Are you tired of scouring the internet for the perfect tune to accompany your latest project?
Fear not, because we’ve got you covered with our list of the 20 best royalty free music sites in 2025!
Let’s face it, music can make or break your audience’s attention, but who wants to break the bank on licensing fees?
With these sites, you can find the perfect soundtrack without breaking a sweat (or your budget).
So, whether you’re creating a film, explainer video, app or video game, sit back, relax, and let the music guide you to success!
What is royalty free music?
In simple terms, it means you pay once – and can use it forever!
This makes it a cost-effective and legal solution for using high-quality music in creative projects without worrying about copyright issues or expensive licensing fees.
1. Artlist
Artlist is a beautiful music licensing site for video, film and YouTube.
It’s part of an end-to-end platform for video creators, which also features Artgrid (curated footage) and Motion Array (a filmmakers marketplace where you can find video templates, plugins and more).
Artlist offers an immense amount of both variety and quality.
It’s easy to find exactly what you’re looking for, with all music categorised and curated by modes, genres, video themes and instrumentals, all of which you can use as filters to find the perfect track for your next project. You can even use the ‘For You’ page to get personalised suggestions, or the spotlight page to browse trending content.
In terms of cost, you’ll find options to fit your creative needs. The ‘Music & SFX Social’ plan – which covers you for content used on your own personal social channels – is ยฃ9.99/month if billed annually or ยฃ14.99/month if billed monthly. And the ‘Music & SFX Pro’ plan – which you’ll need for commercial projects – comes in at ยฃ16.58 per month (billed annually).
The site itself is a joy to use, with super easy navigation that lets you delve into the works of fresh new artists based on the mood, video theme or genre youโre aiming for. If you hadnโt noticed, weโre somewhat smitten with Artlist!
Bonus: We’ve partnered with Artlist to get you 2 extra months on your subscription when you sign up here: Get 2 months extra >>
2. Epidemic Sound
Royalty Free Music re-imagined, is the Epidemic Sound approach to tackling the complexities of music licensing. Whereas other libraries claim to be royalty free then require you to report usage and pay performance royalties, Epidemic Sound includes everything; packaging all the legal rights you could need into one simple license.
With a varied and easy to navigate library of tunes, Epidemic Sound is definitely one of the more accessible royalty free music sites available. Subscriptions start from ยฃ9.99 a month.
Bonus: We’ve partnered with Epidemic Sound to get you 10% off for 12 months when you sign up here: Get 10% off for 12 months >>
3. Legis Music
Legis Music offers a comprehensive solution for creators seeking high-quality, royalty-free music. With a free plan or a simple monthly or annual subscription users gain lifetime licences for a diverse library of tracks suitable for various projects, including YouTube videos, podcasts, online films, and commercials. We particularly like the range of public domain music and multiple versions.
Key Features:
- Lifetime License: Pay once and use the music forever without risk of the music being removed in the future.
- Versatile Usage: Suitable for personal and commercial projects across multiple platforms.
- Free Plan Available: Access up to 10 tracks per month with attribution required.
- Stems for Every Track: Customize your audio by accessing individual components of each track.
- YouTube Whitelisting: Whitelist up to 10 YouTube channels to prevent copyright claims.
- Regular Updates: The music library is continually updated with new tracks.
Pricing:
- Free Plan: Download up to 10 tracks per month with attribution.
- Pro Plan: $9.99 per month โ Unlimited downloads with all features included. 50% off for paying annually.
Legis Musicโs user-friendly approach, flexible licensing, and additional features like stems and YouTube whitelisting make it a valuable resource for creators looking to enhance their projects with quality music and peace of mind itโs protected for the future. The lifetime license is also something not many platforms offer and the pricing is amongst the most competitive in the market.
4. Envato Elements
Envato Elements is a creators dream with over 128,000 royalty free audio tracks along with Graphic templates, Video templates, Stock photos, Sound Effects, Web templates & more all included with the subscription price. In fact, with Envato Elements you get access to over 60 Million creative assets.
This includes all the genres of royalty free music you could wish for โ from pop to heavy metal, through to vocals and instrumental tracks. The site also offers a range of music kits and sound effects.
Whatever kind of audio files youโre after, youโll find plenty in their collection. Envato Elements also offers monthly freebies for you to enjoy, including royalty free music, video effects, stock footage, 3D assets and stock photography. You can even commission your own tracks via Envato Market; a creative ecosystem with over 35,000 professional designers, music makers and developers creating all the assets you need for your projects.
