Monday, June 23, 2014

Where to Find Royalty Free Music


One of the essentials for a good book trailer is the music. It sets the mood and tone of the story. Really effective music can elevate an otherwise average trailer to something compelling and powerful.

However, you can’t use just any music. You can’t select the latest pop hit without acquiring the right to use it. Since your trailer will be viewed over and over, you’ll need royalty free music.

What is royalty free? According to Wikipedia:

"Royalty-free, or RF, refers to the right to use copyrighted material or intellectual property without the need to pay royalties or license fees for each use or per volume sold, or some time period of use or sales."

Online, there are many places to find royalty free music, both free and for a fee. When selecting your music, be sure to check the following:

The license agreement
Cost of music
Cost to access music site
Length of music

Here is a list of sites that offer music for commercial use either for free or for a fee:

Audionautix
Free Music Archive
Free Stock Music
Dig CCMixer
Sound Cloud
Vimeo Music Store
Incompetech
Music Bakery
Jamendo
Stock Music Site
Pixel Prospector - lists a variety of other music sites

Have you created a book trailer? What other royalty free music sites have you discovered?

42 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Great list!

Mason Canyon said...

Music is a key element in a good book trailer. If the music isn't good, as a viewer I tend not to pay as close attention as I should or not even finish the trailer if there is music and talking.

Anonymous said...

Holy lots of links, Batman. You are always chock full of great information! I haven't even thought of a trailer yet. But, that's because I'm still editing. :)

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Mason, the music can make or break a book trailer.

Thanks, Elsie and Alex.

kaykuala said...

Thanks for the info Diane! It'll come in useful knowing them now!

Hank

Karen Lange said...

This is a great list - appreciate your research. It's wonderful to have a safe list to use. I haven't done a book trailer yet, but hope to in the future. Thanks so much for helping us on our journey!

Pat Hatt said...

Awesome list, never knew there were so many.

Michelle Wallace said...

Diane, your brain is a treasure trove. I'd love a peek inside. Just for a day.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Diane .. this is a very useful list - especially for someone like me who is so unmusical ... still I'm sure I'll need the information at some stage ...

Inflatables - become deflated?!!

Cheers Hilary

Linda Kay said...

So glad to find our blog! I'm working on getting my first book published, so got into blogging to practice writing. Thanks for sharing the music sites!

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Great list here, Diane! Thanks for sharing this.

J.L. Campbell said...

Wonderful of you to share, Diane. Appreciated.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Pat, there are hundreds. Really surprised me, too.

I hope the list helps everyone.

Rawknrobyn.blogspot.com said...

I didn't know such a site existed. Saves on the time and worry over legalities. Thanks, Michelle.
Be well.

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

Ouch. Now you're taking away my last excuse for not making a trailer. I'm marking these sites.

Anonymous said...

Great list. I use Incompetech whenever I play with trailers.

Christine Rains said...

Thanks for these links! A long time ago, I had a novel some friends made a book trailer for and one of them created original music for it. The book's out of print, but I still go watch the trailer now and then!

klahanie said...

Yay, here I am at the IWSG aka...

How timely was this. You must of read my mind. What a horrible thought that is. These are just the links I've been looking for.

Thank you, Diane.

Gary

MusicRevolution said...

You might also try MusicRevolution.com http://www.musicrevolution.com, an online marketplace for royalty-free music. MusicRevolution.com has over 30,000 tracks of affordable, high-quality royalty-free music. New music is being added every day. I am the co-founder.

Ella said...

You are a wealthy of information-thank you so much!

Anonymous said...

Great list, Diane. Thanks for sharing this information.

Unknown said...

Hi Dianne,
I appreciate this list so very much One of my popular book tours in company pffers a free trailer and as a result I end up doing a quite a bit of them and making a good selection can be very challenging because my options were limited.
I am so happy Michelle Wallace dropped this on my email.

I know they are plugging in here but I just saw the prices for single tracks at music revolution as well and starting at $9 I think they are work looking into.

I have looked at some of the paid music at my favourite site Jamendo and their prices start at over $100 for commercial use of a track. Which is just impractical.

Thank you again Dianne.

Unknown said...

Great list! Let me also add Dano Songs. He's got some great stuff! http://www.danosongs.com/

Shell Flower said...

Good point on the music for a book trailer. So many things to consider besides just writing the book! My son produces music for snowboarding and skiing videos. It's amazing how fast stuff gets pulled off You Tube for royalty infringement.

cleemckenzie said...

Royalty Free is the author's friend. Thanks for putting together this list of RF music!

Unknown said...

Thanks Diane for the list! Check out www.smartsound.com as well. They have tracks that you can customize and and plenty of genres to choose from ranging from classical, rock, to even production music like you would see in commercials or even newscasts.

Liza said...

This is great information. Thank you for posting it.

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

These are a great resource! Thanks so much for putting them together, Diane.

Tara Tyler said...

thank you, Diane! singing your praises, all the time =)

J.Q. Rose said...

Thanx for the info. Please add Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com for free music.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Susan, no excuses now.

Gary - LOL!

Wendy, $100 is more than what most of these charge and some are free. Glad you found the list.

Thanks to everyone who suggested some other sites.

M Pax said...

I have a friend who does trailers for me, and I'm very, very grateful. I did buy some royalty free music when we first started. It can be a lot of fun to make a trailer.

Joylene Nowell Butler said...

I just this moment looked up David Hoppe to see where I could find his music, AND then I clicked on this post. Excellent timing, Diane. It's like you read my mind.

Leovi said...

Thank you very much for sharing these sites with free music rights, I especially comes in handy!

Lisa said...

Thanks so much for this list!! So very helpful...

Karla Gomez said...

dang! I'm not even that far ahead, but this is a good post!!!

Elizabeth Mueller said...

Hi, Diane! Thanks for the list! :D

♥.•*¨Elizabeth¨*•.♥

Lori L. MacLaughlin said...

Thanks so much for the great list!

Toi Thomas said...

So good to know. I may tackle a book trailer someday.

Unknown said...

Bookmarking this for some day I might have to create a book trailer :)

Unknown said...

Hello :)
Have also a try to this new one http://www.musicincloud.com for nice and original royalty free music :) nice price also.. enjoy

Anonymous said...

I know few storage where you can download background music for free, but most of them are full of different malware. The only one I can recommend you it's http://melodyloops.com/ this is the best one if you're looking for some great background music for commercial use.