Play Tunes Sites Were You Can Play Funny Videos
Not every brand has the budget for an in-house composer, let solitary whatever Lady Gaga charges for a cookie collaboration. Fortunately, you tin can score (no pun intended) the perfect soundtrack for your adjacent video for free by using free creative eatables music.
As with free stock photos and free stock videos, you can peruse artistic commons music libraries to find exactly what you need. And we've fabricated information technology even easier by compiling thirteen of the best sources below.
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What is creative commons music?
Let's start with a definition: Artistic Commons is a company that issues special licenses to the public, allowing them to use creative materials (like music) at no cost. More than than ii billion artistic works, including videos, photos, music, and more, are licensed past Artistic Eatables.
There are different types of Artistic Commons licenses, which dictate how the work can be used. As long as you follow the terms of the license, you can use the work for free.
Even so, the primal is following the license. If you don't, yous may be forced to take the video down or even confront legal repercussions for copyright violation.
Most likely, you'll want to look for materials that are in the public domain, which volition be labeled as CC0, which is fully in the public domain. This means you tin remix or alter the rail, use it on any platform, and share it without attribution.
There are also six types of creative commons licenses, three of which permit commercial use with attribution.
- CC-By : This license likewise allows you to use the music still y'all similar, on any platform and in any medium. However, you must give credit to the creator, and provide a link to the original license (for example, by adding that information to your video caption).
- CC-Past-SA: This license likewise requires yous to give attribution to the creator. Also, if you remix or modify the track in any way, you also need to make information technology bachelor under the same license type.
- CC-BY-ND: This license requires you to give attribution to the creator. All the same, you tin't modify the cloth in whatever manner.
The other license types (CC-Past-NC, CC-BY-NC-SA, and CC-BY-NC-ND) are simply for noncommercial use, which ways they're out-of-premises for brands.
Why apply creative commons music?
Video is more important than always, with TikTok poised to become the nearly important platform for social media marketing in 2022. And what is a video without audio? Like a burger without fries, information technology just feels incomplete.
This is more than just a vibe. TikTok found that 88% of users reported sound is essential to their viewing experience, and that campaigns with sound were more twice equally effective every bit those without.
Only getting licensed music or creating new music for your videos can be expensive. Creative eatables music is free and legal to use, every bit long as you lot credit it correctly.
How to credit creative commons music
Whatever license other than CC0 requires you to provide attribution. And even if you are using a work that'south in the public domain, information technology's best practise to provide credit to the creative person. So learning how to credit artistic commons music is valuable, even if you lot're planning to only use piece of work from the public domain.
Artistic Commons has created a handy guide, and they recommend a four-part format: Title, Creator, Source, and License.
- Title: The name of the track or song.
- Creator: The name of the creative person, ideally with a link to their website or creator profile.
- Source: Link back to where you originally institute the music.
- License: Include the license blazon (similar CC-BY) with a link to the original license deed.
You can detect detailed examples on their wiki.
Now that you're a copyright expert, permit's observe you lot some artistic commons music!
13 sites to notice free creative commons music
1. dig.ccMixter
This is the index of ccMixter, an online platform for sharing remixes. All the music on the site is licensed nether Artistic Commons (that's what the "cc" stands for), which makes it the perfect place to explore.
You can apply ccMixter to too explore tracks, merely there'due south no easy manner to filter by license type. The benefit of skipping straight to dig.ccMixter is that they have already sorted tracks into categories, including complimentary music for commercial projects. At that place are more 4,200 to choose from.
A search bar allows you to find tracks by keyword, or you can filter by genre, musical instrument, and style. Fun!
Only a reminder that all of these free tracks are licensed as CC-By, so they require you to credit the artist.
2. ccTrax
Some other site dedicated to Creative Commons music, ccTrax is a curated collection with a focus on electronic genres like techno and firm music.
You lot tin filter tracks by license type, genre, and tags like "cinematic" or "shoegaze."
ccTrax also has an organized collection of tracks under the CC-Past license.
3. SoundCloud
SoundCloud is an online music sharing site with more than 175 million users worldwide, and more than than 200 million tracks. That number includes a ton of tracks in the public domain, or licensed under Creative Eatables. As a bonus, SoundCloud is very easy to navigate and explore.
There are many ways to search for Creative Eatables tracks on SoundCloud, but hither are three of the easiest:
- Follow Creative Commons, which has a contour on SoundCloud featuring Creative Commons music.
- Enter the license type (e.m., "CC0") you lot're looking for in the search bar.
- Use the search bar to find specific sounds or moods, and then filter the results based on your needs. This is the best method if you want to observe a specific mood or feeling.
4. Bandcamp
Like SoundCloud, Bandcamp is a music distribution site for artists to share their work. And though Bandcamp was founded to pay artists for their work, there is a decent number of tracks that are licensed under Creative Commons.
You lot can search for music tagged with Creative Commons, though information technology's not as user-friendly as SoundCloud, which allows yous to filter by usage. Searching for music tagged with public domain is the easiest way to observe tracks for commercial apply.
5. Musopen
Musopen provides sheet music, recordings, and educational materials for free to the public. They have a focus on classical music, and have recorded and released collections by composers like Beethoven and Chopin.
They have a large collection of copyright-complimentary recordings, which can be used by anyone for whatever project. You tin search by composer, instrument, organisation, or mood.
Additional filters let you search for specific Creative Commons licenses, too as length, rating, and recording quality.
With a free account on Museo, you tin can download up to five tracks each twenty-four hour period. Paid memberships are bachelor for $55/year and provide unlimited downloads, along with other benefits.
