So you want to listen to some cool tunes? Okay, maybe you just want to add a soundtrack to your commercial video.
So you’re probably wondering what’s the best royalty-free music site that you can use in 2020? There are many good options for you to choose from, so we’ve gathered together our favorites to help you decide for yourself. (We even use quite a few of these for our client projects.)
We have used royalty-free, paid, and actual composers when creating over 1,500 commercials and movies. We also have lists of voice-over artists and our production process that you may want to look at as well for your projects – Click Here to learn more
Artlist.io is a highly curated, royalty-free Music & Sound Effects platform for anyone who wants to create videos. They offer access to unlimited downloads of over 22K quality songs and 27K sound effects that are updated daily. Songs are categorized and curated by modes, genres, video themes, and instrumentals.
With monthly plans ranging from $12 to $25 to access their unique libraries filled with royalty-free music and SFX. Artlist.io also offers curated playlists to its subscribers to help them find the perfect music for their videos. You can choose a subscription tier that fits your creative needs.
● Social Creator – Perfect for any type of social media content creator.
Yearly: $9.99 per month ($119.88 billed annually)
Monthly: $14.99 per month
● Creator Pro – covers everything from personal to commercial projects
Yearly: $16.60 per month ($199 billed annually)
Yearly: ( Music & SFX): $25 per month ($299 billed annually)
● Teams: Build your creative vision, together
Yearly starting at $28.20/month billed annually.
Access to admin tools, easy management. Plus unlimited creative assets & unlimited downloads.
2. Audio Jungle
You can access Audio Jungle with either a monthly subscription to the Envato Market or with one-time purchases of individual songs. This makes Audio Jungle a great platform to scale your business with.
Audio Jungle also offers stock footage, SFX, photography, 3D assets, and the ability to commission original music through the Envato market. The flexibility Audio Jungle offers its users makes it one of our go-to platforms for royalty-free assets.
3. POND5
Pond5, like Audio Jungle, offers more than just music. They offer After Effects templates, video, SFX, and much more. Their content diversity, which rivals Audio Jungle’s, makes Pond5’s variety its main selling point. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, head here.
If you’re an undecided video creator, Pond5 is for you – it is one of the largest royalty-free music libraries in the world, and it’s one of our go-to ecosystems during the brainstorming process.
4. SOUNDSTRIPE
If you want good music without the bells and whistles that Pond5 or Audio Jungle offers, go for SoundStripe. We’ve used SoundStripe many times and can vouch for their quality.
SoundStripe has commissioned original tracks from 80 different artists to populate their libraries with great royalty-free music from every genre. You can sort through the royalty-free music library exactly like you would with a service like Spotify. Make playlists, favorite songs, and more. This makes SoundStripe one of the best royalty-free music sites we know.
SoundStripe offers good quality SFX as well. You can get access to their libraries for a monthly fee of between $12 and $66 a month.
5. AUDIIO
If you want SoundStripe, but a monthly subscription doesn’t appeal to you, try Audiio (note the special spelling).
Audiio is an up and coming royalty-free music and SFX platform that offers a lifetime music membership for a reasonably low price of $299. If you want to add SFX to that bundle, it will cost you an additional $199, but with an extensive and rapidly expanding library, Audiio is one of the best options out there.
Just be sure to get in while their lifetime deal is still running.
6. BEN SOUND
Ben Sound is a much smaller site than any of the above options, but it offers 300 unique, high-quality tracks worth mentioning. Ben Sound focuses on Rock, Classical, Jazz, Pop, Cinematic, and Corporate sounding music, but there should be something for almost everyone.
If you’re looking for a unique sound, check out Ben Sound. Songs usually cost around $40 to license.
7. YOUTUBE AUDIO LIBRARY
YouTube offers a ton of royalty-free tracks to their creators.
If you’re on a tight budget, this resource is for you. YouTube offers a decent catalog of good music and sound effects sorted by genre, mood, attribution requirements, etc… The YouTube Assets Library has a clunky UI, so you’ll have to do some searching, but this resource, out of all the music sites, is unbeatable at its price point.
We barely see this resource talked about, so we’re happy to let you in on YouTube’s best-kept secret.
8. EPIDEMIC SOUND
Epidemic Sound is another good alternative to Sound Stripe. Available at a monthly price ranging from $15 to $135, it’s not cheap. However, many advertisers and editors believe that their library is worth the cost.
Epidemic Sound has curated 725 diverse and unique albums for you to choose from when you’re making your next video or advertisement.
9. PREMIUM BEAT
Premium Beat is a musical offshoot of the incredibly popular stock photo and video service Shutterstock.
Premium Beat’s pedigree is showing here. They’ve used their industry experience to curate over 10,000+ musical tracks in a short amount of time. In fact, we would say that they’re right behind Pond5 for variety in musical choice.
You can sort by genre, mood, artist, BPM, and more to find the perfect track for you. Premium Beat offers case by case purchases, so if by some chance, Audio Jungle or Pond5 don’t have what you’re looking for, head over to Premium Beat.
10. MUSIC VINE
Music Vine offers monthly subscriptions ranging from $19 to $36 to access their library of over 2,500 tracks. Like our other mentions, you can sort through Music Vine’s libraries by choosing mood, genre, energy levels, duration, and more.
However, what sets Music Vine apart is the ability that it gives you to connect with its artists. Music Vine dedicates an entire section of its site to artist bios and catalogs. Music Vine is the platform for you if you want to follow and support an individual artist’s music.
11. HOOK SOUNDS
HookSounds offers music that’s been commissioned by them specifically for use in professional productions. You can get access to HookSounds library for a monthly subscription that ranges in price from $24 to $580.
HookSounds is reasonably popular and respected in the industry so if none of our other picks have checked your boxes, check out HookSounds next.
12. FREE STOCK MUSIC
Free stock music is, well, free stock music. You can use any of the hundreds of tracks on this site free of charge, but you might be compromising. If the YouTube Assets Library has let you down, check out this website next before visiting other music sites and paying for your music.
WHAT WE RECOMMEND
We recommend a paid service like Audio Jungle, SoundStripe, Audiio, or Pond5 over any of these free options. Still, it never hurts to look before you commit yourself to any one service. If you’re still determined to go with free music sites, remember, you get what you pay for.
Next, it’s time to think through how you want to use your newly acquired music. You can do everything yourself by going through the green light production process with our Masterclass Lights… Camera… Sales! or you can reach out to us. We’d love to help you plan out how to use your new music.
