Where To Find Travel Video Royalty Free Background Music

I’ll keep this post pretty short and sweet.

Ever since I started creating travel videos for YouTube, I came across an issue. A time consuming issue. Quite often the background music that accompanies the travel vlog makes the video….but finding the right track can be a tedious process.

For those travel vloggers who want to make some money from your YouTube videos, you need to find music tracks that are either royalty free, or have a license to be reused. But searching for those tracks in the first place can be incredibly time consuming.

So, in order to retain my sanity and hopefully help a few other travel bloggers and vloggers out there, here’s a list of my go-to destinations for royalty free music to accompany my videos.

YOUTUBE AUDIO LIBRARY (https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music) – a really useful resource as it tells you upfront which tracks are free or ad supported. You can even pick up a nice sound effect, should you want one. There is no desktop player controls, so you have listen to the whole track before making a choice. Some of the tracks are also pretty short, but there is a good selection, based on genre and mood.

JAMENDO (https://www.jamendo.com/en/) – Jamendo has loads of royalty free tracks, and they also have a nice selection of stock music for commercial use (for those that are selling products or services through your travel videos). This is my second most used site for video tracks.

INCOMPETECH (http://incompetech.com/music/) – This site is a little clunky (especially its search function), but it does have some good tracks which you won’t find anywhere else. I generally prefer ‘uplifting’, ‘bouncy’, ‘happy/cheerful’ tunes and you’re bound to come across one you like, with the right length and genre.

EPIDEMIC SOUND (https://player.epidemicsound.com/) – Travel bloggers and creators love this site, and rightly so. Get access to over 30,000 tracks, a free 30 day trial and a music subscription from £10 per month. Perfect for monetising your YouTube videos 🙂

INDIECURRENT (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWPqvTI1HMOC0xxyaqfLtXQ) – The next two in the list are slightly left field, and require some additional work, but are well worth it if you find the right track. Indiecurrent is a YouTube channel with some of the latest and greatest tracks from the Independent music scene. Some artists are signed up, some are unsigned. To check, download the track (I use Wondershare All My Tube to grab it from YouTube), create a 10-second blank video containing only a snippet of the track, and load it as a private video onto YouTube. Once live, YouTube will alert you to any copyright notices, and if there are none, you’re all good. I always credit the artist in the video description, and send them a note saying I’ve used their track. It’s good manners if nothing else.

BIRP FM (http://www.birp.fm/) – Same idea as Indiecurrent, except this site spits out an amazing new playlist every month. Well worth keeping an eye on!

Royalty free doesn’t always mean ‘free’. The next few are still royalty free, but you need to pay a license fee to get hold of the track.

AUDIOJUNGLE (http://audiojungle.net/) – Audiojungle is a great resource, and most of their tracks cost between $1 and $19. This is the cheaper option for audio music files, but well worth it if you find the right background track.

PREMIUMBEAT (http://www.premiumbeat.com/) – This site is slick. Great search function, and some pretty amazing tracks. I found this site after hearing this track, and was also the site I made my first (and biggest) music track purchase ($39).

FOXIMUSIC (https://www.foximusic.com/) – This site is mostly paid for tracks, and is essentially a hydrid of Premiumbeat and Beatsuite. It doesn’t have a great site function, but you can pick up some good music tracks.

BEATSUITE (http://www.beatsuite.com/) – This site is basically a hybrid of Audiojungle and Premiumbeat, but still has a good search function. Most tracks are purchased through Audiojungle.

BANDCAMP (https://bandcamp.com/) – Discover new music and directly support the artists that make it. Bandcamp does what it says on the tin, and you can find some invaluable, unique music across the site to fit the background of your travel videos.

Are there any sites that you use to find background music for your travel videos? Please share in the comments below if so!

And one final thought….when you are travelling round a country and you come across a musical act or street performer you love, tell them you’re a blogger and ask them to compose something for you. For a small fee it might just be the best and most authentic track you can use 🙂

Update – this post contains some affiliate links. Whilst all of the above music sites are based on personal opinion, any purchases on Audiojungle or Foximusic made by your good selves allows me to make a few pennies. It’s important to disclose these things you see 🙂