From setting a tone to increasing retention rates, music may be the secret sauce your videos are missing. Here are the top 5 best royalty-free music sites for YouTube. Find the perfect track and avoid the dreaded copyright infringements.
Here’s the breakdown of the top 5 best royalty-free music sites for YouTube videos. Whether you want to go the free route or invest a little cash, we’ve got you covered.
1. YouTube Free Music: Where it All Begins (Free)
First up, we’ve got the safest and most easily-accessible, YouTube Free Music. Yes, YouTube itself offers a treasure trove of tunes and sound effects right at your fingertips. From your YouTube studio dashboard, click on “Audio Library,” and you’re in.
With options to filter by genre, mood, and more, it’s a musical playground for your content. Just remember to check those usage details to avoid any copyright issues.
2. Explore Alternatives: Tunetank, Uppbeat, and Free Music Archive (Free)
But wait, there’s more! If you’re looking for alternatives, check out Tunetank, Uppbeat, and Free Music Archive for some additional freebie options. With a bit of browsing, you’re bound to find the perfect soundtrack to elevate your videos.
3. Lickd: Legal Tunes From Your Favorite Artists (Paid)
Now, let’s talk paid options because sometimes you gotta invest a little to get a lot. Enter Lickd, your go-to for snagging tunes legally from your favorite artists. With a subscription starting at $15/month, it’s a small price to pay for peace of mind and a killer soundtrack.
4. Epidemic Sound: Your Ultimate Audio Destination (Paid)
Next up, we’ve got Epidemic Sound, offering over 35,000 tracks and 90,000 sound effects to fuel your creativity. With a handy mobile app and options for personal and commercial use, it’s a one-stop-shop for all your audio needs. Subscriptions start at $9.99/month for one monetized channel per platform.
5. Artlist.io: Your Creative Companion (Paid)
And last but certainly not least, we’ve got Artlist.io. With a library boasting over 18,000 songs and sound effects, finding that perfect track has never been easier. Plus, with options for social plans starting at $9.99/month (billed annually), there’s something for every budget.
Now, before you dive headfirst into those paid subscriptions, remember – the free options are still a solid choice, especially if you’re just starting out.
So there you have it. The top 5 best royalty-free music sites for YouTube to fuel your creator journey in 2024.
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Transcript:
(00:00) – These are the best sites for royalty for your music for your YouTube videos in 2024. I’m gonna cover the top free options as well as the top paid options. And lemme know in the comments below as I’m going through this video as I’m showing you the sites, is there anything that I missed that you like? There are many places for you to get music for your videos.
(00:19) But you want to make sure you’re using sites that have the correct license and legit music so you are not having any copyright strikes on your videos now, or potentially in the future. The last thing you want is for a video to take off, get a lot of views, and find out you get hit with a copyright strike and you can no longer make money from that video, or YouTube suppresses your video and now people can’t view it.
(00:42) Let’s begin with the free options, then we’ll move into the paid options for you to consider in 2024. First one is YouTube Free Music. The best and most simple option is YouTube itself. You can use a variety of music and sound effects from YouTube’s free library in your YouTube videos. Go to your YouTube studio dashboard and scroll down to creator music.
(01:02) It’s that simple, you’re in. YouTube will even give you up to $15 in free credits if you choose to purchase any music. From here, you can see the free and paid music section and sound effects. You can filter out from genre, mood, artist, duration, et cetera. Now, before you go to the creator music section, you need to be aware of these two important things.
(01:23) First, there are different licenses for different tracks. It’s important you check the view usage details. You simply do this by hovering over the end of the track and clicking on the three dots. Now, you can see if you can use this for your shorts, the type of monetization that’s allowed, how long you can use it for, et cetera.
(01:39) The other important thing to note is, YouTube music is only for YouTube. If you are planning on posting content using YouTube’s free music to your other social media channels, you need to be mindful of doing that because you could be running the risk of potential copyright strikes or issues. Some other quick, free options for you to consider as well are Tunetank, Uppbeat, and Free Music Archive.
