10 sites to download free and copyright-free music for YouTube videos

Legally getting music for your YouTube videos doesn’t have to be a copyright and licensing minefield. If you stick to this website, you can use any of these pieces of music as long as you credit the creator.

Copyright Browsing

Do not post a video on YouTube with background music from a copyrighted source, it will likely be removed. It doesn’t matter if you’re hoping to become a viral sensation or just posting something for family and friends.

If it’s free to the public, the copyright owner of that music can file a claim and remove your video. And yes, YouTube is notorious for making your favorite videos disappear.

A better option is to use copyright-free or royalty-free music. It will save you from violating copyright restrictions. These free music download sites will provide you with a great selection of music. Just add a link to the resource in the description.

There is always a place for classical music today, whether it is used to underline a serious theme or in a comedy scene. MusOpen targets this genre particularly well, giving you the option to download up to five songs per day on its free plan.

A nice addition to the site is the ability to save tracks for later. You can explore categories according to your mood using tags like Romantic, Tragic, Festive and more, with famous composers like Bach, Beethoven and Mozart readily available.

Since many of the songs are long out of copyright, they are available royalty-free and can be used however you like.

What seems like a rare gem from the old days of the internet, Audionautix is ​​a site run entirely by one person in the spirit of open sharing. His name is Jason Shaw, and we can all thank him for the incredible number of hours he’s put into creating royalty-free music that anyone can use.

You can search by mood, genre, tempo or keyword and simply hit the download button on something you like. No registration is required. All he asks is that you credit him where appropriate. This is a fantastic resource for free music. Please consider donating if you see fit!

If you’re looking for free, copyright-protected music for your YouTube video, the YouTube Audio Library is one of the best places to start. All you need is a YouTube account to access the library, which includes over 1,000 songs and 300 sound effects.

All music from Audiotek can be used for non-commercial and monetized YouTube videos. Some music requires attribution, while others do not.

Thematic is the service most YouTube creators should be looking for for free tracks from established artists and musicians. You must become a Thematic member to gain access, but you don’t even need a credit card to sign up.

Once you become a member, you will see a whole themed music catalog that contains music from several unique artists. It also provides access to tracks from some fairly popular musicians.

Of course, there are certain rules for the platform. Theme members must follow a specific link and style to use songs on YouTube and other platforms. Also note that as a free user you are allowed a maximum of five downloads per month.

Unminus is another free music download site. This site is different from all the others here because the songs come with a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.

In case you’re not familiar with Creative Commons licenses, the CC0 license allows you to use any work for free, for personal or commercial purposes, to modify it as you see fit and without attribution. This means you can do whatever you want with the music on Unminus, and you don’t have to link to it in your YouTube description or add it to any list of credits.

New songs are added to Unminus only once in a while. To know when new material is next available, subscribe to the newsletter for notifications. You can also check out sites where you can legally download free music to find a song that suits your taste.

Icons8 is a well-known source of free icons and photos, and also offers a large selection of free music and audio tracks. Each song can be downloaded for free as an MP3. However, you can only use free music for non-commercial projects.

The music collection is divided into two sections: categories and genres. Each section has subcategories to further refine your choices and quickly find what you’re looking for. You can stream any song in full before downloading it and get information like runtime, visualizer and so on.

Of course, there is also a search function. However, it’s probably better to use the large number of tags on the web to browse and find free music downloads for your YouTube video.

Musician and YouTuber TeknoAXE has been creating songs and scores for many years and is becoming a great resource for free music downloads because it’s free for anyone on the internet to use. Most of these songs are electronic dance music, rock and metal, but there are also a lot of theme songs.

The CC 4.0 license means that you must attribute the original link and note if you have made any changes. In return, you get a collection of nearly 1,500 songs across various genres and even moods like comedy, drama, horror and so on.

Listen to a few tracks and you might think, “Hey, I’ve heard this before”. This is because TeknoAXE’s music has already been widely used on YouTube. You can follow TeknoAXE’s YouTube channel for his latest music. He usually uploads a new song every week and it’s a good way to find a new sound for your video before it becomes popular.

Pixabay is a popular site for free photos, but you can also get free music here. Pixabay Music was launched in 2020, making this site a convenient place to source the material you need for your YouTube video project.

Search by genre, mood and tag to get the perfect background music for your YouTube video for free. In addition to royalty-free music, you’ll also find video and sound effects.

Under the Pixabay license, you can download and edit free copyright-free music for both commercial and non-commercial use. According to the site, attribution is not a requirement, but it’s a nice way to give credit to the artist who created the free music you’re using.

Bensound has a range of free music for you to download. The categories have vivid names like Acoustic, Cinematic, Urban and so on. This way you already have a feel for how each category of music will suit your style.

Bensound lets you use free music on YouTube videos. However, you are limited to the list of free music on the site and remember to assign. To access all songs, you need to subscribe to a paid plan that starts at $9.99 per month.

dig.ccMixter is a subsite of ccMixter, an online community where you can download various remixes and samples for free. On dig.ccMixter, you can search for music for your YouTube video using three tag categories: Genre, Instrument, and Style. There are more than 5000 songs on the site.

Song licenses can vary, but in general, most can be used in both commercial and non-commercial video projects as long as you provide proper attribution. Licensing information for each song will be provided before you actually download it.

Finding the right music and using it legally will ensure your video stays alive for as long as you want it to. Sticking to these sites will offer you a huge selection of music without having to worry about copyright.