Anthony Kozar
Anthony Kozar's website features a collection of music licensed under CCSA. Primarily experimental and contemporary classical pieces — worth a look if you're after something a bit different.
Auboutdufil
Auboutdufil is a French website featuring a curated collection of royalty-free music across various genres. Nicely organised with mood and genre filters, even if you don't speak French.
AudioNautix
AudioNautix offers a wide range of music styles, all available for free use, with an easy-to-understand licensing system. Created by Jason Shaw — solid, reliable stuff.
Bandcamp
This one time, I found loads of amazing music licensed under Creative Commons. There's loads of music to be found here; bands and artists upload and sell their albums, and it's a real treasure trove of unique stuff if you're willing to hunt around. Make sure you check the licensing terms at the bottom of each release page. Here's a few examples:
https://anitek.bandcamp.com/
https://boxcat.bandcamp.com/
https://jorikbasov.bandcamp.com/
https://parvusdecree.bandcamp.com/
https://proleter.bandcamp.com/
https://dadaweatherman.bandcamp.com/
https://thepolishambassador.bandcamp.com/
Bensound
Bensound used to be one of the go-to free music sites, and you probably still know the name. However, it's now primarily a paid subscription service (from €144/year). A small "Free Music" section still exists with CC BY licensing, but it's limited to online video and non-revenue educational use. Worth a browse of the free section, but read the terms carefully.
⚠️ Mostly paid now — limited free tier with usage restrictions.
blocSonic
blocSonic is a netlabel offering a seriously impressive catalogue of free CC BY licensed music — over 580 releases and 5,000+ tracks spanning hip-hop, electronic, rock, and more. One of the most active free music sources out there.
Brett Van Donsel
Brett Van Donsel shares his collection of music tracks, often available for free download, suitable for various multimedia projects. Double-check the licensing on individual tracks as terms may vary.
ccMixter
ccMixter is a thriving community for sharing music and remixing tracks, offering a treasure trove of Creative Commons music. Great for finding unique, community-created pieces you won't hear anywhere else.
CCHound
CCHound is like Unsplash but for music — a curated library of over 2,400 Creative Commons tracks. Clean interface, easy to browse by mood and genre, and every track has clear licensing info. A proper hidden gem.
Chosic
Chosic is a well-organised aggregation platform with a large library of CC BY and CC0 music. Each track page shows the specific licence and gives you copy-ready attribution text, which is a lovely touch. Actively maintained and regularly updated.
Chris Zabriskie
Chris Zabriskie's discography boasts a range of ambient and instrumental tracks available for free use. Beautiful, atmospheric stuff — a favourite among documentary and film makers.
CreatorChords (Alexander Nakarada)
Formerly Serpent Sound Studios — Alexander Nakarada's brilliant catalogue of fantasy, metal, Celtic, and cinematic music is now at CreatorChords. Still CC BY 4.0 and free to download as MP3 with attribution.
Citizen DJ
A project from the U.S. Library of Congress offering public domain audio samples from the National Jukebox — over 16,000 early recordings. Pre-1923 material, so it's properly public domain. If you're after vintage, historical sounds that nobody else is using, this is absolute gold.
Classicals.de
Newly recorded performances of classical masterworks — Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and more — all under Creative Commons. Unlike historical recordings, these are modern studio recordings with proper production quality. Donation-supported, no ads.
Cullah
Cullah provides a unique collection of eclectic music genres available for free, with an extensive discography. All CC BY — the man's prolific!
Eric Skiff
Eric Skiff's website is home to a collection of retro-inspired chiptune tracks available for free. All CC BY, and perfect if you're making anything gaming-related.
FiftySounds
FiftySounds covers cinematic, pop, corporate, and world genres — all royalty-free with attribution. Not registered with any PROs, so no nasty Content ID surprises. No registration required either. Just download and go.
Foximusic
Foximusic offers a diverse selection of music genres, but it's now primarily a paid library (£24–29 per track). A narrow free option exists for online video use with attribution, but most use cases require payment. Have a look, but read the fine print.
⚠️ Mostly paid — limited free option for online video only.
Free Soundtrack Music
If you're willing to hunt around Free Soundtrack Music, you'll find a handful of free cinematic and orchestral pieces. The emphasis is shifting toward paid options, so check carefully.
Free Stock Music
Free Stock Music is a solid source of royalty-free music for a wide range of content, from podcasts to presentations. Good search filters and clear licensing on each track.
