16 Best Royalty Free Music Sites (2023)

If you need to find good-quality music that can be freely used for different projects, look through these royalty free music sites containing a wide variety of audio tracks that come at no cost.

As you don’t have to pay licensing fees, it will save you money if you are on a budget.

Such royalty free music websites are especially convenient for independent developers who create games or apps as well as for vloggers working on projects that require music.

Top 16 Royalty Free Music Sites

1. Icons8 - The best royalty-free music website
2. Epidemic Sound - Universal music collection
3. Filmstro - For low budget film directors and film students
4. Soundstripe - Unlimited access for filmmakers
5. Hooksounds - Compose music from the ground up
6. Music Vine - Live recordings
7. BenSound - Using music in original format without remixes
8. ccMixter - Instrumental soundtracks for computer games
9. YouTube Audio Library - For YouTubers
10. Music for Video - Offers lifespan access to the royalty-free audio
11. Purple Planet - Convenient division of audio tracks into categories
12. Mixkit - Tunes from talented creators
13. PremiumBeat - The library is supervised by music experts
14. Artlist - The cheapest and most diverse music licensing platform
15. Audio Jungle - You can buy sound effects and music constructors
16. Pond5 - The largest library of royalty-free music

I have reviewed the most popular royalty free music sites of 2022 that offer users the best tracks. Most of them have different subscription options that come at affordable prices. If you want to create content for commercial purposes, you need to choose the best cost-saving option as well.

Verdict: Among royalty free music websites, Icons8 is the best option if you need to find amazing sound effects or tunes quickly. Here, you will find tracks played by relatively unknown groups as well as masterfully performed classical works.

Besides music collection, you will get access to waste libraries containing video clips, photos, and icons.

All the images are free to use whether you are going to download them for personal or commercial use. However, you can use music for non-commercial purposes only.

The only thing you need to do is to add a link to the website.

By paying $20 per month, you can also download WAV files as well as use audio tracks for commercial purposes without adding links to the service.

Verdict: Epidemic Sound is famous thanks to its collaboration with the best modern musicians that create a fantastic soundtrack for YouTube and Facebook video clips. These videos are watched over 20 billion times monthly.

It is one of the best royalty free music sites, offering 725+ albums than come royalty-free. By choosing any genre, for instance, “Small Emotions” or “Funk”, you can enhance your videos with fascinating soundtracks.

Epidemic Sound has a lot of advantages that are appreciated by users. You get all the necessary legal rights in one license. A library is easy to navigate and offers a wide variety of tunes.

However, if you decide to purchase a license for a single track, it will cost you £79. This is why buying a package or paying for a monthly subscription is more cost-saving. For instance, the latter will cost you £10 per month.

Verdict: Filmstro is a great option to consider if you are wondering where to get royalty free music. There are 65+ categories to choose from, for instance, you can search tracks by mood, genre, or instrumental palette.

After choosing a track, you can adjust its momentum, depth, and power. This will help you make your soundtrack original and unforgettable.

By subscribing to Filmstro, you get access to a waste library of cool soundtracks that can enhance every project. What’s more, you will receive updates every week.

Verdict: Soundstripe has been created to offer sophisticated music services. It offers users a unique subscription model. You can pay for subscription plans instead of purchasing licenses for single tracks.

By becoming a member of this royalty free music site, you can use unlimited licenses to get high-quality music content that will help you take your projects to the next level. You won’t face any difficulties while trying to navigate the interface as it reminds Spotify’s UI.

Among the company’s clients are Amazon and Microsoft. All the tracks are hand-picked. By paying $135 per year, you can subscribe to a standard membership plan and can enjoy all the advantages of the service.

Verdict: HookSounds allows you to access an impressive collection of music files. You will definitely find what you need by browsing through this extensive library. You can search for music by moods and genres thanks to convenient tags that make it easier to select a suitable track for your project without wasting much time.

HookSounds has a conveniently organized library where every file comes in several formats. Another thing that I like about it is that it allows me to purchase a lifetime license and use the downloaded files without any restrictions. The professionals can also create a perfect track from scratch on demand.

If you want to use a service that allows you to access music tracks, intros, and sound effects, you can pay from $14.99 for a monthly subscription. Besides, you can purchase an individual license to use a specific track.

Verdict: If you ask yourself where to find royalty free music, take a look at this service. Music Vine has been created for those, who value quality over a wide choice.

Among the members of the service are bands, composers, songwriters, and producers, who create top-notch content for the most demanding clients.

Every aspiring filmmaker and video content creator will benefit from getting licenses to the best soundtracks available.

The service offers synchronized licenses that allow using tracks for video clips, vlogs, applications, movies, or audio projects. If you want to upload your content on Music Vine, note that at least half of your portfolio should be exclusive. You can also upload non-exclusive tracks that are already available on other services.

Verdict: Looking through a huge collection of tracks, you can find the music of such genres as pop, folk, groove, acoustic and many more. Actually, the total number of soundtracks goes beyond 300 items. That’s why, opting for BenSound you are sure to find the appropriate audio.

