Music is one of the most important elements of making the perfect video ad. While your customers, clients, or those who watch your ads might not immediately notice the music in the background of an ad, they’ll definitely notice if it’s wrong or doesn’t match the intended tone, so it’s important to get this element of your marketing right.
Luckily, there are a ton of great websites out there that offer royalty-free music for you to use. The best of these sites have hundreds of high-quality compositions for which you won’t have to pay a penny! Let’s take a look at the 12 best royalty-free music sites that will help you make the perfect video ad.
1. Incompetech
Kevin MacLeod is one of the most well-known royalty-free music composers out there, and his Incompetech website is a frankly embarrassingly well-stocked repository of great royalty-free music. You’ll find MacLeod’s compositions everywhere from video games through to video ads, so no matter what you’re looking for, you’re bound to find it here somewhere if you look hard enough.
2. AudioJungle
AudioJungle offers a massive variation of music, sound effects, and music libraries to get your ad to where it needs to be, and prices start from $1, which feels pretty fair. This site is something of an all-in-one brand solution, too; you can get logos, idents, and source files for DAWs (digital audio workstations) in case you want to work on the music and finesse it just that little bit more.
3. Artlist
If you ask industry creatives and professionals, they’ll likely tell you that Artlist is the best royalty-free music site out there, and we definitely agree that it deserves to be up there with the greatest. The site is clean, well-laid-out, and full to the brim with royalty-free music and sound effects, and it also offers stock footage so you can bulk out your ad with extra zing.
4. Purple Planet
Like Incompetech, Purple Planet is staffed by a couple of very public-spirited folks who take care of all of the site’s composition work. Chris Martyn and Geoff Harvey simply ask that you credit them if you use their music, and that’s all you need to do; the compositions are otherwise yours to use as you see fit. There are lots of moods available, so whether you want something emotive or upbeat, you’ll find it here.
5. Epidemic Sound
You might have seen Epidemic Sound’s ads out there on your internet travels, and there’s a good reason for that. This is an excellent repository of royalty-free music and sounds. You can organise music by genre, go for specific moods, or just browse to see what takes your fancy. There are several subscription tiers available, too, making this the ideal option for smaller and larger businesses alike.
6. Bensound
Bensound offers both free and paid options, so if you just need a couple of tracks for a quick ad presentation, you can grab them at no cost, but if you need something more long-term, the site offers that as well. Bensound’s clients include Microsoft, NASA, and Google, so this is hard-hitting, professional-grade royalty-free music for the enterprising creative.
7. Soundstripe
Soundstripe’s subscription tiers begin at a very reasonable $10 per month, rising to $19.99 per month if you opt for the Pro tier. If you do, you get stems for songs, unlimited commercial use, and monetization (and copyright clearing) for up to 5 YouTube channels. If you’re serious about your creative work, it’s probably best to opt for this tier, as Soundstripe’s compositions are worth the extra cash.
8. YouTube Audio Library
Have you ever been hit by an annoying copyright claim on YouTube? Well, the video hosting service has its own audio library built in to make sure that doesn’t happen. The compositions aren’t quite as top-notch as some of the other sites on this list, but there’s no better way to absolutely guarantee you won’t be hit by a copystrike, so if you’re uploading YouTube videos, consider using this service.
9. Storyblocks
It’s fair to call Storyblocks an all-in-one stock media solution rather than just a stock audio provider, although music is naturally included as part of the package. Storyblocks has stock footage, video templates, and audio, as well as images that you can use if you need still pictures for content. It’s a solid site with plenty of variety in terms of its compositions, but its audio quality is still high.
10. AKM Music
Here’s another great site that has all the royalty-free music you could hope for. You can sort by different moods including dark and eerie, gentle and light, and uplifting, and you can also search for specific tracks or albums if you know where you want to go. There’s no subscription model available, but AKM offers a lifetime guarantee on everything you buy, so if you pick up a song or album, it’s yours to use as you like.
11. Filmstro
Filmstro promises to cover all of your bases when it comes to copyright claims, including every major social media site, work for clients, and even theatrical releases. Naturally, that includes video ads, so if you’re putting a video ad together, you’re going to want to consider Filmstro as an option. Three subscription tiers are also available with varying degrees of benefits across each.
12. PremiumBeat
PremiumBeat has a much more, well, “premium” feel than many of the other options out there. It almost feels like a streaming service akin to Tidal rather than a stock music library; it’s laid out very professionally, and you’ll find blog posts that offer lots of insight into the world of music production here as well. Of course, there’s also an extensive stock music library available here too.
