Where can you find royalty free music at no charge?
Many sites on the web offer royalty free music but they have a price tag. Below are a list of sites with royalty free music that is actually free.
Important
Some artists allow you to use their music in commercial productions whereas others only allow you to use their music in personal productions. So look at the licence agreement carefully. Most music is licensed under Attribution, so in your production you should credit the author of the music. If it is a slideshow or a video presentation then you should include a credit to the artist such as:
Music By Artist Name
When you use an artist's song or music, consider contacting the artist and letting them know how you are using their music because it’s is great that they actually allow you to do so at no cost. You could even consider making them a small donation for the priviledge?
Here’s some ‘Royalty Free’ Music Links to consider..
An online music library of copyright free (public domain) music. At Musopen they obtain recordings of public domain music that have no copyrights so that visitors may listen, re-use, or in any way enjoy music. Most of the music is of classical piano or symphony pieces.
At this website Kevin MacLeod offers his royalty free music creations under the Creative Commons License. There are many different types of instrumental music at this site.
Pacdv offers a few instrumentals for you to use royalty free. They just ask that you mention "Music by in your credits.
Offers a few songs that you can use in your productions as long as you credit the songwriter - Peter John Ross.
Offers a few royalty free instrumental songs under the Creative Commons License. Just credit the musicians.
Taylor Hayward offers a few piano songs that are copyright free so you are free to use them in any way, commercial or non-commercial.
I recommend that you sign up with a free account at to take full advantage of its many differnent music artsists and genres. To find royalty free music at no charge under the Creative Commons License click on the soundclick link above and then change License Type to Creative Commons (Free), select the Genre and click go.
This site includes many different genre's of music by many different artists under the Creative Commons License. The difficult part at this site is just downloading one song. When you go to an artist's page and click on an album it wants you to download the whole album. But if you are listening to the album with the jamplayerweb there is an option at the bottom to Export this playlist: M3U. If you pause the music and click on M3U then the songs should open up in your Media Player and you can click the next and previous buttons in your Media Player and also click on File -> Save As... to save the song you are listening to.
Derek Audette offers his royalty free music under the Creative Commons License. Most of these are instrumental pieces that are either dark, moody, or hard driving.
This site contains recordings of songs that were published prior to 1922 and are now in the public domain which means the public is free to copy and use the works in any way.
This website offers a collection of music from a variety of artists and genres under the Creative Commons License. In the left hand menu click on artists or genres.
Open Music Archive offers recordings of songs that are over 50 years old so their copyright has expired in the UK so the recordings have become Public Domain. However, if you are from another country other than the UK then the recordings may not be Public Domain yet. See the FAQ for more information.
This Audio Archive contains free recordings of many popular bands. These are usually recordings of live performances. The bands that allow their live concerts to be recorded and traded are known as Trade Friendly Bands. For a list of bands that are Trade Friendly and to view their policies see Trade-Friendly Band Information and Furthurnet.org Band List. The FAQ page and the details page make it clear that these recordings can only be used for non-commercial purposes.
Free Production Tracks has a few styles of music that can be downloaded for free and can be used for anything, commercial or personal, without any royalty fees.