Free Music - Audionautix.com

Musician Jason Shaw has generously provided a wide selection of free instrumental music that will work well with video projects. Its use is allowed under the Creative Common 3.0 license.  Visit audionautix.com to download what you like.  No registration required.  Just make sure to list him in your credits if you use his work. 

Musopen.org - Public Domain Classical Music Source

Musopen.org has sheet music and .mp3 files of music that is in the public domain.

Musopen (www.musopen.org) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit focused on improving access and exposure to music by creating free resources and educational materials. We provide recordings, sheet music, and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions. Put simply, our mission is to set music free.

I read through the Terms of Use and was unclear about whether their music files could be used in multimedia projects. I wrote to them, "I am a high school animation and video production teacher. Can filmmakers use the MP3 files on your site in their work as they would if this work was under a Creative Commons license?" Aaron Dunn, the founder of the website wrote me back on December 3, 2010, with the reply, "Yes absolutely."

They have some examples from filmmakers using music from their website posted here.

Freesound.org - Free sound effects

Freesound.org is a a great source for finding sound effects for films. The every growing database of sounds come from people making their recordings available through a Creative Commons license. These are not music loops but sounds often recorded in the field. You are required to register before you can download, but you can search and listen to sounds to see if they have what you need. Registration is free. You will need to credit the creator of any sound you use.

The Freesound Project aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps, ... released under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus License. The Freesound Project provides new and interesting ways of accessing these samples, allowing users to

• browse the sounds in new ways using keywords, a "sounds-like" type of browsing and more
• up and download sounds to and from the database, under the same creative commons license
• interact with fellow sound-artists!

InternetAudioGuy - Free Music

InternetAudioGuy.com has 14 tracks of free music on his website.

These are royalty free music beds to use as much as you like for broadcast, internet, audio books, CDs, training programs, walk-in music or anything you like.

Creative Commons - Legal Music for Videos

The Creative Commons website has a page about using music legally in video projects.

Can I use any song with a CC license on it?

Almost — you need to make sure that what you want to do with the music is OK under the terms of the particular Creative Commons license it’s under. CC-licensed music isn’t free for all uses, only some — so make sure to check out the terms (you can find these by clicking on each song’s license icon).

Most importantly, you need to use music that is not licensed under a No Derivative Works license. This means that the musician doesn’t want you to change, transform, or make a derivative work using their music. Under CC licenses, synching the music to images amounts to transforming the music, so you can’t legally use a song under a CC No Derivative Works license in your video.

Also, make sure to properly credit the musician and the track, as well as express the CC license the track is under. For example, you might include text like this at the end of your video:

This video features the song “Desaprendere (Treatment)” by fourstones, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

Free Music Archive.org

Freemusicarchive.org is a place to find music for student video projects under Creative Commons and other license agreements.

Are you a podcaster looking for pod-safe audio? A radio or video producer searching for instrumental bed music that won't put your audience to sleep? A remix artist looking for pre-cleared samples? Or are you simply looking for some new sounds to add to your next playlist? The Free Music Archive is a resource for all that and more, and unlike other websites, all of the audio has been hand-picked by established audio curators.

Moxie - Music/Videos for Airplay - Free

Moxie is a free service that will send CDs to student publications and radio stations. For TV, current videos are sent for broadcast use.

MOXIE provides free record service to high school student organizations that are interested in using music as part of what they do. We primarily work with high school newspapers, radio/TV stations, and Student Government/ASBs. CDS, videos and other materials (stickers, bios, photos, etc) are sent to you and you decide if you want to review/write about it in your school paper, give it airplay on your radio station, show the video as part of your broadcast, or play the music at school dances and events. In addition, we also do ad campaigns, run contests, set up interviews with artists, provide tickets for you to review concerts, and bring artists to play at/visit schools.

Royalty free music from SonnyBoo.com

Peter John Ross provides some royalty-free music on his website SonnyBoo.com. If you add it to your video, all he asks is that you list him in the credits.

All you have to do is credit the songwriter - Peter John Ross (www.sonnyboo.com) and the music is your to use for free. They may not be "Beatles" songs, but they can be the difference between your movie getting popular, or getting a "Cease & Desist" court order. And there is no more music for sale on this site or any other site from Peter John Ross. These are just a donation to the public domain.

Moby Film Music - Free

The musician Moby is offering film music for "independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short." You need to register to hear the music at mobygratis.com. You must request a license to use the music.

Moby makes techno, dance, ambient, rock and other types of music. His music has been used in all three Bourne films, Cloverfield, Miami Vice, xXx: State of the Union, The Devil Wears Prada, CSI: NY, The Sorpranos, and lots of other stuff.


See this clip from the Sundance channel where Moby explains the website.

You can see a list of short films that use Moby's film music on this YouTube playlist.

Current TV - Producer Training Resources

The cable/satellite channel Current TV is built upon the submission of programming from viewers. There website has resources for potential contributors. The have "producer training" section and production knowledgebase with information on pre-production, production, post production and marketing. They also have license cleared music for their projects.

Current is about what's going on in your world: all the things you and your friends are actually interested in -- that you won't find on any other news site or cable TV channel.

Current.com is the place to find and share stories and videos that are interesting to you. It connects to Current TV, a global cable and satellite TV network.

You can watch Current TV online or enjoy it from the comfort of your couch:

DirecTV: channel 366
Dish Network: channel 196
Comcast: channel 107
AT&T U-Verse: channel 189
Time Warner: check listings

Soundsnap.com - Free Sound FX & Loops

SoundSnap.com offers royalty free sound effects and loops - all free!

Soundsnap is the best platform to find and share free sound effects and loops- legally. It is a collection of original sounds made or recorded by its users, and not songs or sound FX found on commercial libraries or sample CD's.

It was originally started by a small group of sound people from all over the world. Our common belief is that sounds and samples should be free for everyone to use in their projects, commercial or not.

Our users are a diverse mix of sound designers, sound artists, web game developers, filmmakers and music producers. Hobbyists and home video makers are welcome too.