Using Free Music to Supercharge Your Voice Audio

Music for your video or podcast is extremely important because it complements your brand building by supplementing the tone and energy of your content, and helps identify your brand to your listeners. You don’t want to change it when you have dozens of episodes done so it’s important to select music that’s not only appropriate and pleasant, but that’s free to use.

I’m not a lawyer and you have to do your own research and due diligence. Below is some general information from a non-expert to get you started.

Music is easy to add and can make your podcast compelling to watch or listen to. Your audience consciously or subconsciously expects a production to feel and look a certain way, and if it feels amateurish they’ll move on. You can’t be an expert instantly, but the complete lack of intro music and an occasional sound bed will be striking.

I assume that if you are reading this that you’re just starting out, so find some music thats free to use, just to get started. 

Maximize your chances of producing a polished product that will support income generation by including all of the pro elements you are capable of, and continuously refining your content and frame.

Get your content up. Now. Doesn’t have to be perfect.

Intro/Outro Music: Sets the mood as the segment begins, then sets a mood when the podcast is over to increase return listeners.

 

Fading sound beds in and out throughout the show smooths transition between interview questions, or to an advertisement.

 What do you need to do to legally use free files? 

Royalty free music is the best option for safely using music inyour podcast. Royalty free music gives you rights to use the music (whether it was free or paid) without paying any royalties.Still might require attribution.

Creative Commons music shared under a Creative Commons license, will specify what you can and can’t do with the work. Some people may let you use their track with no conditions, others might want it to only be used on non-profit work or want you to give credit.(attribution) 

 More information:

Public Domains Information Project.

Music Sources:

Free Music Archives

Epidemic Sound

Free Sound

Creatives Commons Music  

Search for CC licensed content

Public Domains Information Project.

 Pixabay music gives access to free downloads of royalty free music.

YouTube Audio Library has a large selection of instrumental music readily available to download for free. (royalty free and creative commons) 

Incompetech allows you to browse and download a variety of music at no charge. (creative commons) 

Free Music Archive  (creative commons) 

Soundcloud  their search tool can filter for “to use commercially”  to see downloads useable for free (with attribution under creative commons).

Dig by ccMixter is a crowd sourcing platform for creative commons music.

Soundstripe provides affordable monthly subscriptions and single-song licenses that give you access to thousands of song choices. 

AudioJungle gives you access to a quality song selection at either a monthly or one track rate. 

Epidemic Sound is one of the top platforms for royalty free podcast music. They offer royalty free music for podcasters for a monthly fee. 

Storyblocks music offers unlimited downloads of royalty free music for a monthly fee. 

Jamendo offers both single-license purchases and subscription services for sourcing royalty free music. You can choose from a library of 240,000+ royalty free songs. 

Premium Beat offers royalty-free licenses on a subscription model,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Royalty Free Music 

Royalty free music gives you, the licensee, rights to use the music (whether it was free or paid) for works without paying any royalties for your use. Interestingly, not all royalty free music is copyright free. According to Soundstripe, royalty free music most often means that the company or source you used to buy the music from (eg soundstripe) is paying creators royalties behind-the-scenes so that you can use those works without paying any royalties yourself. 

Creative Commons

Creative Commons means that the creator of the musical work sets the terms for how their music can be used, generally requiring you to attribute them as the creator. Since the terms are determined by the creator it’s vital to read the fine print and make sure you are allowed to use the work commercially and publicly, what kind of crediting you need to make, and any other terms you are agreeing to. 

Public Domain 

Public domain works are no longer protected under their original copyrights because they have passed a certain age (normally 70 years). However, sound recordings of public domain songs are considered derivative works and are protected under copyright by whoever recorded them. This means you can freely use the song material (lyrics and composition) to record and produce your own version of the song for use in your podcast, but all sound recordings of public domain works are protected at the state level until 2067 because of the U.S Copyright Act of 1976. You can learn more about this confusing topic here in this summary from the Public Domains Information Project.

Since we’ve established that royalty free music is the safest and easiest way to incorporate music in your podcast, let’s dive into some of the best platforms for finding royalty-free podcast music. Each platform has its own different license terms and agreements, so make sure to take a few minutes to read the fine print. 

These are sources that automatically provide you with the license for a song, so you don’t have to worry about any legal ramifications.

Best Free Platforms for Podcast Music

In exchange for not paying anything, you may have to give credits to the writer/producer if the work is licensed under Creative Commons. But at least it’s free!

1. Pixabay

 

free Sound Effects from the YouTube Audio Library