License Guide

Artlist

Subscription-based royalty-free music and sound effects platform popular with video creators. Offers unlimited downloads with plans tiered by use case, from social media to full commercial production.

Epidemic Sound

Subscription-based music licensing platform with a catalog of over 50,000 tracks and 200,000 sound effects. Widely used by YouTubers, filmmakers, and podcasters for royalty-free music with built-in content ID whitelisting.

SOUNDRAW

AI-powered music generation platform that lets users customize genre, mood, tempo, and length to create unique royalty-free tracks. No two users get the same output.

APM Music

One of the world's largest production music libraries, providing music and sound effects for film, television, advertising, games, and digital media. Primarily serves professional productions with quote-based licensing.

Audiio

Music licensing platform offering high-quality sync music and sound effects for video creators, filmmakers, and advertisers. Known for offering lifetime license deals alongside subscription plans.

Audio Network

Professional production music library used by broadcasters worldwide, offering high-quality pre-cleared music and sound effects for TV, film, advertising, and digital content. Direct licensing with no collecting society claims.

AudioJungle

Marketplace for royalty-free music and audio tracks, part of the Envato Market ecosystem. Offers per-track licensing with a wide range of prices and styles contributed by independent musicians and producers worldwide.

Bensound

Royalty-free music library offering a selection of free tracks with attribution and a Pro subscription for commercial use without credit. Known for its curated collection of ambient, cinematic, and corporate music.

ccMixter

Community music remixing platform where artists share tracks, samples, and remixes under Creative Commons licenses. Offers a mix of CC BY, CC BY-NC, and some CC0 content for use in creative projects.

Filmstro

Adaptive music platform providing customizable royalty-free tracks where you can adjust momentum, depth, and power in real-time to fit your video content. Unique approach to dynamic music scoring.

Freesound

Community-driven collaborative database of Creative Commons-licensed audio samples, sound effects, and recordings. Each upload carries its own CC license chosen by the contributor, so license terms vary per clip.

HookSounds

Royalty-free music and sound effects platform with exclusive tracks not available on other libraries. Offers a free tier with attribution and paid subscriptions for commercial use. Known for modern, YouTube-ready sound.

Icons8 Fugue

Free music library from Icons8 offering royalty-free tracks for use in videos, apps, and games. Tracks are free with a link credit to Icons8, or available without attribution through a paid Icons8 subscription.

Incompetech

Royalty-free music library composed by Kevin MacLeod, offering hundreds of tracks across many genres. All music is free under Creative Commons BY 4.0 (attribution required), with optional paid licenses to remove the attribution requirement.

Jamendo

Platform offering free Creative Commons-licensed music for personal streaming and a separate commercial licensing service for business use. One of the largest CC music libraries.

Legis Music

Royalty-free music platform offering lifetime licenses with a single payment. Includes YouTube Content ID whitelisting and stems for all tracks. Plans tiered by project type from personal to enterprise.

Lickd

Licensed mainstream and popular music platform designed for YouTube creators. Offers chart-topping tracks from major and indie labels with a VOUCH claim-clearing system that prevents copyright strikes on YouTube.

Marmoset Music

Boutique sync licensing agency connecting filmmakers, advertisers, and game developers with independent artists. Offers curated per-track licensing with custom pricing based on project scope, media type, and distribution reach.

Musicbed

Premium curated music licensing platform focused on film, advertising, and commercial production. Known for high-quality artist-driven catalog with straightforward per-song or subscription licensing.

MusicVine

Curated production music licensing platform offering high-quality independent music for film, advertising, and media projects. Tracks are licensed per-use with different tiers based on distribution scope.

Podcastle Music Library

Royalty-free music library included with the Podcastle podcasting platform. Offers background music and sound effects in multiple versions (full, short, loop) designed specifically for podcast production.

PremiumBeat

Curated royalty-free music library owned by Shutterstock, offering hand-picked tracks with straightforward per-track licensing. Known for high production quality and simple Standard/Premium license tiers.

Purple Planet

Royalty-free music library specializing in ambient, cinematic, and corporate tracks. Free to use with attribution, or purchase a license to remove the attribution requirement. Run by composers Chris Martyn and Geoff Harvey.

Sonniss

Premium royalty-free sound effects library focused on game audio and film production. Known for annual free GDC game audio bundles and high-quality professional SFX libraries.

Soundstripe

Subscription-based royalty-free music platform offering unlimited downloads of music, sound effects, and stock video. Licenses are perpetual for content downloaded during an active subscription.

Splice

Leading platform for music production samples, loops, presets, and plugins. Offers royalty-free samples for use in original music productions on a credit-based subscription model.

Storyblocks Audio

Royalty-free music and sound effects library included with Storyblocks subscriptions. Offers over 100,000 tracks and sound effects with unlimited downloads. License survives cancellation for content downloaded during subscription.

Synchedin

Royalty-free music and sound effects platform offering a free tier with attribution and paid subscriptions for unlimited commercial use. Designed for YouTubers, podcasters, and indie filmmakers with a growing catalog of curated tracks.

TakeTones

Royalty-free music marketplace offering one-time per-track purchases with Standard and Mass licenses. Focused on providing affordable background music for video creators, advertisers, and app developers.

Thematic

Music licensing platform specifically for YouTube and social media creators, providing free access to independent artist music in exchange for crediting the artist in video descriptions.

Tracklib

Unique music licensing platform that lets music producers legally sample pre-cleared real songs. Unlike royalty-free libraries, Tracklib offers actual recordings by real artists with cleared sample rights, designed specifically for music producers making new tracks.

Uppbeat

Music licensing platform offering a free tier with limited monthly downloads and a premium subscription for unlimited access. Designed for content creators on YouTube, TikTok, and podcasts with built-in copyright safety.

YouTube Audio Library

Free music and sound effects library provided by YouTube, available directly within YouTube Studio. Tracks are offered under two license types: a standard YouTube Audio Library license (restricted to YouTube videos) and Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0), which permits use on any platform with credit. Some tracks are attribution-free, while others require a credit in the video description.

Zapsplat

Large sound effects library with over 150,000 free sounds. Free tier requires attribution, while Gold membership removes attribution requirements and unlocks additional content.