Scoring your videos is no easy task when you’re on a budget. You want music that invigorates your vision without costing an arm and a leg. Luckily, the best stock music websites offer high quality material that’s only a click away. To save the expensive, back-and-forth process of working with a composer, you can simply pick and choose your tracks.
In today’s post we’ll show you the best stock music websites we could find, and why we chose them. With the right parameters set out for your project, you can evoke the style of the best composers without having to break the bank.
Best Stock Music
1. Pond5
While primarily known as one of the top stock video sites, Pond5 also boasts quite the collection of stock music and sound effects.
Their music library is among the best royalty free music sites
They don’t offer any free stock music, but their library’s quality is so high it’s worth shelling out part of your budget.
Additionally, like the other best stock music sites, Pond5 offers a membership pricing plan, where you can download audio tracks from a pre-curated stock music library.
If you’re working on a short inspirational video or commercial, Pond5 has some of the best stock music video for projects under thirty seconds.
Best Stock Music
2. Musicbed
If you can think of a music genre, Musicbed has dozens of stock music ready for you. Featuring mostly indie composers, musicians, and bands, MusicBed is affordable on most every budget.
Musicbed brings a voice to indie musicians, making their music accessible (and affordable) to filmmakers, agencies, non-profits, and more. Their stock music site makes it easier than ever to find the perfect track for any type of project.
Stock Music SItes
3. Artlist
Artlist takes a different approach to the stock music site pricing. Instead of paying per music license, the stock music site sells yearly subscriptions for $200. Then, for that one time fee, you get unlimited access to their vast stock music library.
Most of their stock audio has an upbeat vibe to it, making it perfect for commercial and explainer video creators.
With their pay once pricing model, Artlist is perfect for in demand video agencies, looking for ways to cut back on production headaches.
Stock Music Websites
4. Music Vine
Music Vine is quickly rising to be one of the best stock music sites. With a mission to connect modern content makers to the best royalty free stock music, they offer the same quality stock audio at lower prices.
Music Vine's diverse stock music library
Since they are a newer stock music site, Music Vine does offer a smaller music library than the others on this list.
You can use promo code STUDIOBINDER to receive 20% off any license on Music Vine.
Royalty Free Sites
5. PremiumBeat
Think of PremiumBeat as connoisseurs of the best royalty free music clips.
Housing a selection of both classical and modern audio tracks, PremiumBeat carefully vets each new addition to their stock music library.
With quality placed high above quantity, this stock music site has music you can’t find anywhere else on the internet. It’s their promise.
Audio Music Stock
6. Marmoset
Are you making a feature film? Right in the thick of Pre Production?
Then, you should check out Marmoset. With perhaps some of the best stock music on this list, Marmoset lets you search its library by story and character filters.
While their stock music runs on the pricier side, their website’s interface allows you to easily create custom playlists you can return to and listen to as you create your project.
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Free Audio Stock Music
7. AudioJungle
AudioJungle is one of the cheapest premium stock music sites, making it perfect for just about any project. Its offers range from feature films requiring lots of tracks, to company culture videos that just need one.
Their stock background music is very affordable
Functioning like a marketplace, AudioJungle ranks hot audio tracks and charts rising contributors. With an ever growing stock music library (currently at over half a million), they also offer music kits, sound effects, and codes for music producers.
If you have any interest in how to sell stock music, this website should be your first stop.
With quality placed high above quantity, this stock music site has music you can’t find anywhere else on the internet.
Stock Music Sites
8. Soundstripe
As you push through your production calendar, Soundstripe may save you time looking for your next film’s score.
Branding itself as “unlimited music for filmmakers,” Soundstripe offers you full access to their entire stock music library for just 10 dollars a month.
While their scope is limited to filmmakers, what makes Soundstripe one of the best stock music sites is that they continually update their stock music library every Friday.
Free Stock Audio Files
9. SongFreedom
Are you looking for a name brand artist? Well SongFreedom is the best royalty free music library to check out.
Featuring artists like Christina Perri and Jason Mraz, SongFreedom connects you through a membership pricing model.
However, you do have to read the fine print. While you can’t license their songs to make a music video, additional surcharges do apply for making commercials and other video projects out of the properties.
free Stock Music
10. Jamendo
Jamendo is one of the best free stock music sites. Featuring actual songs instead of vamping temp music and corporate jingles, Jamendo may have a song perfect for your next explainer video.
