Wondering where to find royalty free music for your next food video project? Veteran YouTube videographer Eve Martel shares 8 resources for royalty-free music.
Picture this: you just finished editing a beautiful apple tart recipe for your YouTube channel. All that’s needed now is some peppy music to give it more life. But where to find it? And how can you make sure that you don’t get dinged for using a song you don’t have the rights to?
When it comes to choosing a soundtrack for a video, there are many resources available. And the good news is you don’t need a big budget to get grooving. You just need to focus on finding a resource that guarantees the music will stay royalty-free forever and bring no copyright claims to your channel’s door.
What Is Royalty-Free Music?
Keep in mind that royalty-free doesn’t mean that you won’t have to pay anything. It just means that you have to pay only once to have the right to use copyrighted songs, without the need to pay for each use, per volume played, or for a period of time.
A Few Things To Keep in Mind when Using Music on a Video
- Don’t be concerned if the songs have audio watermarks. They’ll be removed when you download the licences and the clean versions of the songs.
- Keep licence documents at hand. You may get a monetization claim and will have to prove that you paid for the song.
- Don’t use Soundcloud tracks or any "found music" unless you have a written agreement with the artist that they are giving you a Creative Commons licence for it.
- Try to focus on a style you like to give your channel a specific vibe.
- If you’re doing a series, picking one song that will be used in all the videos is a great way to give it a unique branding.
6 Resources for Music for Your Video Project
Youtube Music Library
YouTube has an incredibly rich collection of songs, stings and sound effects available on its platform under the Create tab. And the best news is it’s all free!
You can search by genre, instrument, length and more. Just download the song to your computer and use it as often as you’d like. If the license demands it, make sure to credit the artist as indicated. You just have to include it in the description below your video.
You can also use YouTube to check if you can use a popular song in your video. It will tell you if the artists allows it or not and how the monetization will be calculated. Some artists block all uses while others will permit use but will take all monetization revenues. Keep in mind that each use of a song counts, even if it’s five seconds.
- Pros: Free, easy to use, lots of choices
- Cons: Some songs are really overused, sometimes buggy
Epidemic Sound
The Sweden-based company Epidemic Sound will make your video shine with over 30,000 tracks. Its music bank is well organized and focuses on current, popular genres. It also has a ton of useful functions, like a toggle to help you find similar songs and themed albums that group songs by YouTube niches.
Epidemic Sound offers two plans. The first one is $15 USD a month and is aimed at YouTubers with channels that get around 500,000 views a month. If your channel makes it to the big leagues with over 5 millions views a month, you’ll have to pay $30 USD a month. Or you can go all-in and pay $150 USD a month for unlimited use.
The second plan is to license tracks for big professional companies, like advertising and post productions agencies. This plan works via quotes.
If you decide to check out Epidemic Sound, check out their free trial to see if it’s right for you.
- Pros: Quality music, easy to use
- Cons: No discount for annual membership
Soundstripe
Soundstripe is a subscription-based stock music service. This is the one I personally use. I love the artists and all the services it provides.
You can subscribe monthly or yearly to get access to thousands of quality songs. To use a song, you just have to fill the license agreement and download the song and its variations. It’s good forever! You can create playlists and even share them with friends.
Another plus for this company is the Soundstripe Filmmaker Community Facebook group, where you can exchange with other creators. It also give you access to a concierge service. All you have to do is create a post describing the type of song you’re looking for and the Soundstripe staff will put a playlist together for you.
Soundstripe costs $15 USD a month or $135 USD for a yearly subscription, saving you 25 percent.
- Pros: Concierge service, song selection, price
- Cons: They sometimes remove a song you love from the bank to make room for new ones
Premium Beat
The Montreal-created company Premium Beat (now owed by Shutterstock) offers a curated library of royalty-free music. Sleek and professional, it’s beloved by production house and ad agencies.
Here the song choice is plentiful, with unique and exclusive tracks. You will pay the price for that, with a per-song price starting at around $40 USD. This gives you unlimited use for the song.
I’ve used Premium Beat to buy a theme song for a series, making the most of my investment.
- Pros: Perfect to find a unique song for a project, plus they have The Beat, their blog about the video industry
- Cons: The price adds up if you buy a new song for every project
Audio Jungle
With $6 songs, the EnvatoMarket company Audio Jungle offers a lot of affordable options. All tracks are created by music professionals and reviewed by curators. You can also find sound effects and music kits.
Unfortunately, the search engine isn’t very optimized. You’ll have to sieve through a lot of so-so songs to find something you like, but there are good options in there.
- Pros: Inexpensive, great for corporate projects
- Cons: Search options are limited and not very user friendly
Fiverr
If you’re looking for an original piece that you and only you will use, turn to Fiverr and the composers and musicians offering their services there.
This community of freelancers gives you the opportunity to hire a musician who’ll create a fresh song for you, starting at $5. You can’t be sure of what you’ll get, so it’s kind of a risk, but a low-cost one. Most artists will work with you to make sure you love what you’re getting.
I recommend using Fiverr to create a short jingle or intro song, or to make original audio transitions. Check out this guy who writes ukulele jingles or this guy who will make a rap song to promote your business!
- Pros: Inexpensive, exclusive and fast
- Cons: You might not like the music you paid for, most songs are short
Other Options
As a bonus, two other options you can use to find music for your videos are Pond5 and Shiny Heads Productions.
More Reading
- How To Make A Cooking Video
- 10 Types of Great Food Content for Your YouTube Channel
- 10 Things to Know Before Starting a YouTube Channel
5 Music Resources for Your Video Project was written by Eve Martel. Eve has been a content creator and a blogger for the last 10 years. After 16 years spent working for top advertising agencies, she made the jump and left her job as Content Director at Sid Lee Montreal to dedicate herself to her blog, Tellement Swell, and to her two YouTube channels. Her latest project, Top Yummy, is a food channel that shares easy and delicious recipes that anyone can cook. She’s also a writer for Tourisme Montréal and Muramur. Find her on Instagram and Twitter @evemartel and follow the Instagram of her projects, @tellementswell and @topyummy.
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Great libraries! Thank you for sharing, it’s very useful. You can also download music from Last.fm https://www.last.fm/music/+free-music-downloads or Fugue https://icons8.com/music/ – it’s another high-quality music stock. Both are free.
Thank you very much for the great post. Is there any chance you can add 100Audio (100audio.com/en) to your list. 100Audio is a royalty free music library targeting the Chinese market. We have great authors from all over the world.
Nice post! You can go to http://www.groovebakery.com to find royalty free music under creative commons license and download it for free!