4 Best Sites to Find Royalty-free YouTube Background Music

If the content of your YouTube videos is the king, then the right background music should be the queen. Your YouTube background music not only brings your video to life but also helps set the tone and vibes for the video and evoke viewers’ emotions for a particular scene.

However, using copyrighted songs and background music for your YouTube videos can put you in great trouble.

In this post, we will walk you through YouTube’s copyright policies on using background music for YouTube videos and introduce you to the 4 best sites that many YouTube influencers use to download royalty-free YouTube background music. So, you can easily find the best-suited YouTube background music in a breeze.

Here is what you will learn:

YouTube’s Copyright Policies on YouTube Background Music

No matter how you enjoy a piece of upbeat music, if it is copyrighted, you’d better drop an idea to use it as your YouTube background music.

According to YouTube’s First Rule of Copyright:

YouTube’s copyright policies on YouTube background music

“YouTubers can only upload videos that they have made or that they're authorized to use. That means you should not upload videos you didn't make, or use content in your videos that someone else owns the copyright to, such as music tracks, snippets of copyrighted programs, or videos made by other users, without necessary authorizations.”

In other words, you have to either purchase copyrighted music or get permission from its owner to use it legally as YouTube background music in your video. Check the free YouTube video templates with royalty-free music.

Never Run the Risk of Using Copyrighted Music

If you think you might get away with it amid 30,000 hours of videos uploaded to YouTube every hour (statistics from Oberlo 2021), think again. As you upload your music, YouTube’s AI copyright checker will automatically detect unauthorized audio and video content and warn you of upcoming copyright claims.

The dire consequences are as follows：

However, don’t get panic. YouTube also offers a solution for YouTubers to use non-copyrighted background music and sound effects for YouTube videos. That’s is the license-free music stock in YouTube Studio’s audio library.

Use YouTube Audio Library for Royalty-free YouTube Background Music

YouTube Audio Library is simply the royalty-free media library in YouTube Studio. You can freely download thousands of all the music and sound effects there and add them to your video as YouTube background music without copyright issues.

Get royalty-free YouTube background music and SFX on YouTube Audio Library

You can use a filter such as track title, genre, mood, artist to quickly match your video with proper YouTube background music and download it for free use. One thing to mention is that if a song’s license type says “CC” or Creative Common”. You should give credits to the artist in the description and clearly state the music is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Here is an example:

Music in this video：

Song: Fig Leaf Rag - distressed

Artist: Kevin Macleod

Album: Fig Leaf Rag - distressed

Licensed to YouTube by Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license

Source: Paste the music link in YouTube Audio Library

Directly Add Royalty-free YouTube Background Music to Videos by FlexClip

Though YouTube Audio Library offers you tons of options for royalty-free music, you can’t preview the music and directly add it to your video and do the trimming and other editings.

To do so, a worry-free solution is to use FlexClip, a free and feature-packed online video editor that offers you free access to thousands of royalty-free stock assets, including high-quality music for YouTube background music and sound effects, and edit your YouTube videos in one place.

Use FlexClip to add YouTube background music directly to videos

All you need to do is upload your video assets to FlexClip > add it to the storyboard > press the “Music” tab on the left menu > enter keywords or use filter “mood” and “genre” to add one or multiple pieces of music to your video> you may trim and move music and sound effects to a particular frame as well.

Directly add royalty-free YouTube background music to videos by FlexClip

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You may also explore the royalty-free videos and photos or designer-made video templates to add an intro or outro for YouTube videos. Done with the editing, you can directly download it as an MP4 (1080p) or share it to your YouTube channel or Dropbox.

Download Non-Copyrighted YouTube Background Music on Audio Library

Though it sounds identical to YouTube Audio Library, Audio Library.com.co has nothing to do with YouTube's official music source. It's a popular YouTube music channel and music website that searches and publishes non-copyrighted music for content creators.

Download non-copyrighted YouTube background music from Audio Library

Audio Library’s YouTube channel updates 3 new songs per week. You can find awful lots of upbeat and funky music for your YouTube background music. Or you can visit its website to search by "Genres", "Moods" or "Artists" for the best-suited YouTube background music. Unlike YouTube and FlexClip, there are no sound effects available.

Audio Library offers you to download royalty-free music either from the artist's site or on the Audio library. You are expected to copy and paste detailed information of the artist, album, and music source for creative commons use on YouTube.

One thing to mention, the downloaded version of royalty-free music consists of only parts of the highlights of the original music, not the whole package. But it is still worth the effort. Find out how to identify music in a YouTube video.

Get No Copyright YouTube Background Music on RFM-NCM

Well, the last but not least option we recommend is RFM-NCM, which liberally means royalty-free music and no-copy music. Like Audio Library, RFM-NCM is another YouTube music channel that uses the internet as a platform to collect and share royalty-free music for content creators and promote original soundtracks for bands.

RFM-NCM music channel on YouTube

For YouTubers, you can subscribe to their channel and look for the link for a piece of royalty-free music and download it for your YouTube background music. RFM-NCM’s music source is based on SoundCloud.

All you need to do is sign up with your Google account and click the downlink. Then you can get the full version for non-copyrighted YouTube background music. RFM-NCM also provides you with full information about the artist of the music, its source link, and Creative Commons license. So you can paste them into the description of your YouTube video.

Now, It’s Your Move

So, now you know YouTube’s copyright policies on using YouTube background music and where to find the pleasant background music and sound effects for your YouTube videos. If you need both music and sound effects and add them instantly to your YouTube videos to see if it fits, then FlexClip can be your go-to choice. So, start matching your videos with FlexClip’s vast music and SFX library, now!

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Frank /

Passionate about photography, video-making and travel, Frank is a seasoned copywriter and a beloved father of 2-year-old daughter at FlexClip. He is always keen to share his latest discovery about video marketing and tricks to relive your memories through videos and images.