Where to find royalty free music for YouTube videos?

If you are a YouTuber, you may be looking for background music for your YouTube videos. A little bit of background music adds charm to the videos, don’t they? Now you may be thinking – can I use any music? The things is -you can be penalized for copyright violations. Though there may be ways, using a non-royalty free music is a huge risk, especially if you monetize YouTube videos. Therefore, it is always safer to go for royalty free music. In this post, we shall discuss where to find royalty free music for YouTube videos.

Firstly, why you should always use royalty free music for use in YouTube videos.

Usually, you may not know if a particular music is copyrighted or not. The simple hint is that almost all popular music and songs by commercial artists will be. If you use copyrighted music in your YouTube videos, you are sure to get copyright strikes sooner or later.

Artists register their work (music in this case) on YouTube with a Content ID. YouTube’s Content ID system scans and tracks down copyright violations. Every time you upload a video, YouTube scans to detect any copyrighted music. If it finds, you get a copyright claim. You will get notices to take action against the violation detected. If ignored, the consequences could be any one of the following:

• Place ads on your video
• Mute your video
• Block your video
• YouTube may penalize your channel
• Adsense account may be blocked if monetized.

Therefore, to avoid these hassles and to risk penalty, it is always safer to find royalty free music for your YouTube videos. This is very important if you monetize YouTube videos.

Where to find royalty free music for your YouTube videos?

YouTube Audio Library

There are other places for find royalty free music. But if you just need some background music / effects for your YouTube videos, then YouTube Audio Library is probably the safest place to find free music for your YouTube videos. Unless, you have very specific needs which are not available on YouTube Audio Library of course.

YouTube Audio Library is a free music library by YouTube. It has a huge library of copyright-free tracks. You can use the YouTube Audio Library to get free music and sound effects to use in your videos.You can sort the YouTube Audio Library by using the several sorting features available such as by artist, genre, mood, instrument, attribution required / not required etc. You can even download the audio tracks for use in offline video editing.

The only downside is that since it is a popular place to find music for YouTube content creators, most of the popular music may already be used by many other creators. So, finding unique music may be rare.

Other sources for royalty free music for YouTube Videos

The following list includes some sources from where you can obtain free music for your YouTube videos. In most cases, attribution is required to use their music. Kindly visit the source website and read their usage policies, licensing requirements.

Audionautix

This is another place where you can get free music for your YouTube videos. All the music on Audionautix are free. The music here are composed and produced by Jason Shaw. You can also download and use (even for commercial purposes) as long as you give credit.

• Is commercial use allowed: Yes.
• Can you use for YouTube videos: Yes
• Attribution Required? Yes. You must credit with ‘music by audionautix.com‘ if you want to use his music. You can include it in the YouTube video description.
• Paid ? No. All of the music on this site is free.

Can you monetize YouTube videos using these music or Can you make money from it?

Yes! The only restrictions as listed in the FAQ are:

1) You may NOT re-sell it as-is, (it MUST be used as part of some other creation like a video, audio re-mix, podcast, video game, commercial or on-hold telephone message)

2) You cannot claim the music as yours or deploy it in such a way that would prevent others from using the music as you have.

Bensound

Bensound is another place where you can find free music for your YouTube Videos with attribution. The music tracks are also allowed for commercial use.

• Attribution required? Yes. You must include attribution: “Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music” or “Music: Song title – Bensound.com”.
• Paid Options? Yes. If you don’t want to credit Bensound, then you need to purchase a license. Licensing starts at about $28 USD (price listed as €24) per track.

Free Music Archive

Another place where you can find Royalty-free music for YouTube, Facebook, podcasts and other media projects

• Is commercial use allowed? Depends on the song.
• Attribution Required? Depends on the song.
• Paid Options available? No. Everything is free.

Free Stock Music

• Is commercial use allowed? Yes.
• Attribution Required? No.
• Paid Options available? No. Everything is free.

PacDV

• Is commercial use allowed? Yes.
• Attribution Required? Yes. Music by www.pacdv.com/sounds/
• Paid Options available? No.

Musopen

• Is commercial use allowed? Depends on the song.
• Attribution Required? Depends on the song
• Paid Options available? No.

TeknoAXE

• Is commercial use allowed? Yes.
• Attribution Required? Yes. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
  
• Paid Options available? No.

Sounds Crate

• Is commercial use allowed? Yes.
• Attribution Required? No.
• Paid Options available? Yes. Pro account for $49 per year to access more content.

As discussed above, YouTube Audio Library is the safest bet as it is provided by YouTube itself. If you need to explore more, you can check out the other sources listed above. While doing so, it is important to read the licensing terms properly before using the music.