FreeBeats.io
FreeBeats.io is dedicated to offering free hip-hop and rap beats for aspiring musicians and content creators. If you need urban-flavoured beats, this is your spot.
Freesound
Freesound is a brilliant resource for sound effects — it celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2025! It also has a bunch of free music, though you'll need to dig around a bit. Check the licence on each upload as it varies.
iBeat
iBeat provides a selection of free music loops and beats for use in videos, presentations, and more. Great for production music building blocks.
IMSLP (Petrucci Music Library)
The world's largest free classical music library — over 92,000 recordings and 846,000 scores. Public domain and Creative Commons licensed. There's a short wait time for free downloads, but the sheer scale of this collection is staggering. A must-have if you need classical music.
Incompetech
Incompetech is home to Kevin MacLeod's extensive collection of royalty free music, covering a crazy wide range of genres. If you've watched YouTube for more than five minutes, you've heard his music. An absolute institution.
itch.io Game Music
Hundreds of free game music packs from indie creators on itch.io. Quality varies, but the best packs are excellent. Use the
CC0 filter to find tracks you can use without any attribution at all.
Jamendo
You have to do some serious digging, but there are CC licensed tracks to be found amongst the paid offerings. Use the licence filter to narrow things down.
Jordan Winslow
Jordan Winslow shares his portfolio of free-to-use EDM music tracks, perfect for energetic content. High production quality.
Josh Woodward
Josh Woodward's website is a lovely collection of indie rock and folk tracks available for free. Still actively releasing new music — a new album dropped in 2025!
Kai Engel
Kai Engel's back catalogue of atmospheric and cinematic music is beautiful. However, he announced in 2025 that he's stepping away from Creative Commons and will no longer offer new music under CC licences. His older CC releases on Bandcamp and Free Music Archive should still be usable — just make sure you're downloading a CC-licensed version.
⚠️ No longer releasing new CC music — older CC catalogue still available.
King James
King James offers a blog featuring royalty free music tracks for content creators, including cinematic and orchestral compositions.
Kongano
Kongano hosts a collection of instrumental and electronic music for use in videos and podcasts. The site announced in mid-2025 that there will be no more regular updates after 10+ years. Existing music remains available and free, but the site may eventually go offline.
⚠️ No longer being updated — existing tracks still available for now.
Machinima Sound
Machinima Sound has a bunch of older tracks licensed under CC BY. The site is currently in transition — displaying a "stay tuned for a new era" message — so the legacy tracks are still accessible but the future is unclear.
⚠️ Site in transition — legacy tracks still accessible at the link above.
Mixkit
Mixkit offers a wide range of free music, video assets, and sound effects. Part of the Envato family. Apparently they don't even want credit to use the music! Very generous licence.
Moby Gratis
Yes, that Moby. 499 instrumental tracks available in MP3, WAV, and even multitrack WAV formats — all free for any creative project, including commercial use. You'll need a free account to download. High-profile, high-quality, and genuinely free. One of the best additions to this list in a long while.
Musopen
Musopen provides a brilliant selection of classical music recordings, sheet music, and educational resources, all free to use. Free users are limited to 5 downloads per day (unlimited access costs $55/year), but for most people that's plenty.
⚠️ Free tier limited to 5 downloads per day.
No Copyright Music
Liborio Conti has hundreds of tracks, and you don't even have to credit him! Very generous.
NoCopyrightSounds
NoCopyrightSounds is a renowned label that offers a selection of electronic music tracks for free use in videos, livestreams, and other creative projects. Massive YouTube presence — you've almost certainly heard their stuff.
Open Goldberg Variations
Kickstarter-funded studio recordings of Bach's Goldberg Variations and Well-Tempered Clavier, released under CC0 (public domain). Outstanding recording quality, and you can use them however you like with zero restrictions. Niche, but absolutely lovely.
OpenGameArt
OpenGameArt is a resource for open-source game assets, including music and sound effects for game developers. Use the licence filters to find the free-to-use stuff — there's a lot of CC0 and CC BY material in there.
Peritune
Peritune offers a selection of free music tracks, including orchestral, chiptune, and RPG-style music. It's all in Japanese, so I'm not 100% sure of the rights — so be careful and check before using!
