Not everything online is free just because you find it on Google. You know that, right? And just because you found something that it offered „free“ and you used it in your work, doesn’t mean some third party won’t report you for it.
Let’s say you made some awesome video featuring your great web-design skills. You uploaded it on YouTube then shared onto your site. If the music you used isn’t royalty free or without any limitations, YouTube can erase it and get your account suspended. The same goes for Social Media accounts, too. And the next steps could be reporting your site, too. Simply, no one should use the work that isn’t specifically given for free.
That is why we wrote this article, to help you find free music and audio sounds for the projects you can use without worrying. Read on, and you’re welcome.
What is public domain music?
Public domain music refers to all the music whose rights are expired, that don’t have copyrights or the music whose authors submitted into the public domain.
It is all the music that can be shared freely and without any legal consequences. So, instead of going for streaming music services and pirated music (a big no-no), there’s a big collection of places you can find, download and use free public domain music.
To save you the time and energy of finding out them yourselves, I made this list of some of the most significant sources for free music check it out!
How and where to use free public domain music or royalty-free music?
Perhaps you’re a WordPress web designer or developer and want to showcase your work. Maybe put a portfolio of who you are. Having music in the background can enhance your online resume or client’s site. Remember Who is Leon? You get the idea.
On the other hand, you may have your own business, a beauty salon or a yoga center – like Yoga for mountain bikers (uses our Vlog theme) – and you film short how-to videos and exercises. Can’t do it well without proper music background that won’t get you into trouble. Either way, these are the situations where knowing where to find free music for your projects come in handy.
Where to find free public domain music
Free music public domain
A source of royalty free music for your audio and video projects. Making a new YouTube video or developing your website portfolio and need some good quality music? Free music public domain is a place for you to explore. Search among 22 different categories and download music of choice in three steps:
- Select the category
- Choose the song
- Download it to your computer and/or smartphone
Moby Gratis
Famous music performer has a website where you can find lots of royalty-free music for your projects. The only condition is that you use it for independent, non-profit film or project, video or short. Explore and find the music of your choice among more than 150 tracks from Moby’s music. How cool is that? 🙂
Free soundtrack music
A large number of free public domain music for you to download and use. And, while not all of them are free, the ones that are clearly marked and easy to find. There are more than 1,400 royalty-free recordings for use in video, film and multimedia projects and about 20% of them are completely free. New music is being added each month.
Free music archive
A place of free public domain music, from the ones whose copyright has expired to the ones that are donated by generous artists to the music with CC0 license. Enjoy searching among almost 3000 tracks in 16 different genres!
International Music Score Library Project
A source of over 435,150 scores or various free public domain music, this is a place where you0ll surely find all the music resources you need for your projects. Divided by composers, nationality, period or genre, here you’ll find some of the best world’s public domain music.
FreePD
100% free music under Creative Commons 1.0 Universal license. Download any mp3 and use them how you want. The music from this site you can use on YouTube, Facebook, within an ad, in a movie and within any project you want without worrying you’d be blocked.
Musopen
A site that offers free classical public domain music you can browse by composer, performer, instrument, form and time period. All the music can be downloaded as an MP3 file. Apart from free music recordings, you can also download free sheet music files and textbooks too J
The Freesound Project
A collaborative database of Creative Commons Licensed sounds that exist for ten years. Here you can browse, download and share sounds and use them freely. Just as the WordPress is an open source, the Freesound Project is an open database for audio sounds and music.
Mubert AI Music Generator
Mubert is a one-of-a-kind, creator-focused platform that uses artificial intelligence to generate limitless royalty-free music for the content of all kinds. Using millions of high-quality music samples, a variety of worldwide license types, and endless capabilities for music customization, Mubert helps content creators find the best music for their projects with ease.
YouTube Audio Library
Free music on YouTube? You heard it right. Several years ago, YouTube launched the YouTube Audio Library with free music and Sound effects for your audio/video projects. You can search for music by genre, mood, instrument, duration, and attribution and download it as MP3 files. All of the music and sound effects are royalty-free and in high-quality 320kbps audio tracks. More on how to get and use the music from the library you’ll find in the About section of Support.
Wrapping up
I hope this list of free public domain music websites saves you time finding free music and audio sounds for your next project. Be sure to check out our list of the top free photo websites too, to further save some time and make awesome new projects!
Also, if you found some additional resources that offer free music, be sure to mention them in the comment section, thanks!
