When it comes to advertising, music can make or break a commercial. And it is no surprise that hiring a musician to score or create music for your commercial advertisement can be expensive. Finding royalty free music for commercial use that is high quality and unique can also be difficult. In this article, we aim to relieve your stress and your wallet as you look for the perfect song for your commercial. We’ve found the best sites to download royalty free music for commercial use and laid out the pricing for each.
Download Royalty Free Music for Commercial Use
1. Epidemic Sound
Epidemic Sound has a library of royalty free music for commercial use that reaches far past the typical stock music sound. With genres ranging from “Action & Adventure” to “Hip Hop,” Epidemic Sounds undoubtedly has something for your next commercial.
Epidemic Sound • Royalty free commercial music
In addition to music, Epidemic Sound also has a large library of sound effects that can level up the sound design of your commercial. Not to mention the site is used in ads by heavyweights like T-Mobile, Twitter, Microsoft, and Complex.
Pricing:
Epidemic Sound offers a free 30-day trial for any new members. The subscription pricing does vary depending on the user. Personal use will run you $15/month. However, if you’re a freelancer or business creating commercial advertisements, a monthly subscription will cost $49. It is worth noting that a downside is that there is separate pricing for various licensing.
Where to find free music for commercial use
2. Artlist
Artlist is another trusted royalty free music for commercial use resource trusted by big companies like Nike, Netflix, Google, and Coca-Cola. If those names don’t impress you, maybe their massive library will. You can find the right music for your commercial by sorting the library by tempo, duration, or even staff popularity.
Download music for commercial use with Artlist
As you can see from the clean, intuitive interface, you can also shuffle through music by mood, video theme, and even genre to find free indie music for commercial use. This makes it easier to find the perfect song for your ad.
Artlist boasts one of the best and least complicated music licensing. There is one universal license for the entire Artlist music library meaning you can use the music anywhere you need to without worry. This can save a whole lot of stress for anyone producing a commercial who is worried about licensing.
Pricing:
Artlist has three different pricing tiers based on user needs. For $12/month you can gain access to only the Artlist SFX library. Access to just the Artlist music library will cost you $16/month. To gain access to the entirety of the Artlist music and SFX library, a subscription costs $25/month.
Royalty free commercial music
3. Premium Beat
Next on the list is the Premium Beat, a royalty free commercial music library created by ShutterStock. When they say that their library is curated, they mean it. Every song that is added to their library is carefully selected so that you can find unique music not found on any other site.
The result of such a careful vetting process is a library of music that focuses on quality over quantity.
Premium Beat Licenses • Royalty free music for commercial use
Pricing:
To download music for commercial use from PremiumBeat you’ll need to pay a total of $64/month. This subscription, however, gives you access to 5 Standard Licenses per month. This turns out to be about $12.99 per track. The caveat is that these standard licenses do not roll over month to month.
Where to find free music for commercial use
4. Soundstripe
If you’re looking for bodies of music created by artists then look no further than Soundstripe. Soundstripe partners with musicians around the world to create a curated library of music.
Download music for commercial use with SoundStripe
They have new music available every week and even give members access to stem files of a song. What is a stem file? Let’s say you hear a song, but are only interested in the instrumental version without vocals. A stem file gives you the ability to choose which musical elements of the song to keep from bass lines, to drums, to vocals. This is one of the benefits of working directly with musicians.
Pricing:
A standard subscription to Soundstripe will cost you $11 per month. This gives you access to unlimited music licenses, curated playlists, and the Adobe Premiere Pro extension. For access to stem files of all songs and sound effects in addition to the features listed above you’ll want a premium subscription. This will cost $21/month. Single song licenses are also available for $39/song.
Finding royalty free music for commercial use
5. StoryBlocks Audio
While Storyblocks is primarily known for their library of stock videos, StoryBlocks Audio should not be overlooked. StoryBlocks offers flexible pricing and a constantly updated library. With big name companies like National Geographic, Discovery Channel, and MTV using StoryBlocks audio, there’s no reason you shouldn’t either.
