Royalty-free music for YouTube and sound effects: where to find them

What does royalty-free actually mean?

Royalty-free means you pay nothing per play or per view once you have the right to use the track; it does not always mean the track is free, and it never means there are no conditions. The words people use mean different things:

Term	What it means for your video
Royalty-free	No fee per use; there may be a one-off price, a subscription or a licence to follow
Copyright-free music	Usually loose talk for royalty-free; almost all music is under copyright
Public domain or CC0	No copyright conditions: use, cut and earn from it, no credit needed
CC BY	Free to use, cut and earn from, as long as you credit the creator
CC BY-SA	As CC BY, but what you make from it must carry the same licence
CC BY-NC	No commercial use, so not for a monetised channel
CC BY-ND	No changes, and setting music to a video counts as a change

Where do most YouTubers get their music?

From three places: YouTube's own Audio Library, paid subscription libraries, and free libraries under Creative Commons or their own free licences. The YouTube Audio Library sits inside YouTube Studio; its filters show whether a track needs attribution, the Creative Commons ones must be credited in the description, and YouTube says its downloads will not be claimed through Content ID. The free libraries below are what Sharpy searches.

Which free music libraries can you use, and what does each ask?

Each licence below was read on the library's own page:

Library	Licence in plain words	Credit
Incompetech (Kevin MacLeod)	CC BY 4.0: free, monetised YouTube allowed, cutting allowed	Required, in the description or the video
Scott Buckley	CC BY 4.0: free, commercial use allowed; never submit it to Content ID	Required, in the description, in his own format
Mixkit music	Free online, YouTube included; not for broadcast, discs or games, not to be remixed or registered with a rights service	Not required
Internet Archive netlabels	Each item has its own licence, mostly non-commercial; Sharpy takes only CC BY and CC0	As the item's licence asks
Pixabay music	Free, commercial use allowed, editing allowed; not to be sold on its own	Not required; "by [Contributor] via Pixabay" is suggested
Free Music Archive	Each track has its own Creative Commons licence; ND tracks cannot go in a video, NC tracks not in a monetised one	Title, artist, source and licence
ccMixter	Each track has its own licence, CC BY or CC BY-NC	As the artist asks, with a link-back credit in the description
ENDE.APP (Sascha Ende)	CC BY 4.0 with credit made optional; never register it with Content ID	Optional

The Free Music Archive, ccMixter and ENDE.APP do not allow automated downloads, so their tracks on Sharpy's curated list are yours to download, and Sharpy imports them with their source and maker.

What music can I use on YouTube without getting copyrighted?

Music you have a licence for, used the way that licence says, with the credit it asks for in your description. A credit alone is not a licence: crediting a chart song does not make it usable. Even licensed music can draw an automated Content ID claim, because some creators register their tracks. Incompetech's music is registered, and a claim is released once the credit is in the description and you dispute it; Scott Buckley warns YouTubers, "If you don't, you will likely get a copyright claim from me"; and some Pixabay contributors register their tracks, marked with a shield icon. Keep the licence link, and dispute a claim with it.

A man in his thirties records the sound of a tram bell on a city street with a handheld recorder and a furry windshield, headphones on. — Every sound on a free library was recorded by someone; its licence says whether you may cut it, earn from it and how to credit it.

Where do you find free sound effects and footage?

The same rules hold for sound effects for video and for stock footage. These are the sources Sharpy searches, with the licence it holds them to:

Library	What it has	Licence in plain words
Freesound	Sound effects and ambiences	Each sound is CC0, CC BY or CC BY-NC; Sharpy refuses non-commercial, Sampling+ and share-alike sounds
Mixkit sound effects and video	Effects as original WAV files, stock clips	Free; Sharpy refuses clips under Mixkit's Restricted licence, which is personal use only
Pixabay	Sound effects, video, photos	Free, no credit required; for music and sound effects Sharpy hands you the link, because Pixabay forbids bots
Pexels	Video and photos	Free, no credit required, editing allowed
Wikimedia Commons	Audio, video, photos	Each file has its own licence; Sharpy refuses CC BY-SA, NC, ND and GFDL files
OpenGameArt	Sounds and game art	Several licences; Sharpy takes CC0 only
NASA and its Scientific Visualization Studio	Space footage and visualisations	Generally free to use with NASA acknowledged; Sharpy refuses contractor work and leaves licensed soundtracks behind
The Met, Art Institute of Chicago, Cleveland Museum of Art	Artworks	Public domain works under CC0 only

What is B-roll covers using stock footage well.

Sharpy also carries its own shelf: 239 recordings curated by role, each licence read off its own page, 32 designed sounds in eleven families such as whooshes, risers and sub drops, and fourteen accents such as impacts, pops and plucks. Every sound is measured for clipping, coarse digital steps, a tail cut off while it still sounds and the dull top of a lossy file before it is offered, and the same recording is never offered twice. You can search your own sound library by describing a sound: a sound from a description came up first 92.3% of the time.

How does Sharpy find and credit music and sound?

Search by mood. One search runs across the shelves on your Mac and every source Sharpy may fetch from, ranked in one list. Related words count: "upbeat" finds "bouncy".
Read before you get. Each result shows its licence, its credit wording, whether it may be cut and what to know before posting. Nothing downloads until you choose.
Licence read on fetch. When an item is fetched, its licence is read off the item itself, never off the listing, and one you cannot use is refused.
Credit in the description. Every render writes the credits the cut owes into a text file beside it, for you to paste into the description. Sharpy never puts a credit on the picture, and leaves out any source that demands one there.

CC BY music is credited with its licence link and the words "edited and synchronised to this video", because setting music to picture counts as adapting it. Where a library words its own credit, as Incompetech and Scott Buckley do, Sharpy uses their wording exactly. Pexels photographers, Pixabay contributors and NASA get a courtesy credit, and a licence Sharpy does not know is credited rather than risked. Music for your video shows how a track is then fitted and cut to the beat.

Frequently asked questions

Is royalty-free music really free?

Not always. It means no fee per use; the libraries here are free, but most ask for a credit or set limits, such as no remixing or no monetised use.

Can I use copyrighted music if I give credit?

No. A credit is what a licence asks of you, not a licence in itself. Without permission from the rights holder, a chart song stays off limits.

Do I need to credit CC0 or Pixabay music?

No. CC0 and Pixabay need no credit, though a courtesy credit costs nothing.

Are Pixabay sound effects free to use?

Yes, with no credit required, in monetised videos too. Its terms forbid automated downloads, so you download them yourself and Sharpy imports them.

Can I monetise videos with Creative Commons music?

Yes with CC BY and CC0 tracks, crediting the CC BY ones. Share-alike (SA) tracks ask your video to carry the same licence, and anything marked NC, non-commercial, is out.

Sources

Checked on 18 October 2026.