Free Trial: Envato Elements offers a 7 day free trial. Check it out here: Go to Envato Elements >>
5. Soundstripe
If there was a prize for best named royalty free music site, then Soundstripe would take that mantle. However, thereโs more to this site than just a pithy name. Geared up to provide production music solutions, Soundstripe differs from some of the sites weโve touched on before in that itโs a subscription service, rather than a means of buying single license tracks.
Your membership enables you to gain access to unlimited licenses to their hand-picked music collection. If youโve ever browsed Spotifyโs playlists, then navigating Soundstripeโs curated libraries will be a doddle. Itโs incredibly intuitive and easy to use. With standard unlimited license memberships starting from $119 a year, and customers of the magnitude of Amazon and Microsoft, Soundstripe has a great deal to offer.
6. PremiumBeat
A subsidiary of the global image library, Shutterstock, PremiumBeatโs website is easy to navigate, so you can quickly find what youโre looking for. They are โcurated by music expertsโ library of royalty-free music offers you the polished feel youโll only usually get from big production houses. All tracks are exclusive and cleared for copyright.
What we like most about this site is that itโs not crowded with information and the signposting is super clear. Thereโs no messing about with PremiumBeat. Plus, youโve got the backing of Shutterstock, so you can rest assured youโre dealing with high quality, reputable brands.
7. Pond5
Pond5 markets itself as the โworldโs largest collection of royalty free stock video and creative assetsโ. Needless to say, the sheer breadth of the media that they offer is impressive. How does a library of 500,000 tracks to choose from sound?
Their thematic grouping of songs is spot-on, covering everything from adventure to orchestral, meditation and even war! All of which makes it easy to pick out the ideal sound for your medium. Pond5 also offers sound effects, after effects and royalty free stock video. You can either buy individual tracks, starting at ยฃ5 each, or buy pre-purchased credit bundles or go all in with a monthly membership, starting at ยฃ25 per month.
8. Storyblocks
Storyblocks offer unlimited access to their library of more than 100,000 tracks. Now thatโs a lot of music to search through. Plus, there are no download caps, so you can download and use them as much as you want. All tracks provided on Storyblocks can be used royalty free for personal or commercial projects and their listings are continually updated, so youโve always got fresh audio to choose from.
The navigation is slightly more clunky than some of the previous sites weโve mentioned. You can either search for the type of music you need or youโre helped along by a series of prompts that ask you to choose particular moods, genres and instruments before it throws up relevant suggestions. Pricing starts at ยฃ15 for 5 downloads a month and increases from there depending on your requirements.
9. Bensound
Bensound is a royalty free music site created by Benjamin Tissot โ a composer and musician based in France. The site is a little busier than other options, which makes navigation a touch jarring when you first land on it. That said, thereโs no messing about as you can get straight into the tracks with no preamble or explanation. If youโre short on time and up for diving in, then Bensound is a great way to test the aural waters and see where it takes you.
A great bonus with Bensound is that as long as you credit Bensound.com with any music used in online videos, websites or animations, then youโre able to use certain tracks for free under a Creative Commons License. If youโre unable to credit Ben, or need slightly more scope, you can buy a license which starts from ยฃ34 a track or ยฃ119 for a standard annual subscription.
10. TeknoAXE
TeknoAXE isnโt the prettiest. But itโs whatโs behind the doors that counts. If you can get over the metal-head sounding name and the fairly bizarre minimalist website, then thereโs a solid selection to be plundered. One of the great advantages of TeknoAXE is that all their tracks are covered by a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0), which means that as long as you give appropriate credit you can share and adapt their songs โ even for commercial use.
If youโre looking for dance tracks, TeknoAXE features everything from breakbeat to dubstep. Or, if rock and metal are your thing, then youโre also well catered for. For more niche sounds, TeknoAXE comes up trumps.
11. dig ccMixter
Now this is a nice looking site. With attractive icons and a fabulous opener โ โYou already have permissionโ. dig ccMixter gives you access to thousands of hours of free music for commercial projects, with a host of instrumental tracks ideally suited to video game projects.
Their sister site, TuneTrack, offers a broad range of royalty free music from professional recording artists and composers. Licenses start from $44 for โhobbyistโ projects, like YouTube or website videos, through to $222 business licenses for commercials, film and television projects (to name but a few). The user experience is somewhat clunky; the music does all the talking here.
12. Amazon
Amazon is a mighty giant and if youโre familiar with their platform (after all, who isnโt these days?), then youโll know exactly what to expect. Whilst the range of tracks isnโt particularly spectacular (Amazon lists thousands of royalty free tracks on their site), the pricing is similar to a normal download song: 79p to 99p.
