It can be frustrating finding the right music library. So, how do you determine the best royalty free music for independent filmmakers?

Best Royalty Free Music | equalizer 153212 1280 1

It’s simple really! We break it down into a cost, quality and variety style as a metric. As an independent filmmaker, you don’t want to fork out an absolute fortune on a tune for your intro credits – but on the other hand, you also don’t want a soundtrack that sounds like they have recorded it with a bin lid and a block of cheese.

We’ve broken down a list of our favourite music libraries for all to see… scroll below, it’ll blow your mind, or blow your speakers… Something like that.

The best music libraries for independent filmmakers.

1. Bensound

Bens great… And his music is even better!

Bensound is brilliant, he composes absolutely everything himself. For one man he’s produced a lot of music – luckily for you guys it’s all royalty free and of ridiculous quality. The subscriptions as very reasonable, and are two-tiered:

  • Standard subscription: £139 per year, renew at £79 (For YouTube, online videos, Facebook and social media).
  • Extended subscription: £390 per year, renew at £320 (For web Advertising (through an advertising network) and Television/Film).

… On to the next.

2. Marmoset

Marmoset
Same name, different animal.

Marmoset is a wonderful music library.

The wealth of the music in this library is impeccable – you have mountains of genres and types. It’s on the pricier side but well worth it. We love the search criteria functionality – you can search by character and story filters.

…Hypothetically (if you wanted to), this allows you to really encapsulate the sheer horror in your short film and scare the living S*@TBAGS out of your audience…

3. Filmstro

Filmstro

This is the perfect platform for indie filmmakers. It has exclusive music by high-end composers, adding new music on a weekly basis. An abundance of quality and genres – It even directly plugs into Premiere pro and FCPX.

It has music to suit your workflow, allowing you to change the power, momentum and depth to suit your edit.

Find out more about Filmstro here.

4. 909 Music

No joke. This is hosted on Soundcloud and it’s ruddy brilliant. The assortment of music is impressive and they have prebuilt multiple playlists that are easy to download for you to add to your masterpiece.

It has a unique array of music free for you to come as you please.

NEXT!

909 Music

5. AudioJungle

It’s audio jungle.

One of the most affordable of the platforms of all. It’s a bit like a marketplace but instead of fresh fruit and veg, it offers a foray of interesting sounds:

  • Feature
  • Short
  • Animated
  • Sound effects

It values quality over quantity, everything is of the highest quality and will help you no end with your project.