7 Places to Find Background Music for YouTube Videos For Free.

So you’ve created a great video. Excellent. Now all you need is the right music. Obviously you can’t just use the music of Radiohead or Ketty Perry. YouTube doesn’t work that way. You must have copyright or written permission for the music you use. But don’t worry, there are several places where you can find high quality royalty-free music. Let’s check them out.

What happens when you use copyrighted music?

Before we get into that, let’s see what happens if you don’t follow the rules. Let’s say you’ve used a popular song as the background music for your YouTube video. Soon after you upload this video, YouTube’s algorithm (called contentID) will detect it.

Once the algorithm confirms that the music belongs to someone else, it will send you an email asking if you have written permission from the original creator. If you have a letter of consent, you can submit it to YouTube and the case will be closed. If you don’t have permission to use the song, you have three options:

1. You save the video, but the proceeds go to the original music creator or producer.

2. If you meet the criteria, you can split the profit with the manufacturing company.

3. If possible, you can replace the copyrighted music with the YouTube audio library and keep all the profits.

Sometimes YouTube can warn you of copyright infringement even if you are using your song. In such cases, you can file an objection (this option will be indicated in the email sent to them). It may take a while, though. Another YouTuber Tom Scott made a video on the same topic, you should definitely check it out.

On the subject: How much money do youtubers make? Youtubers answer

I’ve been at YouTube for seven years now and have tested many websites that claim free music. But most of them either ask for a one-time fee or only support non-commercial use.

Free background music for YouTube videos

1. YouTube Music Library

YouTube launched its music library back in 2013 and it only had 100 songs back then, but now that number has grown to thousands. It has a collection of high quality free music that you can filter by mood, genre, duration, etc. And of course you can use it commercially.

YouTube Audio Library is a win-win for both YouTube and video creators. Creators get high quality music for free, and YouTube is forced to spend less time on copyright infringement.

Related: How to Play YouTube Videos in the Background

You can even use your YouTube music library to monetize your old videos containing copyrighted music. Just go to the video manager, click on the edit option next to the video you want to monetize, and replace the song from the YouTube audio library.

Visit YouTube Music Library

Should I give loans?

Since YouTube is already paying the composer, credits are optional. However, YouTube offers to include the title of the track in the artist description. However, certain music (next to which there is a symbol of a man in a circle) requires an indication in the description.

2. Pixabay Music

Pixabay is a popular online royalty-free imaging marketplace, but they also offer completely free music. It contains a library of high quality mp3 tracks that don’t even require attribution. Music is neatly categorized, making it easy to find the perfect music composition. Just narrow your search by genre, mood, or even music movement.

Before downloading, you can listen to the soundtracks on the website and then decide if you want to listen to them. Everything else is fine, but let’s talk about the music collection and the quality of the soundtracks. I would say the music is decent and complements the editing of your videos perfectly.

Related: 9 Best Pixabay Alternatives for Your Next Project

Try Pixabay Music (Free)

3. IncompeTech

Founded ten years ago by Calvin MacLeod, Incompetech still provides free music today. They have amassed a good collection of background music over the years. It comes in a variety of genres that you can use for commercial and non-commercial projects, as long as you link to the owner.

The songs are not just limited to YouTube, you can use them anywhere – movies or video games, presentations, or any other commercial use offline or online. Just make sure you do justice to the creator. If you don’t want to give credit to the owner, you can buy a license.

The music collection is pretty good, you can search for tracks by mood, genre, duration, tempo, etc. Or browse through their most popular or most recently downloaded lists. One thing I noticed though is that most of the popular songs on IncompeTech are already available in the YouTube audio library as the creator – Kevin MacLeod and YouTube – are pushing for some sort of business deal.

Get to know IncompTech

4. FL Studio

This is not a website, but a program that lets you create music (mostly instrumental).

If you’re looking for something unique, like a theme song for your channel, it’s best to compose the music yourself. FL Studio is the best program for creating professional music on home computers. It’s easy to get started, there are tons of YouTube tutorials to help you with basic functions and operation. We recommended this FL studio series for newbies from New Boston.

I once used FL Studio to see how I was doing and it took me 5 hours to write 1 minute music. I won’t say it was the best music, but it did its job.

Install FL Studio

5. NoCopyrightSounds

This is a popular UK YouTube channel offering high quality instrumental music for free. One of the conditions is that you must include credits in the video description, which, again, makes sense when you look at the quality of the music.

Although this is a YouTube channel, we recommend using the NCS website to find songs as it allows you to filter tracks by category, most viewed, playlists, and more.

At the time of this writing, they have downloaded 308 tracks and they are all available for free. Although there are minor restrictions. It’s like the songs are free for independent authors and can be used on YouTube and Twitch. If you represent a brand or business looking to use their music on YouTube or elsewhere, it’s best to contact them first.

Related: Compress YouTube Videos Without Quality Loss

Visit NCS YouTube Channel

6. Search on YouTube

Yes, you can also find background music for YouTube videos on YouTube. I recently needed an inspirational track for my 100k subvideo, and the best I found was on YouTube. It’s free and you can even monetize it. All they ask for is credits in the video description, which is quite fair.

To get started, just find the song you want, like Royalty Free Music. Listen to each search result and choose the one you like. However, make sure you are downloading genuine files and not downloading anyone else’s content. So, look for followers, persistent upload comments, linked social media accounts, and more.

Here is the background music used by the popular YouTuber – CGP gray. According to the description, the song is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 license. This means you can sample, remix, re-edit, or do whatever you want with the video, as long as you specify the source.

7. SoundCloud

I recently discovered some hidden gems on Soundcloud and it totally blew my mind. Soundcloud has tons of talented music artists, and most of them are pretty cool sharing their music for free. All they ask for is a link to a loan or a small donation.

However, finding good music artists on Soundcloud is quite difficult. So, I came up with two ways:

1. Go to the official Soundcloud website and search for the type of song you want to love – hip hop, etc. Then click on “Track” in the upper left corner Filter Result Use Commercial. Although, as in the previous case, do not forget to verify the identity of the user who downloaded it.

2. This method is unconventional. The most popular YouTube creators also use SoundCloud music like CaseyNeistat. So, just go to your favorite YouTuber’s YouTube page and watch a couple of their videos. If you find a good song that you would like to use yourself, then check out the video description. I have found that several great artists use this method. Here is a video explaining this.

Rate the Soundcloud

Closing words

If you are serious about your video then avoid free music sites. They are ineffective in the long run. Better to use the YouTube music library or, if you have time, compose music.

There are many other small resources and a YouTube channel where hidden gems can be found. For example, a Reddit user shared this awesome table with links to all the places where you can find good music for YouTube videos.

At TechWiser, we use SoundCloud and Epidemic Sound. The latter is not free, so I won’t go into details. But in a nutshell, consider this Netflix for background music. You subscribe to a subscription (from $ 15 per month), and as long as you subscribe to the service, you can use any music from their library. Since this is a paid service, the tracks are pretty unique as well, and most importantly, you don’t need to include any credits in your video.