Pricing:
At a reasonable price of $15 per month for access to all music and sound effects, StoryBlocks is one of the most affordable sites on this list.
If you’re looking for a deal that’s even more cost effective, StoryBlocks Audio also offers a “Basic Audio” subscription of $10 per month. This gives you access to 3 music downloads per month.
Best sites for advertisement music
6. Bensound
One of the more impressive facts about the royalty free music site Bensound is that its entire library is produced by one musician.
Bensound's library of royalty free music for commercial use
This has both its pros and cons. The pros being if you like a few songs, odds are you’ll find a plethora of more songs created by Bensounds. The downside is that the variety falls a bit shorter than other sites on this list. The site is also not updated as frequently as other sites due to the fact that all the music is coming from one musician.
Pricing:
Bensounds pricing is based on an annual subscription. Access unlimited downloads of mp3 files, Wav files, a license certificate, and optional credits will run you about €139 or $180 USD per year.
Where to find free music for commercial use online
7. Hooksounds
If you’re looking for modern, stylish music to fit your commercial, you may want to check out Hooksounds. With a range of categories of music from musicians around the world, you’ll be able to find unique sounds for your ad.
The library is constantly updated and creates playlists and categories based on trends or seasons.
Pricing:
A subscription with unlimited access to Hooksounds costs $29 per month and pledges no hidden fees, unlimited downloads, and lifetime license validity for music downloaded.
Hooksounds also has pricing for single sound downloads based on the type of use for the song. Check out Hooksounds' pricing tiers.Almost free no copyright music for commercial use
8. AudioJungle
If you’re looking for quantity, then AudioJungle may be the site for you. Also known as Envato Market, AudioJungle boasts a massive library of close to a million tracks to browse through. A bonus feature of AudioJungle is the free music and sound engineering tutorials that come with it.
Free advertising music and engineering tutorials
Pricing:
Paid tracks start as low as $1 per track. However, AudioJungle is only one facet of an Envato Market subscription. The site also has libraries of stock photos, videos, templates and more for different pricing.
An individual subscription has a reasonable price tag of $16.50 per month. A team subscription costs $10.50/ month per member for 5 members.
Where to download royalty free music for commercial use
9. Filmstro
Filmstro is a library of license free music for commercial use that is curated for filmmakers. As it applies to commercial advertisements, this is tremendously helpful because you can browse songs by video category. Everything from “Adventure & Fairytale” to “Extreme Sports & Exercise” is available. This makes it easier to find the right music for your more creative advertisements.
Filmstro browsing options for library of advertisement music
Pricing:
To be able to use Filmstro’s advertisement music in advertisements, you’ll need to pay for a Pro subscription. This costs $249 per year and provides access to unlimited music downloads.
Royalty free music for commercial use
10. Gerry Music
Last on the list is Gerry Music, a library of royalty free music for commercial use created by one musician, Gerry Black. As an experienced sound engineer and musician, Gerry Black’s library of music is professional and high quality. The downside would be the same as any library created from a single musician. That is of course less frequent updates and additions and less variety. That is not to say that if you like one song on the site, you’ll find plenty of music to use from Gerry Music.
Pricing:
To use songs from Gerry Music in advertisements, you’ll need to purchase a “Broadcast Standard” subscription if you are broadcasting locally or a “Broadcast Unlimited” subscription if you are advertising internationally. Broadcast Standard costs $89 whereas Broadcast Unlimited costs $199.
UP NEXT
The best stock video websites
Now that you’ve found the right song for your commercial ad, you may be in need of some extra shots. That’s where stock video comes in handy. Finding the right stock videos, however, can be a pain. So we’ve created a list of the best stock video sites out there that will surely make your clients happy. Check them out in the next article.
Up Next: Stock video sites →
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