When looking for the best free music websites online, there’s a lot of noise to sift through to actually some of the best free music sites that are actually usable for different projects. From finding music for video projects and edits to audio files and sound effects for other types of content, many of the best music websites online simply don’t fit the bill.
If you’re looking for good free music websites or websites for music that offer free previews, easy-to-follow licensing options, or even ways to listen to free music online without downloading, we’re here to help. Let’s review some of our top picks for the best free music websites that offer royalty free music, copyright-free music, and music that is available for you to license for all your video and content needs.
So if you're wondering, 'What Is the Best Free Music Website?' in this article we’ll highlight for you some of the top music website options, including the popular music websites below.
- Soundstripe
- Free Music Archive
- YouTube Audio Library
- SoundCloud
- The Internet Archive
- Bandcamp
- Jamendo Music
Are you ready to explore some high-quality free music websites for your projects? Great, let’s dive in and show you exactly where to find free music:
1. Soundstripe
Our first pick is our favorite one ;-)
When you're ready to level up your output, Soundstripe provides everything you need to quickly find and legally use label-quality music for any project, helping you easily create professional videos. If you want to explore an audio library crafted by musicians worldwide, polished in Nashville, and pre-cleared for you, Soundstripe has you covered.
To find the perfect track fast, with no hassle, no filler, and just soundtrack-worthy beats at your disposal, get started with our full music library here. We also have some incredible tools that help streamline your workflow and find the best music with ease, including our genre, mood, and characteristic-based search filters, the new metadata slider, our AI Song Editing feature, and our extensions and plugins for Adobe Premiere, Twitch and more.
If you’d like to get a taste of some of the high-quality, royalty free music found in our Soundstripe library, here are some top tracks that are absolutely worth exploring.
- Description: A medium-energy, pop song that is best described as inspiring and hopeful. Guitar and acoustic guitar are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 74
- Key: D Major
- Listen and license here
- Description: A low-energy, corporate song that is best described as hopeful and happy. Bass and bass guitar are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 102
- Key: E Major
- Listen and license here
- Description: A medium-energy, electronic song that is best described as fun. Synth and guitar are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 159
- Key: Db/C# Major
- Listen and license here
- Description: A low-energy, hip-hop song that is best described as chill and reflective. Synth and bass are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 90
- Key: A Minor
- Listen and license here
- Description: A medium-energy, electronic song that is best described as hopeful and happy. Synth and bass are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 90
- Key: G Major
- Listen and license here
2. Free Music Archive
Moving on to other options, we have the always reliable and consistent Free Music Archive, which has been around for years. Founded by the New Jersey-based community radio station WFMU over a decade ago, the Free Music Archive has provided creators online with the chance to download free music from their archive for quite some time now.
There have been changes to the Free Music Archive in recent years, though, as they now offer premium content which costs money, their initial core archive is still free and worth checking out. However, if you want greater variety and higher-quality music for your videos, a paid platform like Soundstripe or others might still be your best bet.
3. YouTube Audio Library
An oldie, but a goodie, on our list, YouTube has long offered its own Audio Library on its platform, which creators can use for their videos and content. It’s not the most extensive collection of tracks in the world, but it has grown over the years and now offers just over 1,400 songs. The library has some basic search features for genre and mood, but for the most part, it’s up to users to just click through and preview track by track.
For those just starting out with a YouTube channel for the first time, this is a basic and easy option to try adding music to your videos, especially if you’re editing in YouTube Studio at first. However, as your expertise (and needs) develop, you might want to graduate to bigger and better libraries as well.
4. SoundCloud
Now, this might be a controversial take, but we feel like we need to include SoundCloud as a “free music website” on our list simply because so many people use it for free music, and so we can clear up some discrepancies.
It is true, though, for those looking to simply listen to and enjoy music for free online, SoundCloud is one of the best platforms out there. It’s backed by a huge community of musicians and beat makers looking to share their recent projects and be a part of different communities and groups.
However, from a music licensing for video perspective, that is far from SoundCloud’s mission. While it is true that many creators on the site make their music free to listen to and even download, just because you find music there doesn’t mean it’s yours to use as you’d like.
The music still belongs to the creators, and any use of it requires you to reach out directly and work out compensation and agreement on the royalties for you to truly use said music for your YouTube videos or commercial broadcasts. So, enjoy the music to your heart's content, but if you’re looking for actual royalty free music for your projects, stick to the sites where that is offered and covered… like Soundstripe.
5. The Internet Archive
Another non-profit organization dedicated to preserving many of the truly free assets dating back to the earliest days of the internet, the Internet Archive, was founded in 1996. The organization runs the Wayback Machine, which actively archives the internet itself, making it an excellent tool for finding free music from the internet’s past.
You’ll have to do some digging, but there are some solid hubs of music on the Internet Archive worth exploring, which, while dated at times, can be treasure troves of rare and unique early internet sounds and tracks. Plus, if you like scrounging, you can find all types of images, videos, and other assets and resources as well.
6. Bandcamp
Similar to SoundCloud, Bandcamp is a great music website for up-and-coming artists, performers, and bands simply looking to get their music out there and online for everyone to hear.
Bandcamp offers musicians the opportunity to sell their music at whatever price they want, which is helpful for indie groups looking to launch their careers with minimal effort. For those looking to browse music, Bandcamp offers a helpful Discover page for users to listen to new music and see what’s out in the world these days.
However, unlike more professional music licensing websites like Soundstripe, Bandcamp isn’t really designed for sync licensing or helping creators find music for their videos and content. Any music that you see on Bandcamp that you might want to use in a project will require you to reach out to the artists directly and negotiate with them on how to license their music for your projects.
7. Jamendo Music
Finally, our last option is the popular music download site Jamendo Music. This website offers lots of musical options available through Creative Commons licensing. This means that the artists on this site have decided to give out their music for free.
When browsing Jamendo Music, users can search for specific bands or styles, as well as explore new music that they want to check out. The site also offers a radio to listen to music for fun.
However, to properly license music for your videos and other projects, Jamendo requires a subscription plan similar to other music licensing sites. So while it’s free to explore, it will require all of the usual signups and pricing options as you’d find elsewhere.
