With Creative Commons licenses, you do have to be sure to take a careful look at the specific license which will show you exactly how you can use the content that has been provided for free. There’s no better place to learn about the various CC licenses than the official Creative Commons website.
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is a great resource for people looking to share their music, podcasts, and more, so it’s no surprise that you can find a lot of decent Creative Commons recorded sounds as well. There are a few ways you can find CC tracks on SoundCloud. The easiest way to find quality sounds is by going to the moderated Creative Commons group, which currently has over 3,000 clips. There are also some accounts that share tracks including we are cc and Crazy Language. To find out more about the service, check out our in-depth review of SoundCloud.
JewelBeat
JewelBeat provides its users free-to-use music, which you can use in your online videos, ads, and more — the only requirement is crediting the site by adding a credit link to the website. You can also let them know, via Twitter or Facebook, where you used the music. There isn’t too much to choose from, and no way to search the site, but the complete lack of restrictions make it a good place to start if you’re looking for totally free music.Jamendo
Jamendo boasts a library of over 400,000 tracks, but not all of them are licensed under Creative Commons, so when selecting music from this site, be sure to choose only the tracks that are available to use for free. While you can’t filter your search results to show only CC-licensed results, any tracks that aren’t free to use will have a ‘pro’ button next to them so they’re easy to spot. The license for the tracks are listed at the bottom of the page, so be sure to scroll down to the very bottom to check exactly how you can use the audio.
Audionautix
Audionautix features only music licensed under the Creative Commons 3.0 unported license. That means you are free to share and remix the audio, and use it commercially. A nice feature that Audionautix brings to the table is allowing you to search for tracks not only by genre, but also by mood and tempo. This could make it much easier to stumble upon the perfect track for your work.
Free Music Archive
The Free Music Archive’s tagline is one that will appeal to anyone who’s been on the hunt for decent Creative Commons music — “It’s not just free music; it’s good music.” As you search for music, by genre or curator, you can open up each track or album to see what kind of license its creator has shared it under. Genres include spoken, international, rock, hip-hop, electronic, and more.
FreeSound
FreeSound allows its visitors to search music by tags. A huge tag cloud will give you a place to start if you’re not entirely sure what type of song you want to use. You’ll need to sign up for a free account to download audio files, and as always, be sure to take a look at the exact license listed on the track’s page so you know how you can use the audio.
Incompetech
Incompetech is a good place to find full-length Creative Commons tracks, and like Audionautix, you can search the library by genre or by mood (or feel as they call it). Music on this site is licensed under the Attribution 3.0 Unported license, meaning you are free to share, remix and use commercially, as long as you credit the site. If you’d rather not credit the site, Incompetech allows you to pay a nominal fee to do so.CCMixter
Another major Creative Commons library that is not to be missed is CCMixter. The site is packed with music that is free to download, sample and share. As is the case with all sites, you should take a close look at the license on each clip so that you adhere to the license restrictions — particularly as far as using the music in any sort of commercial way. To find out more, check out our in-depth review of CCMixter.
Bumpfoot
Bumpfoot describes itself as ”a non-profit netlabel in Japan,” which releases full albums under the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license — meaning you can share and remix their tracks, as long as you credit Bumpfoot and this is one site which explicitly states that you cannot use their tracks for commercial purposes. The tracks are mainly techno, house, ambient, and IDM. (A netlabel, for those of you who were wondering, is an online label).Musopen
In its own words, Musopen is a “non-profit focused on improving access and exposure to music by creating free resources and educational materials. We provide recordings, sheet music, and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions. Put simply, our mission is to set music free.” If you’re looking for a piece of classical music for your project or video, they provide recordings, as well as the sheet music. You can browse by composer, performer, instrument, period, or form.
CCTrax
CCTrax allows you to search an entire Creative Commons library of music by genre. Genres listed on the site include electronica, dub, hip hop, house, jazz, piano, and modern classical. They also have a handy flowchart that breaks down the Creative Commons licenses so you can better understand what each individual license means and, if you want to share your music, which one is right for you.
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a place you can go to find a lot more than just free music, but one section of the site links to a bunch of netlabels, including Bumpfoot among many others.iBeat
iBeat offers free tracks which you can browse by genre — alternative, urban, pop and more. In addition to browsing tracks by genre, you can also browse by instrument.
Audiofarm
Finally, Audiofarm provides its visitors with Creative Commons tracks, and in addition to finding music of various genres, you can also download voice recordings, if that happens to be what you’re looking for. Voice recordings included on Audiofarm are voice acting, comedy, and news. This is another site where you need to check the license as not all content shared on Audiofarm is licensed under Creative Commons.
You can be sure that there are more music libraries out there. Can you think of any other sites to add to the list? Do you use Creative Commons in any creative way? Let us know in the comments.
Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/14-websites-to-find-free-creative-commons-music/
Honorable Mentions:
Noisetrade.com
Bandcamp.com
