Find the best YouTube royalty-free music for YouTube videos

October 14, 2020
Mary Woodcock
Music Licensing

Finding music on the internet is like shooting fish in a barrel. New songs come out every day. But finding legal, high-quality music that you can use on YouTube, legally and without paying royalties is more like shooting fish in a… sea? Ok, we probably shouldn’t be shooting fish in the first place. But what you should be doing is finding great tracks that can boost your viewership and get you exposure. In this article, you’ll learn some great places to find YouTube royalty-free music, ready to add to your videos.

What is YouTube royalty-free music?

royalty-free music for videos

‘Royalties’ are the fees paid to artists when their music is sold, distributed, monetized or used in any way. Royalties are paid so that artists are properly compensated for their work. ‘Royalty-free music’ is music that artists have been paid a one-off lump sum for and don’t get paid each time their work is used. Typically, royalty-free music is created by unsigned musicians who are happy to take this lesser payment for their work.

How to get the best music on YouTube, royalty-free

If you want to add good stock music for YouTube videos, you have a few options:

1. Using unauthorized sound records – which is a big no!

Some people use unauthorized sound recordings in their videos, hoping to get high-quality content for free. Bad idea. YouTube’s Content ID system will find your video and alert the song’s owner. The owner can choose to mute, block, or monetize your video. Plus, you could even get a copyright strike, which is very bad news and can really damage your YouTube channel.

2. Buy a license direct from the rights owner – a tricky and expensive task

Another option is to try and license a song from the people that own the rights to the music. This includes the record label, music publisher, songwriter and artist. Often there are even multiples of each!

Usually, this would be a very lengthy and expensive process of 1) getting in touch with the right people at the record label, 2) persuading them to respond to your emails, (record label execs are notoriously very busy people), and 3) getting lumped with a hefty four-figure price tag for the use of the song in your video. Sometimes you could even end up paying thousands and thousands just to use a few seconds of a song in your content. Since most creators are pretty darn busy too and probably not willing to pay four figures for a soundtrack, you can probably imagine most creators don’t go for this option.

3. License tracks from chart-topping artists – stand out from the crowd

So, as you just heard, it’s been practically impossible to use popular, mainstream music on YouTube. But the game has changed! You can now easily and affordably use chart music from the artists you know and love. All it takes is a few clicks on Lickd. Just pay a small licensing fee (from only $8) and you can have famous artists like Sia, Charlie Puth or XXXTENTACION as the soundtrack to your videos.

You don’t have to find any rightsholders or persuade them to do anything and you definitely won’t have to pay thousands to use one track. You also don’t have to worry about copyright claims or strikes as you’ll have written, legal permission to use the music. All you need to do is find the song you love, enter a few details and check out. Plus, you only pay as much as seems fair – based on your audience size! The best thing? This music is even proven to increase views, engagement, subscribers and more when you use it in your videos.

Grow your channel with better music

4. Finding royalty-free music – a simple solution

Behind door number 4 is royalty-free stock music for videos. Now, royalty-free or stock music will never be music you recognize or by artists you know. But that doesn’t mean it’s bad, it does have its own place. For example, it’s really useful for the space in-between chart tracks or for playing in the background of video clips where you’re speaking. By licensing stock music on a royalty-free basis, you don’t have to worry about the copyright police knocking down your door and it can be a bit cheaper than using popular mainstream music. At Lickd, we have an extensive library of high-quality stock music that you can access for free for 14 days. It renews for a low price of £10/$15/€12 and you can cancel anytime. So, what do you have to lose?

Jump in now

More YouTube royalty-free music sites

If you’re not that fussed about having good music in your videos and don’t believe it will increase your views, engagement and subscribers, then there are a couple of other options for you. For example, you can get free music in your videos by using YouTube’s Audio Library.

