When it comes to business videos, you know that the music you use is a crucial part of conveying the right message, but free or inexpensive licensed music can be hard to come by. Just because you don’t have the budget to hire a composer or pay to license popular music tracks doesn’t mean you can’t still find great music for your video.
There is a large community of independent musicians out there offering a variety of affordable tracks that could work well for your business videos. We’ve put together a list of five sources for free and inexpensive licensed music that could serve as the backdrop to your next video. Though we provide a short summary of each source below, it is your responsibility to read each source’s license and/or terms of service carefully to ensure that your particular use is permitted.
With the Animoto DIY video maker, a library of licensed music is available to all users on any Animoto plan, making it easy to create videos and select music simultaneously.
Anyone who is creating videos for free in Animoto gets access to 50 tracks licensed for use in their Animoto videos. Customers who upgrade to a paid subscription can expand their access to over 3,000 tracks for use in their Animoto videos, including those made for commercial use.
The Animoto music library is made up of high quality, curated music from Triple Scoop Music, the acclaimed music licensing site loved by top photographers, video creators, filmmakers, and businesses. Tracks are organized by use case and fine-tuned based on feedback from customers who have created millions of videos over the years. Please refer to Animoto’s commercial terms of service and upload terms for more information.
Incompetech is the home of composer and music producer Kevin MacLeod. He offers a large selection of royalty-free tracks, searchable by “genre” or “feel” and says “anyone can use any of my music in any project.” This includes commercial use. Note, however, that when you use music that you download from Incompetech you do need to include a credit for the music in your project. If you can’t include a credit in your video, you can get information about obtaining a sans attribution license on the Incompetech website.
ccMixter is a community of cooperative musicians that collaborate to create open-source music that’s licensed under Creative Commons. They offer a nice selection of music that’s free to use in videos, games and podcasts. As with Incompetech, you just need to attribute. Note: If you’re creating a video for commercial purposes, make sure you’re searching tracks that are free for commercial use. If you can’t include an attribution, there’s an opportunity to purchase licenses.
When looking for music for your videos, recordings that are in the public domain can sometimes be a good option. Works in the public domain are those whose rights have expired or are inapplicable. MusOpen is a good resource for finding sheet music and recordings that are in the public domain. Note, however, that MusOpen encourages users to “independently assess whether any given musical work or sound recording is in the public domain before using, performing or distributing.”
If you’re making business videos to post to YouTube, YouTube offers a large collection of music and sound effects for creators to use in their videos. When logged in, the collection is included in the YouTube Creator Studio under “Audio library.” According to the Official YouTube Partners & Creators Blog, the royalty-free music in the YouTube Audio Library can be used “for free, forever, for any creative purpose (not just YouTube videos).” They also offer “Ad-supported music,” which includes popular tracks. If you choose “Ad-supported” music you’ll need to look into usage restrictions – you won’t be able to monetize or use these tracks for commercial purposes or outside of YouTube. Always familiarize yourself with terms and conditions before using any track from any source.
Animoto is not responsible for inaccuracies in the statements within this blog, and we do not endorse any of the third-party sources. Nothing in this blog is intended to be legal advice; you should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions about license rights or restrictions.
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