Listen up – music is key to effective video marketing. Yes you heard right, video is such a powerful visual tool that sometimes we overlook how influential a soundtrack can be. Any good marketer will tell you that music can make or break your video marketing. A well-chosen song can evoke emotions in viewers, convey a story or even motivate actions.
Throughout advertising history, iconic songs have helped brands’ sales soar – who can forget UK brand John Lewis’ viral Christmas ad featuring the song Somewhere Only We Know by Lilly Allen? While we don’t all have the budget to hire famous musicians, anyone can harness the power of royalty free music. In this blog, we’ll take you through how to do it.
What is royalty free music?
Royalty free music (aka copyright free music, free to use music or stock music) is music that can be freely used without paying additional royalties. Royalties are a sum of money paid to the owner of a piece of copyrighted music each time it’s used. Royalty free music generally falls into two categories.
Paid royalty free music
Don’t let the name fool you, not all royalty free music is completely free. Some providers will require you to pay a one time license fee. This license will give you the legal right to use the music in your personal or commercial projects anytime you like.
Free royalty free music
Then there’s the royalty free music for videos that is 100% free. You won’t need to pay, but it’s important to read the conditions of use each time you find free royalty free music. Some independent artists may require being credited somewhere in your video while most large providers won’t. For example, here at Clipchamp, we don’t require crediting for any of our free stock audio tracks.
Why use royalty free music?
So, now that you know what royalty free music is, we’ll remind you why you need to use it. The platforms you publish your video marketing to (think YouTube, Instagram and Facebook) all have Music Policies. If you violate these policies, say by posting a video ad with copyrighted music you don’t have the licence to, your video can be muted or removed. Avoid these issues by following the right process and using royalty free music in your video ads.
Where to find free music for video editing
Clipchamp
Price: Free royalty free music
Here at Clipchamp we have an extensive Stock Library that encompasses thousands of audio tracks, from songs to sound effects. What makes our royalty free music different? You can access it and edit your marketing video all in our online video editor. We’ve even got a blog to show you how.
PremiumBeat
Price: Paid royalty free music
PremiumBeat offers a wide collection of royalty free audio files. These high quality tracks are great for video marketing however you will need to splash some cash on purchasing licences.
Artlist
Price: Paid royalty free music
Artlist is a subscription-based royalty free music provider that offers tracks created by independent musicians. This is an awesome option if you’re looking for something really unique and would like to learn more about where (or who) your music comes from.
Fiverr
Price: Paid royalty free music
Fiverr is a platform connecting businesses with freelancers – luckily this includes freelance composers, producers and musicians. Here you can search for someone to create custom royalty free music for your marketing videos and you can even filter your search results according to your budget.
Friends
Price: ???
If you’re lucky enough to have musically talented friends, your free-to-use music might be closer than you think. Ensure you set up a time to sit down and chat, agree on terms of use, credits and payment.