Featuring free stock music, Jamendo earns its spot as one the best stock music websites through its vast stylings. Looking for a calypso disco techno remix? Bets are, it’s probably on Jamendo.
We actually made our explainer video with a track from Jamendo.
Audio music stock courtesy of Jamendo
Best Stock Music Sites
11. 909 Music
Making stock music free is 909 Music’s goal. Hosted on SoundCloud (one of the best royalty free music sites) 909 Music neatly organizes some of the top indie stock music into easy-to-download playlists.
In short, its unique beats and totally free offer make it one of the best stock music sites.
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Royalty Free Stock Music
12. Bensound
Bensound features some of the best royalty free music clips on the internet. Its library is also produced entirely by one man.
Royalty free music and free audio stock music
An artist based out of London, Bensound updates his stock music site with everything from tiny jingles to fully fleshed out original songs you’d probably hear in a bar.
While his entire library is creative commons music, it is worth noting that you’ll have to buy a license if you don’t want to credit him or want high quality music files.
Royalty Free Stock Music
13. Audio Network
Vice. MTV. HBO.
These are a few of the many high profile clients Audio Network has provided stock audio and stock music for.
Filling out their stock library from work from actual artists instead of computer-generated beats, Audio Network is one of the best stock music websites. If you’re looking for creative commons music, Audio Network may not be for you.
Audio Music Stock
14. Ricall Express
Along with SongFreedom, Ricall Express hosts music you’ve definitely heard before. Dealing with brand name artists, you’d have a hard time believing some of their audio tracks are available for license.
Stock music library where you'll find quality free stock audio
Since they market themselves primarily to filmmakers, you can probably find the perfect stock audio to run under your trailer here.
What makes Ricall Express one of the best stock music websites is their interface. Consistently updated and improved, their website’s interface makes browsing and finding the stock audio you need extremely easy, which can often eat up hours of time.
Best Stock Music
15. Tunefruit
Tunefruit is a modern music marketplace where musicians can upload and content creators can download. Pricing is scaled based on different licenses that dictate usage but there is something for everyone here.
Once you purchase a track, you can use it for the lifetime of your project. And they actually curate the content so you know you'll find quality tracks. Right now, it's a "track-to-track" situation but they plan on having a subscription service in the future.
Free Audio Stock Music
16. Addictive Tracks
Most stock music sites offer music that sounds like humans had no input at all.
Fantastic selections of audio music stock
That’s not the case with Addictive Tracks. From the second you open their website, you immediately see videos highlighting the real voices, real instruments, and real composers behind the work on this site.
They usually have a promotion running, if you’re looking to save some money on a first time stock music purchase.
Free Stock Music
17. The Music Case
The Music Case offers affordable, royalty-free stock music. Their site is very straightforward and offers a wide array of moods to browse.
The licensing component is easy, and lifelong. Basically you select between two license types depending on your project.
The Silver License ($29 per song) gets you on services like YouTube and Vimeo. The Platinum License ($99) is reserved commercial films, audiobooks, paid mobile apps, etc).
The site is a little buggy as of this writing, but the tracks are quality.
Best Stock Music Sites
18. Moby Gratis
If you have a project in the non-commercial or non-profit sector, that means you have access to music by Grammy nominee Moby!
Naturally, he offers some of the highest quality music you can find on a free music library. And he also give you very specific filtering tools to get exactly the track that’s right for your video.
If your film qualifies, you’ll just need to register, browse the library, and fill out an application.
Should I Use Stock Music?
The pros and cons of stock music
Using stock music is an affordable option for anyone with a budget too low for a dedicated composer.
Oh, the joys of royalty free music sites
On these platforms you pay per song, or via a subscription, which requires much less paperwork than you would need with a traditional license.
And there’s a wealth of music choices available across several hosting sites. Sure, you may not find John Williams quality. But if your content demands are flexible, there are many high-quality options out there to choose from.
However, if your demands are super-specific, this can be a daunting task. You might need to spend more time searching through hundreds of songs.
And, depending on how thoroughly each site vets incoming music, the standards for each recording may not be high enough for your production.
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UP NEXT
The best stock video sites
With more and more free stock audio sites popping up every day, it’s hard to determine what’s worth looking through and what’s worth your money. We hope this list of the best stock music websites saves you time finding audio tracks for your next video project. Be sure to check out our list of the best stock video websites to further save some time. What stock music website do you swear by? Let us know in the comments.
Up Next: Best stock video →
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