If youโre on a budget, there are some bargains to be had. Truth be told, the navigation is a bit of a letdown. Songs are listed as single tracks and albums, rather than grouped into themes or genres. Youโre going to have to play around with inventive search terms or else scroll through whatโs on offer. If youโve got the time, this is a half-decent resource.
13. Purple Planet
As you would expect from a name like Purple Planet, their website is indeed purple and resembles a planetarium. What we like about this site is the way theyโve divided the genres into what the music either sounds like or how it makes you feel. So rather than the straight up rock, pop, country choices that you so often get, here we have active, creepy and cute!
While the selection of free downloads isnโt exactly out of this world (sorry!), it is free for small commercial projects, like YouTube videos, as long as you credit appropriately. If youโd prefer to buy a high-quality WAV file, say for a game or to use in a film, you can buy a standard license for as little as $8 or an unlimited license for $40. This is a great budget option.
14. AKM Music
What we like about this site is that itโs super direct and easy to navigate. The search box on the homepage means that you can get searching immediately or you can browse by moods and genres. Itโs not the prettiest by any means. In fact, thereโs a slightly dated feel to AKM, but it gets the job done and is very well organised.
The licensing and pricing is explained in simple terms, so you know what youโre getting straight away. It ranges from ยฃ16.95 for royalty free tracks up to ยฃ36 for album downloads.
15. Amazing Music Tracks
Amazing Music Tracks is a busy site to navigate, and has a somewhat home-made feel to it, but there are loads of tracks and genres to choose from, including some free Creative Commons tracks. Once youโre into the site itself thereโs a whole heap of music to tempt you.
The standard license is $39 for non-commercially distributed projects, and $189 for an enhanced license that covers income-generating content.
16. Hooksounds
Hooksounds is a catchily titled royalty free music site with a stellar client list. Here, you’ll find more than 5,000 royalty free music tracks, over 8,000 royalty free sound effects and 500+ royalty free intros.
It’s all organised and categorised into collections and playlists so you can find the right track for every piece of content you produce.
Individual licenses are available but, if you’re producing at scale, the best option is to plump for the Premium License or Business License.
Premium will set you back $19.99 per month, or $14.99 per month if paid annually, while the Business License costs $64.99 per month or $49 per month if paid annually.
17. YouTube Audio Library
If you have a Youtube account then youโll also have free access to YouTubeโs Audio Library. This is a list of thousands of royalty free music and sound effects that can be used in your content.
Itโs easy to filter tracks by genre, mood, and license type. All tracks listed on the YouTube Audio Library are classed by YouTube as โcopyright safeโ, however some require attribution so be sure to check before using them in your video.
18. Audiio
Audiio is super-easy to use and boasts huge clients such as Netflix and Nintendo. The site has thousands of high quality songs available with new ones added every day.
On top of that, Audiio makes licensing a breeze. With the pro subscription ($99 for the year) you can rest assured that the license covers any project – from YouTube monetisation to broadcast television.
19. Music Vine
If you want to create professional content but donโt have a huge budget, Music Vine may be exactly what youโre looking for. The site lists a curated catalogue of tracks from the worldโs top production artists, and pricing starts from just $13.99 per month.
You can also follow your favourite artists in order to be notified when their latest tracks are released.
20. Filmstro
Finally, we reach the last site in our review: Filmstro. This site features a good range of tracks but also has an instructional video on the Products page. We also like the price packaging menus that divide customers into personal, freelancers and companies, which is an inclusive way of doing things. Pricing is from ยฃ8.25 a month for personal and freelance users and from ยฃ20.75 a month for a company subscription (both billed annually).
Our top 3 royalty-free music sites
With so many sites to choose from, how do you turn down the noise and find a royalty free music site thatโs in harmony with your requirements? Well, with such a lot of options available, the decision ultimately lies with you. But, if you want our take on things, there are three that stood out for us. Weโre basing our judgement on cost, usability and music selection.
So, without further ado…the three royalty free music sites we recommend in 2024 are:
YouTube Audio Library
PremiumBeat
Artlist
Bonus: We’ve partnered with Artlist to get you 2 extra months on your subscription when you sign up here: Get 2 months extra >>
And thatโs all folks! Lots to consider and look at (or rather listen to!), so make sure you put aside some time and budget to find the right music for your project. A great track really can enhance any visual content youโre putting out, so explore these sites to your heartโs content and weโre certain youโll unearth some treasures.