Top 10 Royalty-Free Music Sites for Youtube Creators in 2024
As content creators, what you need most to gain traction is stand out, and one way of doing so is through the music you play. In this article, I'll be comparing 10 different royalty-free music sites and I'll also tell you which one's my favorite.
John Angelo Yap
Updated February 26, 2024
A Content Creator Music Studio, Generated with Midjourney
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Music plays a crucial role in the success of a YouTuber. However, it's not as simple as picking a soundtrack to your content. Finding the right vibe takes a lot of nitpicking and consideration, but, even then, you still have to consider copyright issues and region-locked music.
That's where royalty-free music comes in, as it offers content creators a quick and legal way to incorporate high-quality music into their work. Through royalty-free music, creators can avoid copyright infringement and reduce production costs.
Royalty-free music also often comes with other benefits such as:
- Wide Range of Genres: A diverse selection of music, covering various genres and use cases.
- One-Time Fee: A single fee to purchase the license, allowing you to use the music indefinitely.
- Flexibility: Creators can modify and edit the music to fit their projects, as long as it’s within the specified terms and conditions.
- No Ongoing Royalties: Once the license is acquired, creators can use the music without additional fees or royalties to the copyright holder.
So, with that out of the way, let me tell you my handpicked royalty-free music sites for YouTubers:
Epidemic Sound
With more than 5 million users, Epidemic Sound is one of the most popular royalty-free music platforms today. Founded in 2009, this platform has a collection of high-quality music at a reasonable price. It also has over 90,000 tracks and 40,000 SFX, making it a must-have for every YouTuber.
Pros and Cons
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Pricing
- Personal Tier: $9.99 per month, one (1) YouTube channel.
- Professional Tier: $19.99 per month, three (3) YouTube channels.
- Enterprise Tier: Custom pricing.
Artlist.io
Boasting an impressive 400,000 assets, Artlist continues to be big among content creators because of its depth. More than that, it also separates itself from other platforms through careful content creation by musicians. It's perfect for a new YouTuber because you can access everything you need with Artlist, from music to stock video footage.
Pros and Cons
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Pricing
- Social: $9.99 per month, one (1) YouTube channel only.
- Pro: $16.58 per month, unlimited channels.
- Everything: $39.99 per month, includes their entire library of music, sound effects, and stock footage.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing.
Slip.Stream
Despite being released later than the others, Slip.Stream is quickly becoming one of my platforms in this space. Not only does it have a combined total of 130,000 music and SFX, but it also uses the power of AI to curate music for you.Â
Slip.Stream is quickly climbing the royalty-free platform ranks, as they recently partnered with brands such as Riot Games and Acast. If you're someone who values innovation and brand trust, go for Slip.Stream.
You can read more about Slip.Stream in our review of their platform here.
Pros and Cons
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Pros and Cons
- Free: No access to SFX,1 channel only.
- Pro: $7.99 per month, 1 channel, access to SFX and platform-exclusive music.
- Business: $14.99 per month, unlimited channels, everything in previous tiers.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing.
YouTube Audio Library
You don’t have to look far to find royalty-free music. In fact, YouTube itself has their own music library for royalty-free music and sound effects to use in your YouTube videos or while streaming. It’s an essential resource for every starter in the YouTube space, and it’s one that won’t break your bank.
Pros and Cons
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Pricing
The YouTube Music Library is completely free to use, but you must apply proper attribution to the owners of the tracks.
Soundstripe
Soundstripe is a music licensing company that provides a subscription-based library of royalty-free music and sound effects. It’s popular among people in media, particularly filmmakers, videographers, and YouTubers. Similar to Slip.Stream, Soundstripe also offers AI-powered curation to streamline your content creation process.
Pros and Cons
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Pricing
- Creator: $9.99 per month, 1 channel.
- Pro: $19.99 per month, 5 channels.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing, unlimited channels.
Bensound
Bensound is a royalty-free music site that only features tracks from Benjamin Tissot, a French musician. Despite this, Bensound offers a wide variety of music genres, including pop, rock, electronic, classical, and more. What's more is that you can use all music from this site as long as you credit Tissot.
Pros and Cons
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Pricing
All tracks from Bensound are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which lets you use them for free in your YouTube videos, as long as you credit the artist.
MusicVine
MusicVine is a platform for creators, by creators. It’s a collection of royalty-free music from some of the most talented indie musicians in the world — so expect nothing less than amazing music from this platform.
Pros and Cons
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Pricing
- Creator Ambassador: $13.99, with attribution.
- Creator Standard: $19.99, no attribution required.
With MusicVine, you also have the option of pay-per-use licenses. The price of each track depends on two factors: your subscriber count and length of track. Cost ranges from $27 to $96.
Audio Hero
Audio Hero is a royalty-free music site with over 300,000 music tracks and sound effects, far eclipsing the other platforms listed here in quantity. Featured in movies like Fast and Furious and Cars, it’s a popular choice among filmmakers.Â
Pros and Cons
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Pricing
- The Prodigy: $9.99 and 50 downloads per month.
- The Action Hero: $19.99 and 100 downloads per month.
- The Super Hero: $29.99 and 250 downloads per month.
- The Hero: $196 per year, unlimited downloads.
Soundstripe
If you’ve been around YouTube long enough, you’ve definitely heard of Kevin Macleod or — at least — his music. Incompetech has long been a go-to for royalty-free music. Today, it has over 2,000 pieces of music, all written, composed, or produced by Macleod himself.
Pros and Cons
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Pricing
Incompetech's music is free under a Creative Commons license. Anyone can use it for any purpose, as long as they credit MacLeod.
Uppbeat
Looking for something that won’t break the bank? Uppbeat is a new royalty-free music platform specifically made for creators. It has an extensive collection of over 10,000 royalty-free tracks.
Pros and Cons
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Pricing
- Free: 3 downloads per month, access to 30% of their catalog.
- Premium: $6.99 per month, unlimited downloads, full catalog access, 3 YouTube channels.
- Business: $18.99 per month, everything in Premium + 10 YouTube channels.
Wrapping Up
Picking the best royalty-free music platform boils down to these factors: price, depth, usability, and music quality. Among everything listed here, only one meets my standards for those four factors: Slip.Stream. It has an extensive library, AI-powered navigation, market-ready music quality, and is affordable.
That said, it's always best to give them a shot. Who knows? Maybe one of them fits your YouTube channel better than my pick.
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