Finding music can be painful.
People often ask in our filmmaking courses where to find music. Because sadly, you can’t just use whatever music you like for your videos. It needs to be copyright/royalty-free.
The right music track can make an enormous impact on your video. It helps support your message by guiding the viewer to feel a certain way.
So it’s worth the time to find the perfect track, even if it’s painstaking.
But before we go any further, I need to address a MASSIVE pet peeve of mine.
Never ever have your music too loud that you can’t hear your subject speaking.
It’s crazy how common this is! There's no point interviewing your subject if you’re just going to drown them out in music. So, err on the side of caution – it’s better to have your music slightly too quiet than too loud.
Below you'll find several options for free or subscription-based music sites.
YouTube Audio Library (free)
YouTube’s Audio Library is a solid free option.
To access it you’ll need a Google account connected to YouTube.
You can browse by genre and mood, and you can also download sound effects.
It’s a popular platform so keep in mind that you might have already heard some of the music in other videos online.
Artlist (paid – $22/month)
Artlist is my first paid choice. I think it’s worth it.
You’ll find that the quality of music is like you’d hear on the radio, rather than just background material.
There’s a massive selection of tracks and super nice user experience. There’s also just one pricing option which keeps things simple.
ccMixter (free)
ccMixter is another great free option with a huge library of music.
Often the tracks require an acknowledgement to the artist in your video description. This is easily done, but keep it in mind.
Free Music Archive (free, obviously!)
Another free option to add to your bookmarks.
Free Music Archive has an awesome website and a great browsing system to find the right music for your videos.
Between YouTube Audio Library and ccMixter, that’s plenty of free options for you to crawl through.
Soundstripe (paid – $17/month)
Soundstripe is another paid option, but with an affordable subscription.
Like with Artlist, the music you find on these sites are often better quality, and the browsing systems are much easier to refine.
You might find yourself starting with a free platform and moving to a paid subscription once you’ve exhausted the free options.
Epidemic Sound (paid – free trial)
Epidemic Sound is fairly famous with content creators. It also includes sound effects.
But for $20/month (personal) and $67/month (commercial), it’s a little on the expensive side.
However, you can get a 30-day free trial with any email address.
And the rule with music downloaded during the trial?
“If you cancel a trial, you can still share videos with our music that were published during that period. However, you may not produce or publish any new videos with music downloaded during the trial.”
How they monitor this, I don’t know 🤷 But it’s worth getting a trial (or two) and sharing some videos during that time.
Final tip for saving time whilst finding music.
I love sharing this tip.
Instead of browsing music, finding a song that might work, downloading it, importing it into your timeline, playing your video… and then finding out it doesn’t match 😩
TRY THIS.
Play the song on the music platform then quickly switch windows to your editing program in the background to watch your timeline. The music will continue to play whilst you watch your project. Then you can decide if it’s a match.
This can really save time when you’re going through hundreds of tracks.
Video training
If you’re after some help to get started making your own videos, we offer a 1-day videography workshop delivered at your workplace to show you how.
Offered in Brisbane or Sydney, the day is entirely personalised to your goals.
Find out more here or give us a call on 0421 902 487.
Good luck with the music digging!
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