We are going to propose 21 pages to download music for free and in a completely legal way so that you can use it in your projects, such as videos that you are going to upload to online platforms. And the main platforms to which you upload videos will always detect if your videos have copyrighted music, and if so, they could even withdraw the video for not having complied with them.
That is why it is time to resort to the so-called ” Download Free Music “banks, which offer free tracks and without licenses to buy, and which in most cases even allow them to be used for commercial purposes. It is something like the copyright-free image banks that you can also find online, but with music.
In this list we are going to include several types of pages from which they offer all their songs for free to those that have a free option for their mainly paid model, to authors who give away their songs in exchange for attribution. What we are not going to include are fully paid services, even if they include a free trial period.
And as we always say in Engadget Basics, we are going to leave you our proposals, but it is very possible that the most experienced users may know other pages not included. Therefore, if you consider that we have left out a useful portal for these cases, we ask you to tell us in our comments section , so that the rest of the readers also benefit from the knowledge of our Whatisfinds.
Beatpick
BeatPick is a portal where you have a wide selection of music tracks to choose from. When you find one you like, you can license it at no cost for the use you want to give it. They ensure that their selection of tracks has been curated by hand, since they only accept 10% of the 200 tracks that come to them per month from artists.
As for the license, it is free and it will help you use the track you want in movies, television, commercials, background music for public spaces, telephone, and any other multimedia use. It’s not as easy as arriving and unloading, but they are quite flexible.
- Link: Beatpick.com
BenSound
A page that offers multiple audio tracks with a free license but with the need for attribution, which means that you will have to include in your video the credit of the author saying that he is who composed the music. In return, you are free to use it in your multimedia projects, such as YouTube videos, websites, or animations.
What you will not be able to is use it in audiobooks, in podcasts, in the production of derivative songs or in musical remixes. For that you will have to license each track separately with paid licenses. But for online videos it is useful to download them for free.
- Link: Bensound.com
YouTube Audio Library
YouTube itself offers its own library of free audio tracks that you can use in any video you want to upload to its platform or to any other. This page has a simple search engine, as well as the ability to filter tracks by genre, mood, author, duration or the date it was added.
ccMixer
ccMixer is a portal to which any musician can upload their music so that it can be used for free. The only condition is that you have to give the musicians credit by saying whose song it is. It is a fair deal in exchange for being able to use the works that have been uploaded for any type of project.
The page has a search engine in which you can type a genre, instrument or artist name. In addition, the page also has free music sections for commercial use , and specific song lists for movies, commercial projects and games. After searching, when you click on a song, you will see the licenses next to the download link, as if you must credit the artist or if you can use it for commercial purposes.
- Link: dig.ccmixer.org
Filmmusic
Formerly known as Incompetech , this portal offers you free music for you to use in any project. As we are going to see throughout this list, it uses a free and a paid mode, each with its own characteristics and advantages.
If you opt for the option of creating a free account you will not have to pay anything, but you will have to give credit to the artist who owns the track you use. In the payment method you will buy each song, although you will no longer have to give any type of attribution, it will be in better quality and you can use it as many times as you want.
- Link: Incompetech.filmmusic.io
FreePD
This portal offers free music without the need for attribution, which you can use without restriction anywhere. You can use it from YouTube or Twitch videos to shops, advertisements or movies if you want. All of this organized into very specific categories, such as horror, romantic, electronic or humorous music.
FreePD offers a free rate and other fees. The payment rates are those that allow you to download a greater number of songs and with higher sound quality. Thus, you can choose what best suits your needs.
- Link: FreePD.com
Free Music Archive
Free Music Archive is a portal that offers you the free download of music with a Creative Commons license, which means that you will only need the minimum effort to give credit to the creator of the songs you use. It has two models, the FMA search engine for CC licensed songs, and another Pro search engine for original tracks that you have to pay for.
The FMA search engine is a real treat, as it allows you to search for any term and then filter the results. Among the filters, you can choose the different CC licenses, if you want them to be instrumental tracks, or different musical genres. You can also choose how long you want the songs that appear in the results to last.
- Link: Freemusicarchive.org
Free Music Public Domain
A website where you can easily download free songs without having to pay royalties. If you only want the songs for personal use, then you just have to download them and that’s it. But if you are going to expose them then you have two types of free license that you have to respect.
If you are only going to upload videos to YouTube or other online platforms, for amateur movies or student use, then you must respect the Creative Commons license accrediting the creator of each song. And if you want to use it to earn money with any production where you use it, they will ask you to fill out the form to obtain the standard license , which will also be free in any case.
Free Stock Music
Another page that allows you to search for all kinds of free musical themes, with the sole condition of crediting the artist who composed it. It does not need registration, and it has several filters that allow you to even select themes depending on the Creative Commons license you want to submit to for its use.
- Link: Free-stock-music.com
HookSounds
HookSounds is a slightly more restrictive portal when it comes to offering its songs for free, since it tries to promote its paid alternatives above all. You can use free music for videos on online platforms and social networks, but without requesting monetization for them, without giving them a commercial use and always giving attribution from the authors.
