or copyright issues.
2. Incompetech:
Incompetech offers a variety of genres,
including classical, rock, and electronic. You can use the audio for free in
your video production as long as you credit the creator.
3. Free Music Archive:
The Free Archive (FMA), like others mentioned before it, is
an online, royalty-free cache. The repository was founded in 2009 by WFMU, a
community radio station based in East Orange, New Jersey in cooperation with
KBOO and KEXP, with the primary objective of providing music under ‘Creative
Commons’ licenses that individuals, audio and video production companies freely
download and use in other works.
When the service came online; its primary focus was to
curate high-quality music works that were fitting for the internet age.
Although the use of the resources on the platform is free; donations by users
are encouraged as a way of "tipping" the contributing musicians.
Although the Archive is free and accessible to everyone
without any form of registration or other stringent requirements; written and
audio content on the site are, however, cataloged, and consent to use content
in your video is obtained by invitation only.
This platform offers a vast range of tracks from many
different genres, and the use of the tracks in video production is free as long
as you give the artists their due credits.
4. Bensound:
Bensound is a website where you can download royalty-free songs
and sound effects to use in your projects. The company was established in 2012
by Benjamin Tissot who himself has been writing and creating royalty-free songs
that could be used in radio, television, films, and video production since
2006.
As the primary song contributor to the site; Ben has come to
be known as Bensound, investing a lot of time and effort into making the tracks.
Guitars, piano, drums, and strings are commonly used in his motivational free
corporate music for production.
Apart from creating royalty-free content for the Bensound
platform; Ben also has several albums of his own compositions that include many
varieties of songs such as ambient, jazz, rock, and even classical
compositions. He has also composed songs for a number of projects as well as
others that can be used for free as long as credit is given to the creator.
5. HookSounds:
HookSounds is an online store where users can sieve through
thousands of pages of carefully curated tracks. The music on the Hooksounds
website is all royalty-free and can be used for any video production purpose.
Those who are saddled with the responsibility of providing
the songs have been carefully selected by the artists at HookSounds and have
graciously given their time to make high-quality tracks you need for your video
production available to you.
HookSounds provides high-quality audio in a variety of
genres such as cinematic, electronic, and corporate. You are free to use the tracks
for video production as long as you credit the creator.
6. SoundCloud:
SoundCloud was founded in 2007 in Stockholm, Sweden as an audio
streaming and sharing platform that is responsive in nature enabling creators
of all works, ranging from musicians to podcasters to engage with listeners and
fans via its numerous sharing tools. This includes the popular commenting
feature that SoundCloud is perhaps best known for. That, of course, is in addition to the feature that allows users to express themselves in particular moments in an audio stream, which consequently becomes visible to anyone turning into the track. Music artists can reach more audiences through SoundCloud. Artists may also buy SoundCloud comments via Increditools to boost themselves.
As an audio resource platform; SoundCloud offers a huge
library of tracks for video production, including tracks from self-producing
artists.
SoundCloud is available to iOS and Android users and it
allows users to search for tracks that are available for free use and credit
the artist when they use the songs. Although the platform allows anyone to sign
up for and use the site for free; the use of some of its advanced features will
require a monthly subscription.
7. DanoSongs:
DanoSongs offers songs on its platform royalty-free which
can be used for all kinds of videos, films, apps, games, presentations, and podcasts
projects, as well as for other forms of media. You can listen to songs on the
website on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, and Amazon.
Music accessed on the platform can be used for free on
Instagram and YouTube as long as you tag @dan.o.connor.
To use the resource for free on IMDB Projects; all you have
to do is credit DanoSongs at imdb.me/danoconnor. You can also use the tracks from the platform
for free in independent projects that will be on IMDB.
In the same way; non-Commercial or non-profit organizations,
educational establishments, students, and those carrying out personal projects
are also welcome to use the resource on this site for free as long as they
credit "Song by DanoSongs."
DanoSongs features a variety of genres, including acoustic,
folk, and pop. You are free to use the resource for video production as long as
you credit the creator.
8. Epidemic Sound:
Epidemic Sound founded by Peer ström, David Stenmarck, Oscar
Höglund, Hjalmar Winbladh, and Jan Zachrisson is a global royalty-free
soundtrack provider based in Stockholm, Sweden.
The company’s website boasts of a library that has over
35,000 soundtrack songs and 90,000 sound effects, as well as all requisite
rights. The company offers royalty-free songs and sound effects to creators
ranging from individuals on YouTube to multinational video production agencies
and corporations.
All Epidemic Soundtracks are made available in stems, which
allow users to eliminate specific layers of a track and create their own unique
sound without incurring the cost of customized tracks.
Although Epidemic Sound proffers an extensive library of
high-quality resource, you will, however, need to pay the stipulated
subscription fee to use it for commercial purposes.
9. AudioJungle:
AudioJungle, like most of the others discussed already, is a
royalty-free music website that was founded in 2008 as part of Envato Market
initiative. The website provides both songs and sound effects such as interface
sounds, industrial sounds, and domestic sounds. The website provides, in
addition, source files that enable sound engineers to create without
difficulties in Cubase, Logic Pro, and other similar programs for a video production.
AudioJungle has one of the largest repertoires of Audio
providing users with access to a vast library of over 1.3 million tracks and
sound effects. Users are able to streamline their search results by genre,
mood, BPM, price, or tempo.
The website also provides a weekly summary of the most
popular files, category lists, user-compiled collections organized by themes,
featured files chosen weekly by the site editors, and portfolios of the top
artists. Furthermore, AudioJungle provides a list of royalty-free tracks that
you can purchase for a one-time fee.
Although these have been listed as sites for accessing
royalty-free audio for video production; they are, however, just a few of the
several royalty-free sites that are available online.
By using these resources, anyone can find the perfect music
for any video project without breaking the budget.
