Audio makes up for 50% of your video so having good (background) music in your videos is REALLY important.
However, YouTube’s contentID system prevents you from using any copyrighted songs which makes it a lot harder to find good music. If you do use copyrighted songs YouTube will disable monetization, block your video in one or more countries (sometimes even worldwide!) and after multiple strikes even ban your YouTube account!
This forces many vloggers and YouTubers to search for hours to find good music which is incredibly frustrating. To make this process easier and less time-consuming, we have compiled a list of all the sources where you can find good copyright free music for your vlogs.
Where To Find Music for Your Vlogs
YouTube Music Library
The first place you can start looking for music is YouTube’s own music library. YouTube has a big collection of songs you can use without worrying about getting flagged for using copyrighted music. The library is easily searchable by genre, mood, instruments and more. You can preview the songs and download the song or favorite the song so you can use it later.
This is by far the most popular way YouTubers find music they can use for their videos. So if you decide to use one of these songs, there are probably many other videos using the same music. You can see if a certain song is popular by looking at the bar next to the download button. A full bar means the song is very popular and used in many YouTube videos.
Note: Some songs in this library have a creative commons license! You can still use these songs in your videos but you must copy the attribution into your video’s description. If you fail to do so YouTube might still flag your video for using copyrighted material.
SoundCloud
If you are looking for a wider range of music you can use or don’t want to use the same songs as many others, Soundcloud may be a better option. Soundcloud is a music sharing website for artists, DJ’s and musicians so you can find a lot of music here. Soundcloud is a more popular alternative among bigger YouTubers because they don’t want to use the same songs as everyone else.
To find royalty free music on Soundcloud you simply search for a genre or artist. Then filter the results to only show songs available to use and/or modify commercially.
What type of music is best for your video depends on your video. Overall electronic, house/dance and headbob are used a lot by vloggers.
If you find music that’s close to what you are looking for but not quite ‘it’. You can also view the related tracks of that track to find similar music.
If there is a song you really like but the license is set to ‘All Rights Reserved’ it might be worth it to reach out to the artist and ask for their permission to use the song. From experience we know that a lot of artists forget or ignore the license part when they upload and they don’t mind if you use their songs (with or without attribution). After all, it is free exposure for them!
If you end up using a song on Soundcloud that is available to use commercially without attribution we still recommend giving the artist credit in the video description. They’ll be thankful for the exposure and they might even promote your videos or supply you with more music.
In fact.
Once your YouTube channel grows bigger you’ll even get artists approaching YOU to use their music in your videos because of the exposure. Popular vloggers like Casey Neistat get almost all of the music that gets used in the vlogs sent to him instead of searching for it himself.
Youtube Channels
There are also a lot of YouTube channels that upload good copyright free music. These channels search for the best music online and contact artists so you don’t have to. You can find many different channels by searching but the three biggest channels right now are:
It’s definitely easier to find copyright free music that doesn’t suck this way but the chance that someone else is using the same song in their videos is also bigger.
Youtube description
A lot of YouTubers/Vloggers give credit to the creator of the music they are using in their videos. If there is a certain YouTuber that always uses music you like you should first check out the description of their videos to find the artist.
For example: Casey Neistat always credits the music artist by providing a Soundcloud link in the description of his videos:
You can use the same song or you can view the related tracks of the song so you can easily find similar music.
External sites
There are also a lot of websites that offer royalty free music. Some of these websites are free, some are paid and some have paid and free songs. You can easily find these websites on google by searching for royalty or copyright free music.
The main advantage of buying songs is that there is a very low chance that someone else uses the same music in their videos because there are many free alternatives.
Hopefully this article helps you quickly find good copyright free music you can use in your vlogs. Now you can focus on actually creating video content!
Last update on 2024-11-16 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API. Our editors may earn a small commission if products are purchased via our external partner links.
