Where to download Royalty Free Music
Over the last few years there has been an explosion of online marketplaces where you can download royalty free music. With many professional composers contributing their tracks it is now possible to purchase top quality royalty free music for your project. So once you’ve made a decision on the type of music you require, you need to find a decent library. This article gives a quick overview of some of the biggest players, with the pros and cons of each stock music library.
Pond5
Pond5 has a huge music library. Searching the system is easy, however the results are displayed as a grid of audio waveforms in the same colour which can make it hard to distinguish between genres and drill down to the exact type of music you require on visuals alone.
Things are easier when it comes to listening to track as hovering your mouse over an audio waveform triggers a pop-up preview of the music which begins playing immediately.
The quality of the audio previews are quite low and this could put some purchasers off.
Licensing Options: One blanket license.
Music Moderated for Quality: Yes.
Pros: It’s big! There is a huge choice of music in all genres.
Cons: The audio previews are of a low quality.
Music Loops
Music Loops | Profile on Music Loops
Music Loops is a great example of a website that gets to the point. It is very easy to search and find music. With a clean, no frills design (that can often slow down the display of pages on other websites) it allows the buyer to work fast.
Default ordering of tracks is by ‘Alternating Composer’ means you’re given truly useful search results as more randomness is involved.
Track information is easy to read without having to click further links to find out more information.
Licensing Options: One blanket license.
Music Moderated for Quality: Yes.
Pros: An excellent search system that ensures you will see a wide range of music.
Cons: None.
The Music Case
The Music Case | Profile on The Music Case
The Music Case arguably has the cleanest, easiest to navigate design of the libraries I’ve reviewed.
Tracks are easy to find and preview and music samples can be downloaded to test out in your project. Different versions of the same track are grouped together and can be bought separately or as a pack.
You can order search results by newest, oldest, price and most usefully, duration – great if you are looking for a track of a specific length and want to eliminate the unsuitable options quickly.
There is a ‘Wishlist’ feature which allows you to quickly save tracks you like to listen to again later.
They also have an intriguing points system, you can earn points by performing actions – such as sharing on Twitter. The more points you have the greater the discount you can receive on future purchases.
Licensing Options: Two licences, Silver and Platinum. Premium Account on request.
Music Moderated for Quality: Yes.
Pros: A clean, easy to navigate website with excellent search and filtering options.
Cons: None.
Production Trax
Production Trax | Profile on Production Trax
Being an established library, Production Trax has a lot of very high quality music available. The site is clean and well laid out, it could probably do with a design and functionality refresh but is still perfectly useable.
Two licensing options are available with pricing to suit any budget. They also offer additional options of delivering the music on CD or DVD.
Licensing Options: Two: Personal Use and Commercial Use.
Music Moderated for Quality: No.
Pros: An established website with a lot of high quality music.
Cons: The website itself may be getting a bit long in the tooth.
