Sources for great royatly free music?

[Bruce Watson]

Music Bakery is one of my favs. There are dozens of others, just search for “royalty free music”.

[Pierre Langer]

Ok, there are tons – I know, But I thought that there would be some favorites that are kind of outstanding? Having done some research now I think that these look quite promising:

epidemicsound => they offer pretty straight forward subscription models for youtubers
soundstripe => subscription based as well, offering music and sound effects, but you have to report each project individually
smartsound.com => this one looks pretty cool. They offer adaptive music that automatically (through a software they offer) edits to any length including different variations and instrument mixes. You can change moods, tempos and then also add sound effects (which they call Hitpacks for whatever reason). It is pretty cool – saves a ton of time and you can either pay per music license or get an individual subscription plan (which starts at $199 per year, depending on your needs).

Then I found some big sites: Audiojungle and pond5, but these look like non curated platforms = anyone can upload music there and sell it. I’d be worried about some people upload stolen music and fraudulently make money with it.. and if I then purchase this music, then I do not have a valid license even if I paid for it. Obviously this only becomes a problem if someone finds our, but it is a risk.
Epidemic sound is curated and they offer okayish music, so no legal risk there.

Anyone has any experience with SmartSound? I have downloaded their free trial of their software Sonicfire Pro 6 – I’ll check it out now.

Cheers

[James Dow]

I’m a fan of Shockwave-Sound.com (Lynn Publishing)
They are based in Norway, so my credit card always adds an international transaction fee. Usually a track is less than $40.00. This includes a pretty liberal licensing agreement. Other options are available for more $$$

James

JPD