Research Guides: Finding Creative Commons Content: Audio

Openly Licensed Music

You can use other people's music for your project as long as you have permission or if it is openly licensed. These resources below are great for finding audio that is licensed for reuse. Be sure to provide attribution to all content you use that was created by someone else.

Pixabay Music
Pixabay includes thousands of royalty-free songs that fall under either Public Domain or the Pixabay 'content license.' Both allow for use in videos, podcasts and other projects.
Free Music Archive
Need music for your next project? The FMA has a huge library of openly licensed audio.
Bandcamp Creative Commons Search
Many bands make their music open by providing a creative commons license. Bandcamp doesn't have a perfect way to find these bands, but the creative commons tag (this link) or searching the term "creative commons" will provide many options.
Creative Commons on Soundcloud
Creative Commons has a Soundcloud channel with many options.
YouTube Audio Library
Choose from thousands of songs and type of license (attribution required or not required). Add to your YouTube video after upload or view the library (this link) to download and use in various projects.
MusOpen
"We provide recordings, sheet music, and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions. Put simply, our mission is to set music free." Login required for downloads.

Openly Licensed Sounds

Sound Bible
"SoundBible.com offers thousands of free sound effects, sound clips, and straight up sounds." Various CC licenses.
Pixabay Sound Effects
Pixabay also has an astounding 70,000+ sound effects to use in videos, podcasts and other projects (all openly licensed and royalty-free).
Zapsplat
ZapSplat includes thousands of sounds for videos and podcasts. All content is free for any use but must include attribution (license info). Login required to download content.
Free Sound
Freesound is a collaborative database of audio released under Creative Commons licenses. Login required to download content.
CC Mixter
"This is a community music remixing site featuring remixes and samples licensed under Creative Commons licenses." Useful for creating music.