Licence free music

[Bill Davis]

In my experience, the best place to get top quality totally free, fully rights cleared music is the same place you go to get top quality totally free shoes.

When you find that place, please let us know.

There’s tons of free “meh” quality stuff floating around the web. Some quality stuff that’s “free with purchase” from software companies. (often over exposed since anyone with a Mac, for example can use the Apple Loops) And plenty of web sites promising “free” music with absolutely NO paper trail showing any solid rights clearances that a reputable broadcaster would accept.

Welcome to the business of production.

Where money kinda counts a lot at every turn.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[André Engelhardt]

Obviously there are a lot of stock music sites out there and I found the quality of stock music on *all* of them can vary, nothing wrong with that but basically it means you will probably have to be open to spend some time looking around.

If you do prefer a local one stop solution you could check out products like the Maximum Edge HD (https://www.stockmusic.net/index.cfm/page/main.maxEdge). Other than that, reputable sites I’ve had good experiences with (both as a contributor as well as a buyer) are Getty, Pond5, PremiumBeat. For a more complete list check out https://www.videomaker.com/downloads/stock-music.

Good luck!

—
André Engelhardt
Audio Engineer, Sound Designer
http://www.soundr.net

[Corbin Gross]

I believe you are looking for “Royalty” free music, correct? Not necessarily music that is simply no cost to purchase?

I really like Smart Sound. They have a pretty good selection of music that is royalty free and very affordable. I use their scoring software, Sonicfire Pro, which allows you to very easily edit the pieces to fit any length you may need, from a stinger to as long as you want. The music is OK. It suits my needs, it’s budget stock music but it’s engaging enough to help get my message across, and it’s extremely flexible.

Really “Good” music is going to cost you though. Somebody I work with just paid 10 Gs for a custom piece with an exclusive license, and honestly, I had to use my carefully practiced work smile and pretend to like it.

Corbin Gross | SANMAR
Photographer/Videographer | Marketing
22833 SE Black Nugget Road | Issaquah, WA 98029
206.727.5501 x5237
http://www.sanmar.com

[Eric Dole]

Thanks André! That’s really helpful. You are absolutely right. There is a lot of stuff out there of various quality and after a while you find yourself sampling endlessly without satisfaction. That is why I was asking for a little word of mouth.

Thanks again,

ED

[Eric Dole]

Thanks Corbin,

Your post is also very helpful. No, I’m not looking for a freebie, but something that is royalty free that does not sound too schlocky. And you are absolutely right about paying for an original score. That is not the budget for the time being. Maybe later.

Thanks,

ED

[Scott Lloyd shelly]

Try musicloops.com and productiontrax.com

illigitimi non carborundum

[Eric Dole]

Thanks Scott. Will check them out.

ED

[Anaya Noel]

Hi Eric Dole,
I can recommend some free music websites, remember that free licenses are only used for social networks or your website, simply because you have to give thanks.

1 – Best Free Audio: https://bestfreeaudio.com

2 – Bendsound: https://www.bensound.com

3 – Mixkit: https://mixkit.co/free-stock-music

[Neo Sounds]

Hi,

Probably too late, but Id’ like to add that using free music is not always a good idea. Free music often (almost always) comes under a creative common license (“CC”) and does not cover commercial uses, monetization, etc. Say, you started using free CC music in your “non-revenue generating” project. At some point you’d need more extended license allowing commercial uses so that you can monetize your project. That is the step where you can stumble as the pricing for that uses can be unpredictable.

So using royalty-free music is often better solution. It’s not free, however in most cases it covers a lot of use cases, including revenue-generating projects under a single, affordable fee. Anyway, please always check license terms and conditions before purchasing/using music.

I can recommend NeoSounds Music Library – premium royalty-free, hand-picked music collection for content creators with over 80,000 tracks for Film/TV, video, etc.

Alex.

[Mark Suszko]

Big SmartSound fan here.