Files are available for free download under a Creative Commons 3.0 license, provided that the music will only be used on online sites such as YouTube or Vimeo, social networks, slide shows, as background music on websites, and in educational videos.

You just have to indicate authorship – for example, “Music: www.bensound.com” or “Royalty Free Music from Bensound”. If you want to use the track for commercial purposes, you need to buy a license.

Verdict: The advantage of this website is that it partners with many talented musicians, singers, producers, and DJs from all over the globe, who regularly upload the originals of their instrumental songs, acapella recordings, remixes, etc., which you can easily use for your video projects.

Thanks to a plethora of audio content available on CcMixter, finding an appropriate track won’t take much time.

Don't forget to convert your finished video into a suitable format using a free video converter to upload it to your favorite social media platforms without trouble.

Verdict: YouTube is rightfully added to the list of the top royalty free music sites offering more than 150,000 soundtracks that can be used as the background music for videos by anyone engaged in this activity. However, mind that most songs aren’t available for downloading and can’t be remixed, so the possibility to use them for creative purposes is rather limited.

Anyway, for users, who want to experiment a little bit with the background music, this platform offers an evolving library of 150 new royalty-tracks. You can find them in the YouTube Audio Library. All the soundtracks featured there can be downloaded, changed and used for free.

So, you need to focus on the audio library, which contains free yet quality music that can be used without violating the copyrights.

Verdict: Music for Video by Orlamusic is a royalty-free music web resource with multiple stunning tracks and sounds available at a modest cost. Whether you need music for personal projects, to add to a video for social networks, or for commercial purposes, this website has much to offer. What is more, the Lifetime license covers music distributed on broadcast television, OTT networks (Netflix, Prime Video, HBO max, Hulu, etc.), and national/international theatrical releases.

All files are conveniently grouped into thematic categories, so the selection of music is a breeze. Choose the required topic and listen to the suitable tracks before you download and use them. It is possible to choose the playback version for some tracks. Moreover, you can download the selected music, add it to your playlist or mark some songs as your favorites.

Verdict: Purple Planet Music was created by 3 enthusiastic people, 2 of whom are responsible for composing, performing, recording, and producing music, while the third one takes care of the management part.

If you are interested in where to find royalty free music, I highly recommend visiting this website with many cool categories to choose from. This division is based not on the music genres, but on the mood certain sounds evoke, so don’t be surprised coming across such categories as “cute”, “sneaky”, “reflective”, etc.

Once you’ve decided on the category, look through the offered soundtracks and narrow down your choice. Though the variety of songs is truly overwhelming, you can easily find the most suitable variant reading the descriptions and listening to the audio.

Verdict: Mixkit is a remarkable free stock music platform, where you can find lots of cool soundtracks and select those songs that will perfectly meet your future project. You can be sure about the quality of the offered songs, as most of them are created by the world’s most skillful performers.

The advantage of this website is that all tracks can be used without attribution or registration.

They can serve you as a base for your videos intended for YouTube or any YouTube alternative, podcasts, commercials, etc. You can also get access to a suite of completely free videos and Premiere Pro templates perfect for producing YouTube content!

Verdict: PremiumBeat is a subsidiary of the world-famous image store, Shutterstock. The website is well organized and you can quickly find everything you need. All audio recordings are unique and copyright protected.

The library is built in a clear way and has simple and straightforward signposts. You won’t find any distracting information here. Convenient navigation allows you to get to the necessary audio quickly without losing your way.

Moreover, a close relationship with Shutterstock gives you additional confidence in the content’s quality.

Verdict: Cooperation with the best indie artists is one of the features of this music site. Audio tracks created for Artlist are often used by well-known companies such as Toyota, Microsoft, and National Geographic. This is one of the best royalty free music sites in terms of categorizing content.

You can look for audio tracks using various search filters such as genre, mood, duration, tempo, and instrument. Besides, the platform contains thematic collections with materials from partner musicians. Artlist helps them promote their albums.

By purchasing an annual ($199) or monthly ($16) subscription, you get the opportunity to download content unlimitedly. Artlist is constantly expanding its collections with new tracks. The quality of the music presented there also deserves flattering words. There are even lyrics in some songs.

Verdict: The library includes instrumental music, heavy metal, pop, vocals, and other tracks. You can also get tons of music effects and sets.

Anyway, AudioJungle offers you an incredibly wide range of content. The website often pleases its audience with various free materials such as stock footage, royalty free music, 3D assets, video effects, and stock photography.

Another advantage of this service is the ability to order your music tracks via Envato Market. This is a huge community of creative people consisting of more than 35 thousand developers, music makers, etc. They can create almost any content for your projects.

Verdict: Pond5 offers a huge selection of music content. To get what you need faster, you can use the convenient search system. Specify the necessary parameters, for example, “fight scene” or “movie trailer”, and get the materials that match your request.

If you subscribe, then more content such as video and graphic materials will be available to you. All the materials that you will find on this site are of high quality and can enhance any project.

Regardless of whether you use free music download or paid video content, you will spend less money and time than when creating these materials yourself. You might find the membership and the licensing fees too high, but you get top-quality video content and great service.