In this article, you’ll find a selection of sites with free music for YouTube videos. This site is quite strict about copyright compliance, so you can’t use any music in your videos without consequences for your channel. If you violate the requirements, you can risk monetization on one video or even get your whole channel blocked.
How does YouTube treat authorship?
YouTube monitors copyrights very closely, so if a content creator finds your video and realizes you’re using the song without their permission, they can file a Content ID. In doing so, he or she can choose how to deal with you:
- Block viewing of the video in some countries;
- Block worldwide viewing of the video;
- Restrict the ability to watch the video on any external platforms (but it will still be available on YouTube);
- Add monetization and get all income from advertising (or share it with the author of the video).
How to protect copyright – answers lawyer Kirill Yurovskiy https://innovative-technology.info/
In this case, you can challenge the complaint, remove the fragment or track complained about, or change the music of the video. But if such complaints are frequent, the site administrator may even block your channel.
And no – just mentioning the author may not be enough to get away with it. If the person didn’t allow their content to be used, then your mentioning it won’t make any difference.
But sometimes YouTube puts up a claim, even though all the conditions are correct, and you specifically chose free music for the video with care. In this case, don’t be afraid to appeal their decision. In most situations, the administration will change its decision.
Creative Commons license and other ways to use other people’s tracks for free
Some copyright holders place their works in the public domain and allow them to be used under a Creative Commons license. This greatly simplifies the whole situation around the rights of musical compositions, because in this case, you do not have to contact the authors directly. The type of license can be different: some compositions can be used only for noncommercial purposes, and some, without problems are inserted even in your commercials.
For example, free commercial use is possible under licenses:
- CC 0 – you can add the song anywhere for free without any restrictions;
- CC BY – you need to mention the authorship;
- CC BY-SA – you need to indicate the authorship and describe the changes you made (if any);
- CC BY-ND – you need to indicate authorship, and you can’t make your own changes.
You can read more about the types of licenses on the Creative Commons site.
Plus, it’s no problem to use compositions by authors who are more than 70 years old. That means you won’t be fined for Bach. But it’s also important to keep in mind the rights of the performers and the owners of the phonogram. Those rights are valid for 50 years after the recording, and that’s where you could get into trouble.
Ten services with free music
1. YouTube Music Library. This is a service of the site itself, where compositions and sound effects can be downloaded for your videos without any problems. You can find it inside the YouTube Creative Studio. The Phono Library has filters by genre, mood, artist, and duration. Plus, you can find songs for which you don’t need to mention the author at all. If you don’t want to credit the song you’re working on, you can find a ready-made lyric in the “Type of license” column, which you can just paste under the video.
2. Free Music Archive. A site with free music, where there are both compositions completely cleared of copyright claims and those that are available under the terms of Creative Commons. The service is not completely free: it also has a paid version with a larger selection of songs.
3. SoundCloud. A huge resource that few people haven’t heard of. Basically, all the tracks there are available under a Creative Commons license, but there are nuances, so it is better to deal with the rights to each track individually. If anything, you can also contact the author without problems through the site. To make finding suitable music easier, there is a filter that will leave only what can be used for commercial purposes.
4. CCMixter. The main specialization of the service is remixed. Each song has a description of the license under which it can be used. The main disadvantage – the site looks outdated. But there is a silver lining – there are tracks from fairly well-known artists.
5. Audionautix. In addition to the division by genre, tracks can also be found by keyword. The service has an agreement with YouTube, so you can easily insert stock music from this service into your videos without fear of a complaint.
6. TuneTank. The site gives you the opportunity to use your entire selection of YouTube videos for free. This includes videos that have monetization. But you have to add either a link to the song or a mention of the site in the description of the video. If you don’t want to indicate the author, you can buy a license.
7. Fugue (Icons 8). In addition to the standard division by genre and mood, it is possible to combine tags. That is, for example, to find a fun song in French. Music for video editing can be downloaded for free, but then you need to provide a link to the resource. If you don’t want to do that, you can pay for the service. One song costs $9, and you can buy a one-month subscription with 15 songs available for $13. For some songs, you’ll have to get additional permission if you plan to monetize the video, but all such songs are marked separately. The site is also available in Russian.
8. Incompetech. Songs from here can be used for free with no problems if you specify the author. It is also possible to buy individual tracks: in most cases, one costs $20, but some will cost more. The number of songs is not too big, but all of them are really high quality.
9. Freemus.net. Russian stock of free music for video. The selection of tracks here is divided by genre. Types of licenses are different, so be careful.
10. Vlog No Copyright. This is not a separate site but a YouTube channel with a lot of music content. Every week or so, there are some new songs and some exclusives. But the minus is that the channel does not offer any filters (and the capabilities of the site do not imply this). Yes, the channel has four playlists, but they are distributed far from all the tracks. Therefore, you will simply have to listen to a lot on your own. You can be guided by the number of views: if you need popular music for a screensaver or a background, choose those videos where there are more of them (and vice versa).