YouTube Audio Library

Using the YouTube Audio Library isn’t too hard, but it definitely doesn’t provide the best music and so it isn’t actually used that much by most creators. Learn more about how this works and the pros and cons in this guide to the YouTube Audio Library.

Even if you use YouTube Audio Library exactly as intended, you might be disappointed by the song selection. If you’re looking for stock background music (and there’s nothing wrong with that), then you might find what you need. However, if you want chart-topping music, you may need to search elsewhere. (ahem.. you don’t need to search very hard as we offer chart-topping music to license for YouTube right here!)

Pond5

Pond5 has a wide selection of claims-free music. With a library of 15,000 tracks, you’ll find genres such as acoustic, hip-hop, and pop. You can also download sound effects, video after-effects, and images. Most of Pond5’s selection runs between $20-60. However, most of the music is simple stock background music. If you’re looking for well-known music, you’re out of luck.

PremiumBeat

PremiumBeat, a music library owned by Shutterstock, allows you to search by categories like genre, mood, and beats per minute. However, like YouTube Audio Library and Pond5, you only get access to simple stock background music. All songs are $49, which can be a little expensive if you’re a smaller YouTube Creator!

Now you know how to find the best YouTube royalty-free music for your videos

We hope this article has helped you understand how music works on platforms like YouTube! It’s good to shop around and make sure you’re getting the best deal, but just bear in mind that Lickd is the ONLY place you can get access to both the music you love as well as high-quality stock music.

Lickd’s mission is to finally make popular, mainstream chart music for content creators available. Find the perfect song for you by searching genres, moods, beats per minute, length, target platforms, and more. It’s proven to give your YouTube videos a leg up on the competition, helping you grow your channel and monetize your YouTube videos.

Unlike other music sites that charge the same price to everyone, Lickd’s special model generates a price just for your channel so smaller creators never pay superstar prices.

If that wasn’t a sweet enough deal, you also get 25% off your first mainstream track. If you’re ready to start taking your YouTube videos up a notch, sign up today and start feeling the magic.

The difference between royalty-free and claims-free music

We’ve noticed some confusion about royalty-free versus claims-free music. Are they the same thing? No! We’ll explain…

While royalty-free music means the user doesn’t have to pay the content owner royalties, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s claims-free. And it’s not free either, you do still have to pay for it in the first place!

‘Claims-free’ music is all about avoiding copyright strikes and Content ID claims on YouTube. With claims-free songs, you never have to worry about running afoul of Copyright Law – you have legal permission to use it and so you won’t get slapped with unexpected copyright claims. If you want to learn more about this, read this guide on the difference between royalty-free, copyright-free and claims-free music.

For YouTubers and other creators, claims-free music is the most important thing to find. YouTube’s Content ID is the all-seeing eye that can tell whether you’ve used copyrighted material. It can make or break your content if you’re caught using copyright music illegally! If your music is claims-free, you’ll never have to worry about paying out royalties, getting a copyright strike, or having your video blocked or muted. So, keep an eye out for this!

What options are available?

For a great claims-free music option, check out Lickd. You’ll never have to worry about a music copyright claim again. Unlike some other claims-free music sites that have overused stock music, Lickd has an arsenal of both popular music and high-quality stock music that’s sure to give your video some flair. Stock music is free for 14 days and popular music is on a pay-as-you-go basis so you’re not tied into anything. You’ll never have to worry about copyright and all of your advertising revenue is yours to keep. Plus, you get 25% off your first mainstream music license! Sign up today to start taking advantage of all the music you’ll ever need.

More YouTube royalty-free music sites

YouTube Audio Library

Pond5

PremiumBeat

Now you know how to find the best YouTube royalty-free music for your videos

Unlike other music sites that charge the same price to everyone, Lickd’s special model generates a price just for your channel so smaller creators never pay superstar prices.

If that wasn’t a sweet enough deal, you also get 25% off your first mainstream track. If you’re ready to start taking your YouTube videos up a notch, sign up today and start feeling the magic.