6. Gratis Music Archive
The Free Music Annal is another great site to explore, with more than 150,000 tracks from independent artists. FMA is a project of Tribe of Dissonance, a Netherlands-based company focused on supporting independent artists.
To find music for your project, search the annal with a keyword (like "electronic") and and so filter past license type, genre, or duration. There are over 3,500 tracks on FMA in the public domain, and over 8,880 licensed nether CC-By.
CreativeCommons also has a curator profile on FMA, which includes a pick of CC-licensed tracks. However, they only take a pocket-size number of tracks on their folio, so searching the full drove will yield more results.
7. FreeSound
FreeSound is a collaborative database project founded in Barcelona, featuring a huge variety of tracks and other recordings that are all licensed nether Artistic Commons.
The expect and experience of the website is very Web 1.0— you might get a Geocities flashback while exploring. Merely they have over 11,000 tracks in the public domain, which tin can be used without attribution or brake.
The easiest way to explore FreeSound is by inbound a keyword in the search bar. From there, you tin employ the filters on the right-hand side to select the license blazon you lot need. From in that location, yous can filter by boosted tags.
8. Archive.org
The Internet Archive is a not-profit that, as the name suggests, archives all kinds of online artifacts: video, music, images, books, and even websites. You might exist familiar with one of their initiatives, the endlessly enjoyable Wayback Automobile.
You can find Creative Commons music on Archive.org a few ways. I is to only search for files tagged with "public domain" or the specific CC license, then filter by media blazon ("Audio.")
Bonus: Become a complimentary TikTok Growth Checklist from famous TikTok creator Tiffy Chen that shows yous how to proceeds 1.half-dozen million followers with only iii studio lights and iMovie.
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The Internet Archive also hosts a Live Music Annal, which contains recordings of concerts and performances. However, all of their material is limited to non-commercial utilize but. This means it's out of bounds if you're a brand.
They as well host LibriVox, a drove of audiobooks in the public domain. Okay, sure, it's non music— only what about using a dramatic reading of Frankenstein in a campaign? Allow's think outside the box!
Jamendo was founded in Luxembourg to share music licensed under Creative Commons, and features work by over 40,000 artists. If yous're working on a non-commercial project, in that location are a ton of gratis options hither to explore. You tin can scan by genre or playlist, or employ the search bar.
They have a dedicated site for commercial projects, which operates on a subscription model. Users can also purchase single licenses for $9.99
9. Fugue Music
Compared to some of the other options, Fugue Music is a well-designed and very user-friendly alphabetize of royalty-free tracks licensed under Creative Commons. It'south a projection of Icons8, which offers creative resources for designers. That explains why information technology looks so good!
The categories on Fugue are helpful for creators, with options like "Music for Podcast Intro" and "Valentine's Music."
Even so, all the gratis tracks on FugueMusic are for non-commercial projects but. And so you can't use them for your brand, or any revenue-generating purpose. Fugue Music offers single-track and subscription payment models for commercial utilize.
One smashing feature? Fugue Music offers a sort of personal-shopper service: users can contact them with a use case, and they'll curate recommendations.
ten. Uppbeat
Uppbeat offers music for creators, and everything on their site is royalty-costless for commercial use on any platform. This makes information technology very easy to search if you're a brand or content creator who hopes to monetize your videos.
The layout is clean and easy to navigate, with tracks organized into playlists and curated collections. You tin can likewise search by keyword to observe specific genres, styles, or artists.
With a free account, you tin download x tracks per month, and explore almost a third of their collection.
Uppbeat does have a paid model, which provides admission to their full catalogue and gives you unlimited downloads. It also gives you lot access to a library of audio effects.
11. FreePD
FreePD is a drove of music in the public domain, which means you tin can apply it nonetheless you want without attribution.
Everything on the site is free to utilise and download, though FreePD offers the selection to majority-download all of the MP3s and WAV files for a small fee. The site is minimal and easy to explore.
Tracks are organized into categories, like "Romantic Sentimental" or the take hold of-all "Misc." Within these categories, all the tracks are labeled with 1-4 emojis to requite you a sense of the mood. This is a fun way to scan the listings, and I personally find "🏜 🤠 🐂 🌵" more descriptive than any title.
All the music on this site was created by Kevin MacLeod, who has licensed information technology all under CC-BY. That means you tin use everything provided you give him credit. He fifty-fifty has an attribution template for you to use on his FAQ page. If you don't want to provide attribution, you can buy a license.
Incompetech focuses on music for motion picture, and so many of the categories and descriptions refer to flick genres, like Westerns or horror. If you're working on a cinematic project, you might find the perfect track here.
You can search by mood, genre, topic, tag or keyword. There are almost i,355 tracks on the site.
12. Audionautix
Audionautix provides music that is costless to apply, provided you give attribution. Like Incompetech, it's a i-man evidence, created by musician Jason Shaw. Everything is free, though y'all tin make donations to back up the site.
The site is like shooting fish in a barrel to explore, with a wide range of moods and genres. You can also search by title, or filter by tempo.
13. Hearthis.at
Hearthis is a Dutch music-sharing site for artists and creators. While most of the music is complimentary to share but not use, there are a few ways to find Creative Commons tracks.
One is to search the Creative Commons playlist, which includes a pocket-size number of tracks.
Another is to create an account and join the Creative Commons grouping, which has just over 170 members.
And lastly, you tin can search by keywords similar "Creative Commons" to uncover more tracks. Compared to some of the other resources in this article, Hearthis has a smaller collection of tracks and is less like shooting fish in a barrel to search. Simply you never know where you'll find the perfect tune!
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Source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/creative-commons-music-resources/