In 2023, 89% of marketers said their video content delivered high returns, compared to 31% in 2015.
With video marketers vying for your customers' attention, you need a secret weapon to make your video marketing stand out.
With free Creative Commons music, you can create the perfect soundtrack for your videos for free.
If you haven't embraced video marketing yet, it's going to be an integral part of your marketing strategy going forward.
What is Creative Commons music?
Creative Commons is a company that issues special licenses to the public to use creative works, such as music, for free.
Creative Commons licenses more than 3 billion creative works, including photos, videos, and music.
In addition to avoiding legal issues, it's important to understand the licenses so you can quickly decide which one is best for your project.Different types of licenses determine how you can use the work, and as long as you follow the terms of the license, you can use the work for free.
There are six types of Creative Commons licenses, three of which allow commercial use with attribution.
3 Basic Types of Music Licenses
1. Public domain
Public domain content is not protected by copyright and can be downloaded for free for personal and commercial purposes. Since such content is a no-strings-attached download, you can remix it, share it, and use it over and over again without worrying about legal or financial issues. It's really great.
2. Free royalties
Royalties are the amount of money you pay each time you use the content, so royalty-free background music means you don't have to pay for the song repeatedly. However, you do have to pay upfront, but you can use it for as long as you want. Royalty-free music can be used for personal and commercial purposes.
3. Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that provides standardized, free copyright licenses to content creators. Creators get paid for their work and can share and use it for free. It's a win-win for content creators.
But here's where it gets a little tricky. You can use Creative Commons content for free, but only if you follow certain requirements. These requirements vary depending on the license category, such as commercial versus non-commercial (non-profit) use.
The best websites for video background music
With a wide range of licensing options and genres, from indie to hip-hop, this list has something for every video marketer. Explore a few sites and find the one that works for you.
1. Sound Cloud
SoundCloud is an online music sharing site with over 175 million users worldwide and over 200 million tracks. This number includes many tracks that are in the public domain or licensed under Creative Commons. What's more, SoundCloud is very easy to navigate and explore.
The company supports independent creators with fan-based royalties, where the more an artist's music is played, the more money they make. However, not all tracks are available for free, and many are copyrighted, so you need to be careful when downloading tracks.
It's used by amateur musicians and DJs to upload and share music, so you can sometimes come across questionable music. However, SoundCloud is a great music library that you can use in your marketing videos.
SoundCloud has social features, so if a particular track has a lot of "likes," we recommend downloading it. The upside is that it sounds like real music, not artificial tracks created for marketing videos.
2. YouTube Audio Library
You can use this library by simply creating a channel on YouTube. There are over 150,000 free tracks available in the audio library, and the music is a mix of public domain works and Creative Commons. All you need to do is credit the owner of the track.
To get the most out of the library, take advantage of the search feature. For example, you can search by mood, such as "dramatic," "calm," or "exciting."
You can filter different music by genre, instrument, mood, duration, and license type. In addition to music, the YouTube Audio Library also offers a variety of free sound effects that you can use in your videos.
If you don't have a YouTube channel yet, this is your chance to create one and start using the vast audio library.
3. dig ccMixter
Why we love it: All of the music on this site is licensed under Creative Commons, making it the perfect place to explore. There's original content from nearly 48,000 global musicians and thousands of tracks to choose from.
If you find a particular artist you like and want to listen to more of their music, you can visit their profile in the "People" section.
Prices range from $22 to $222 for royalty-free licenses, and Creative Commons tracks are free as long as they're properly attributed.
While the library can be a little tricky to navigate, ccMixter proves to be a great resource for finding original background music.
4. Musopen
Musopen provides free music, scores, recordings, and educational materials for video editing, with a focus on classical music. It is a non-profit organization that seeks to liberalize music.
It has a huge collection of copyright-free music, including music by historical figures like Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert, and Ludwig van Beethoven, that anyone can search and download by composer, instrument, arrangement, or mood.
Additional filters allow you to filter the library by rating, recording quality, orchestra, era, mood, and more.
The music offered may be classical rather than modern, but if you want to create a sophisticated or cultured atmosphere, it will fit in well.
5. Jamendo
Jamendo is built for advertisers and marketers and offers more than 250,000 soundtracks and 40,000 artists through search filters.
The Jamendo Music included in the library is a streaming platform where all songs are licensed under Creative Commons and are commercial royalty-free.
In addition to the free library, commercial single tracks are also available. Prices range from $49 to $299, with a monthly subscription costing $49 and an annual subscription costing $299.
You can refine by theme, instrument, genre, and time in the search bar, and the downside is that most of the free music cannot be used for commercial purposes. There are some permissible ones, but there is no search function for paid license types, so you have to go to the detail page for each song to learn more about the license.
6. Bensound
Bensound offers thousands of royalty-free music tracks for use in videos, animations, websites, and more. The cool thing is that every track is created, uploaded, and managed by artist Benjamin Tissot himself.
From animations and corporate videos to commercials and documentaries, Ben's work is everywhere.
The site is searchable by genre, upload date, tags, and popularity, and you'll find quirky, unique art covers and a wide variety of fun songs.
It's free for non-commercial use (with attribution), single-track licenses range from $38 to $664, and a standard subscription is $159 per year.
You can use the tracks as free background music in your videos as long as you don't remix them or use them to create new songs.
7. Epidemic Sound
Epidemic Sound is one of the most popular places to find high-quality background music for your videos, with a library of over 30,000 tracks updated weekly. You can easily search for music by genre, length, mood, and vocals to find the right music for your video.
We love how they bundle the legal rights you need into one basic license that works across all social media platforms.
Price range: Single track licenses start at $99, with personal subscriptions starting at $144 per year and commercial annual subscriptions starting at $299.
The amounts aren't that high, and the subscription will be well worth it.
Thank you.