(02:01) These are great for you in terms of finding the best song for the project you’re working on, along with the licensing you need to be mindful of. I would also highly recommend taking notes on the sites in which you are getting your music from in case there are any potential licensing or copyright issues in the future.
(02:17) Now, let’s look at some of the paid options. With paid options, you’ll have a far more extensive library that you can sort and filter music out to have a better searching experience. Some of them are paid by month, subscription, or usage basis. Number one, Lickd. Lickd allows you to use music legally from songs you’ve heard on the radio and your favorite artists.
(02:37) Using songs like these without going through a site like Lickd is a pain in the butt because your videos will be copyrighted and you don’t want to go against any usage rights that are set by YouTube. One very important element that you wanna make sure you do is, link your YouTube channel to Lickd. This will ensure that your channel is not in violation of any copyright infringements, and maintains a good standing on YouTube because they work directly with the artists and labels for your videos.
(03:04) They also have a great royalty-free library of music to choose from, not just commercial. Another key important tip on any video in which you’re using a song from Lickd is, you wanna upload your video as unlisted first. That way, in case there are any copyright strikes on your videos, they will be manually removed by Lickd.
(03:24) This typically takes around an hour or so, and then you’re gonna post the video. The creator plan starts at $15 a month. And one of the perks with having TubeBuddy is, you get 15% off. You also get 20% off with this next site that I’m about to share with you. Second, Epidemic Sound. Just like the others, they make it super simple with licensing use and the ability to search for music.
(03:44) One unique feature they have is the find similar tool, which allows you to pick a certain section of the song and find similar tracks that are related to it. There’s also a mobile app, which in my opinion, is phenomenal for on the go searching, especially for someone who’s creating Shorts on your phone, this is huge.
(04:00) You can start searching for songs on the go for your next video, your next Short, or any music you wanna use for other social media channels. Epidemic Sound has over 35,000 tracks and 90,000 sound effects from over 170 genres and styles. As I mentioned, you do get 20% off just by having TubeBuddy. In terms of the pricing, well, there’s two options for you to consider.
(04:24) First is the personal subscription for $9.99 a month that’s billed annually, which gives you unlimited downloads and Epidemic Sounds mobile app. Keep this in mind with your subscription because it’s important. You can only monetize with one channel. The other option is commercial that’s billed at 24.99 a month, billed annually.
(04:43) You can monetize up to three channels, publish content for clients and other businesses if you are using music for more than just your YouTube channel, and you can use this in digital ads. Finally, Artlist.io. Artlist has a nice-sized library from over 18,000 songs and sound effects. You can search by video theme, mood, and the type of genre for the song.
(05:05) This is something that is an absolute game changer for a lot of creators because, let’s be honest, if you’ve ever gone to find a song for your videos, you’ve spent hours, I mean, countless hours, trying to find the perfect song for your videos. This helps narrow things down and makes the process of finding that perfect song a lot more simple.
(05:25) In terms of pricing, they have a few options. First, music and sound effects, their social plan for $9.99 a month, billed annually, which includes music and sound effects for your social platforms and podcasts. Again, only one channel per platform here. Number two is the pro level of the music and sound effects for $16.58 a month billed annually.
(05:46) This gives you unlimited licenses for all social platforms, podcasts, ads, client work, websites, and broadcasting and TV. The third option is with footage and templates. This is 29.99 a month, billed annually, which gives you access to everything I just mentioned before and also video footage up to 8K resolution.
(06:07) Again, keep this in mind, if you are someone who does not have the budget to be able to invest in music sites, go with the free options. Those are more than enough for you to get started and to keep going with your videos. If later on down the road, you do wanna upgrade and you do want to invest in one of these, go for it.
(06:22) But by all means, the free options are always the best. Hope this video helped and if you wanna see a video on 11 of the best thumbnail design hacks that the top creators are using for you to get ahead in 2024, go ahead and click on this video here, and I’ll see you there. (upbeat music)
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