How To

Find and Download Royalty-Free Music and Sounds

The following websites provide digital music tracks that may be used in digital stories and shared on the web. Many of these sites provide music under a Creative Commons license where musicians give away their music for certain non-commercial purposes or place their music in the public domain where it may be used without any restrictions. Some sites let you use music without any restrictions while others require you to include a citation to the music or website when you found it. I suggest that you carefully review the "about" pages where you will find terms of usage for each site to make sure that you follow their guidelines when including music from these sites in your own digital storytelling projects.

Jason McCoy's helpful post, How to Find Free Music for Videos provides a great place to begin your exploration of free music that can be used in digital stories.  

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Jamendo
http://www.jamendo.com/en/

Jamendo Instrumental Tracks
http://www.jamendo.com/en/search?qs=q=tags_idstr:%22instrumental%22

Screencast: How to Save Music from Jamendo
https://youtu.be/CMmjnSxabLo

Terms of use
http://www.jamendo.com/en/faq

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dig.ccmixter
http://dig.ccmixter.org/

Screencast: How to Save Music from ccMixter
http://www.screenr.com/VJf8

Terms of use
http://ccmixter.org/about

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FreePD.com
http://freepd.com/

Screencast: How to Save Music from FreePD.com
http://www.screenr.com/hQf8

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Ghost Notes
http://ghostnotes.blogspot.com/

Terms of use
http://ghostnotes.blogspot.com/2005/02/introduction_110876894548637991.html

From the Ghost Notes website:
I have decided that I would like to lend, anyone who ASKS me, via email, comment, or other method, usage of my music for their commercial projects, free of charge and without me collecting the royalties on that specific production, once I have given them written approval. Once given approval (I am very quick to respond, and haven't turned anyone down yet), I will indicate that I will allow commercial usage for free and you can proceed. 

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Opsound
http://opsound.org/index.php

Opsound Instrumental Tracks
http://opsound.org/tag/instrumental

Terms of use
http://opsound.org/info/license/

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Free Music Archive
http://freemusicarchive.org/

FAQ about Legal Music
http://www.freemusicarchive.org/faq

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Free Music Public Domain
http://www.freemusicpublicdomain.com/

Information about Creative Commons Music License
http://www.freemusicpublicdomain.com/licenses/

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Royalty Free Music: Free Creative Commons Tracks
https://www.silvermansound.com/free-music

Creative Commons Music Infographic
https://www.silvermansound.com/post/creative-commons-music-infographic

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Freesound
http://www.freesound.org/browse/tags/music/

Terms of Use
http://www.freesound.org/help/tos_web/
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Incompetech
http://incompetech.com/

Music FAQ
http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/faq.html

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CCTrax
http://www.cctrax.com/

How Creative Commons Licenses Work
http://www.cctrax.com/how-creative-commons-licenses-work

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You may also want to explore the article, NASA Posts a Huge Library of Space Sounds, And You’re Free To Use Them which describes free audio available from NASA posted on the website, SoundCloud.