Pixabay
Pixabay now has loooooads of music under their own "Pixabay License" (no longer CC0 as it used to be). Free, no attribution required. However, be aware that some contributors register their tracks with Content ID systems, which can trigger automated YouTube claims even when you're using the music legally. If that happens, you may need to dispute the claim yourself.
⚠️ Some tracks trigger Content ID claims on YouTube despite being legally free.
PlayOnLoop
PlayOnLoop provides a collection of looping music tracks ideal for background music in games and videos. They have a CC BY licence option — just make sure you're grabbing the free versions.
Purple Planet
Purple Planet provides a range of music tracks, including various genres and moods, for free use with credit. Check their licensing page carefully for commercial use terms.
Scott Buckley
Scott Buckley offers cinematic and ambient music, often available for free use in creative projects. Beautiful, sweeping compositions — one of the best individual composer sites out there.
Scott Holmes Music
Scott Holmes shares his diverse collection of music tracks, perfect for adding depth to your content. Good range of upbeat, corporate, and cinematic styles.
💡
A tip from the list curator: The biggest risk with free music isn't quality — it's what happens when you get a copyright claim. Most sources on this list leave you to sort it out yourself. For my tracks specifically, I help resolve claims within 1–2 business days. Just saying.
Browse My 200+ Free Tracks →
Silverman Sound Studios ⭐
This is my site!
200+ tracks composed by yours truly — cinematic, electronic, ambient, orchestral, vintage, lo-fi, and more. All CC BY 4.0, instant download, no registration required. The only free music source on this list where the composer personally resolves copyright claims within 1–2 business days. Used by over 140,000 content creators worldwide.
Browse All Tracks →
Sleep Facing West
Sleep Facing West's website provides a selection of free music tracks, ranging from ambient to folk, perfect for enhancing your creative projects. Lovely, understated stuff.
SoundImage
SoundImage is Eric Matyas's incredible library — over 2,500 tracks and counting, actively updated. Music and sound effects for games, videos, and podcasts. One of the most generous and prolific free music creators around.
Soundscrate
Soundscrate has a limited selection of tracks (roughly 16 genuinely free ones) that you can download within the ProductionCrate ecosystem. Everything else is paywalled, so manage your expectations.
TeknoAXE
TeknoAXE provides a diverse selection of electronic and rock music tracks, all available for free. Prolific output and a wide variety of styles.
Tim Beek
Tim Beek provides a selection of free, high-quality music tracks for content creators. Clean, professional compositions.
Twin Musicom
Twin Musicom specialises in providing a variety of music tracks and soundscapes for creative projects. All CC BY 4.0. The site doesn't appear to be actively maintained any longer, but existing tracks are still available via SoundCloud and Bandcamp.
⚠️ May be discontinued — existing tracks still accessible.
Twisterium
Twisterium offers a collection of cinematic and electronic music tracks suitable for video content. Has both free CC tracks and paid options — make sure you're on the Creative Commons page.
Unminus
Curated, high-quality tracks under a CC0-like licence — no attribution required, no account needed. The library is smaller than some others on this list, but the production quality is consistently excellent. If you want something that sounds premium without any licensing headaches, start here.
Uppbeat
Lots of high production quality pieces here. However, free users only get access to about 30% of the catalogue and are limited to 10 downloads per month, each with a mandatory credit code. It's a freemium service rather than a truly free one — but the free tier is still decent if you can live with the limits.
⚠️ Freemium — limited free tier with download caps and required credit codes.
YouFulca
YouFulca provides an array of electronic music tracks, with a focus on gaming and action content. Solid stuff for high-energy projects.
YouTube Audio Library
Hundreds of royalty-free tracks searchable by genre, mood, and instrument — accessible through YouTube Studio. Most tracks require no attribution at all; some are CC-licensed. Updated twice monthly. Nearly every content creator already has access to this, and the tracks can be used in any project, not just YouTube. Arguably should have been on this list from the start!
ZapSplat
ZapSplat has free music too! But free users are limited to MP3 only, 4 downloads per 60 minutes, and attribution is required. Their Gold tier (£5/month) unlocks WAV files and removes limits. The free tier is still useful for smaller projects.
⚠️ Free tier: MP3 only, 4 downloads per hour, attribution required.
🎵
Still looking? If you want copyright-safe music with personal support from the actual composer, my library might be exactly what you need. 200+ tracks, all free, all CC BY 4.0 — and I'm just an email away if anything goes wrong.
Listen Now →
One comment
Thanks for this awesome resource!