9 Ideas How to Get Free Music for Video Editing

9 ideas how to get free music for video editing intro

There are way too many videos online and almost all got music in them. Whether it is a nice chill lo-fi tune roaming in the background or a dubstep beat to introduce a section, music is everywhere. This shouldn’t surprise us, after all, one major part of video creation is being attractive. Music helps us at that since it naturally raises attention and might induce certain moods.

In today’s article, we will tell you about 9 sites where you can find free music to add to your videos. We will go through big names as well as perhaps some hidden gems.

Let’s start.

YouTube Audio Library

Many people when thinking of YouTube consider only videos made by content creators. But you’ll be glad to know that YouTube counts with a free audio library available for all users with an account. Do not worry, you can use them legally, either under Creative Commons law or not. Only some need to be named in your description before using.

This process is called “attribution”. Before telling you about its offer, note that we are referring to Youtube’s official library, and not a channel with a similar name. To access the official one, you got to enter into YouTube Studio and go to the last section on the left. You’ll find about 1.3k music tracks and 445 sound effects. You can filter the music based on title, genre, mood, and whether Attribution is required.

In total, there are 14 genres, and 10 moods to choose from. Lastly, it is noteworthy that there is no “trending” category or filter. This may be an important omission since not everyone would like to use the same exact tracks.

Amazon Music

Amazon does also offer free music, and some tracks may be totally royalty-free. But, finding them is going to be a bit more complicated. Our recommendation is to search using the traditional portal (not Amazon Music). Select “digital music” on the top search bar, on the right choose “price low to high” and you’re almost there.

Then you’ll see a lot of tracks, some require paid plans to be used, while others are free but may not be allowed to be distributed. You also Then you’ll see a lot of tracks. As we said, o use some of them you may need to pay. And though, you also count with royalty-free ones. We encourage you to read reviews, do some research, and experimenting. This especially applies if you’re using YouTube since the algorithm may give you some trouble.

In total there are 372 options, of which the type of free content we are looking for is unknown and rather small. Besides lacking “trending” category inclusion, there is no filter for mood or genre.

CCMixter

This community-based site offers thousands of original tracks that can be used in your videos without a problem. It works entirely under Creative Commons law and you only need to attribute (i.e., give credit). Some tracks have licenses that do not allow commercial u, while others are completely royalty-free. Overall, you’ll get tons of free content to use, and each track count with clear licensing specifications.

There are 3 main categories to find music for your projects, and you count with many subcategories. You can filter tracks based on the type of license, use tags search to find genres and moods. Plus, it counts with the highest-rated, editor picks, hot tracks, etc.

If you go through them for a while, you may think that there is no way there are thousands of tracks. But note that many of them are remixes, so you will not see them unless you click on a track and then go to the bottom.

Free Music Archive

One of the biggest libraries available with a very detailed explanation of CC law. Some require attribution and others are purely open for the public. You can filter them based on intended usage and CC license, among others.

In our search, we selected the filter for using tracks in videos for commercial purposes and we found 13726 tracks. There were 15 genres, as well filters for the duration and a scoring system.

The site is honestly fascinating and a really good option.

Bensound

Bensound offers a list of over 400 royalty-free tracks that work with attributions.

It counts with 8 genres and an option to sort them based on popularity, duration, and date of creation. There are also tags that you can use to navigate more specifically between options.

The permission that you get from free will be enough for YouTube content creators, even for commercial purposes. But if you’re intended to use them on another platform, we encourage you to check its FAQ first.

SoundCloud

While SoundCloud does not have official royalty-free music or library, you can still find a lot of tracks to use. Like on YouTube some users post their content online for others to use freely. You can find them with the “royalty-free” “no copyright” and other similar names.

The diversity of genres, moods, vibes, and others is very big. And for this reason, we encourage people to browse through playlists better since they tend to be well organized.

Though searching for tracks on this site is different, it is still a very good option.

Freeplay Music

Freeplay Music counts with over 50k tracks, over 12 scenes, genres, Moods, and 10 playlists. Besides, it includes a top track section, waveform, and tempo.

Though this site is very complete, there is one major caveat. Free use is restricted, in the case of YouTube, for noncommercial purposes only. If you want to monetize the video that you’re using this track on, you either got to pay this site for a license or not monetize the video.

Incompetech

Incompetech is a platform that, in the case of YouTube upload, lets you use tracks, even for commercial use, by only crediting the author.

The traditional site counts with over 600 royalty-free tracks, 23 genres, 20 feels, tempo counter, etc.

Its updated version: “Incompetech.filmmusic.io” has more to offer. It counts with keyword searcher, a new topic section, and new/different mood and genres. All these previous sections with at least 20 options (for example 20 genres). And it more than doubles the initial offer, now boasting over 1300 tracks.

Chosic

This site functions like Incompetech and others that we’ve mentioned. It lets use tracks for commercial purposes under CC law with or without attribution. Plus, it counts with great and clear licensing indication.

On the site, there are over 1100 songs with over 20 categories and moods, and 13 topics. Besides, you can see the waveform and sort by recommended, new, popular, or random.

Bonus: Epidemic Sound - Paid but Awesome

Though you got to pay a fee to access its great library of tracks, it has many special characteristics worth considering. Most importantly may be its superior offer.

It has a list of over 32000 tracks and over 60000 sound effects. The list also includes stems (individual instruments separated) and is constantly updated. Regarding moods and genres, there are over 20 moods and genres to choose from in each main category.

Access to the library and use permissions starts from 13 €/month or 15 USD /month.

Conclusion of How to Get Free Music for Video Editing

As you can tell, the offer is really broad, from curated platforms to community-based sites. Since most of these options are fine, we underline again the issue with Amazon Music and the usage restriction by Freeplay Music. And if we were to mention a top 3, FMA, CC Mixter and Incompetech would be in there.

Thanks for reading this article, we expect it has been very helpful.

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