The reason for this is that their music collection is totally exclusive, which means that the tracks you find here are not going to be anywhere else. In its free use you will only have MP3 format, if you want music with the highest sound quality you will have to go to one of the payment plans.
- Link: Hooksounds.com
Josh woodward
Josh Woodward is a composer who makes all kinds of music of multiple styles, and who already has 14 albums under his belt, both instrumental and with songs. And the point is that * Josh gives away all this music ** in case you want to download it to use it wherever you want in exchange for crediting him as the creator in the video where you use it.
It has two different plans. On the one hand, you will be able to download any of their songs in MP3, but if you need more quality, they offer a $ 40 Epic Bundle for which you have all the songs in FLAC, with all the songs and their instrumental versions. It also has a search engine to find the track you need by tempo, style, or mood.
- Link: Joshwoodward.com
Mixkit
This portal began by offering free videos for any online project, and has grown to include also a collection of music tracks free of licenses or copyrights. You will be able to use these tracks in your audiovisual projects without paying and without having to give attribution to anyone.
For not having, on this website you will not even need to register You will be able to use the tracks in your YouTube videos, podcasts, or online advertisements. You have several genres to choose from, and you can use its search engine or various types of filters to find the tracks that best suit your project.
MobyFree
Moby is a world-class artist recognized around the world, and more than 10 years ago he decided to make part of his discography available to independent producers completely free of charge. It offers a selection of more than 200 tracks, some unreleased, some old and some that are new versions of his songs.
The only downside is that not everyone can access them, since the video where you are going to use them must be non-profit. Come on, he gives you the license of his music on the condition that you do not profit from the video, film or short that you make with it. You will have to do the request for the songs on their website using a form.
- Link: Mobygratis.com
Musopen
Musopen is an alternative that offers free or paid accounts for those who want to download the music of their artists. The money is not for them, since they are a non-profit organization, but they invest it in increasing their catalog of free music, be it with songs, sheet music or educational books.
Regarding the differences between free and paid accounts, the free one has a limit of 10 downloads a day, all of them in standard audio quality, while the paid accounts will have more downloads and songs in lossless quality of the highest quality and format. wav.
- Link: Musopen.org
NoiseTrade
This platform is a Paste Magazine project, and it has a rather peculiar proposal. They try to promote artists by offering their songs for free so that you can use it wherever you want. All you need to do is provide your email to get some selected free tracks sent to you.
But what this page seeks is to provide, so by registering on it you will also have your personalized fan page, being able to follow the artists you like the most and even send them money if you want so that they can continue to grow.
Partners in Rhyme
A portal that not only offers you royalty-free music or music collections, but also has sound and video effects that are free for you to include in your productions. They offer the music tracks in WAV, and they assure you that you can use them on platforms like YouTube without problems due to any type of license.
You will be able to use the music tracks in productions for profit, although you can never resell them, offer them on other websites or remix them in your own music tracks ensuring that they are yours. For having, this page even offers you free software for music editing on Windows and macOS.
Purple planet
This page has been created by a group of British friends who decided to create compositions and upload them so that you can download them for free, although there is a small asterisk in the free one. You can only download MP3 tracks for free at 192kbps, and only for YouTube videos. Other types of productions such as video games or commercial products require a paid license.
On their website they even detail how you have to credit them in your videos to be able to use their music for free. In addition, in exchange for a payment you will also be able to buy the tracks in high quality WAV format.
- Link: Purple-planet.com
Royalty Free Music
A very particular project, since it is not a website, but rather an initiative that you can find on its YouTube channel . It is a channel that uploads free music under a Creative Commons license, which you can use for free simply by crediting the creator. In each track they upload, they include in the description the official links to obtain the song.
- Link: Royalty Free Music
TakeTones
This is another professional portal that offers paid audio tracks for content creators. However, you can get free tracks if you have a non-monetized YouTube channel, if you are not going to put the track to commercial use, and if you are going to credit the creator who composed it. You will also not be able to version or mix them, and you will have a download limit of 10 audio tracks per month.
- Link: Taketones.com
TeknoAxe
This is a page that will ask you for several attribution methods if you want to include their music in your online videos, although in exchange for offering a wide collection with hundreds of tracks from various genres for free. All tracks are in mp3 format
A citation is required that complies with the CC 3.0 license, including a link to the TeknoAxe YouTube channel, a link to the TeknoAxe website, and a link to the YouTube video where the music was used or a link to the specific website with the location of the track.
- Link: Teknoaxe.com
Bonus: Search SoundCloud and YouTube
SoundCloud is a popular music streaming platform, quite alternative and that in its search engine allows you to find songs for commercial use or modification, you will only have to give the creators the credit they deserve. It’s easy, just go to the search engine and search for a term, and on the left you will have a For commercial use column in which to find these two options.
In addition, you will also be able to find tracks of this type on YouTube itself. All you have to do is search for songs with the term Royalty-free or Copyright-safe, and generally songs that you can download and use for your own creations will be shown. Of course, always be attentive to if they ask you to credit the artist, although it is best that you always do it by default.