80 Level Digest: Free Music for Game Developers & 3D Artists

Music is an integral part of nearly any project, especially video games, so before you start seriously working on releasing your game or video, you should think about what it will sound like. Here, we've collected websites where you can get free music for your next creative endeavor.

Even though the music in this list is free, it comes with licenses, which have their limitations. Some tracks are yours to do whatever you want with them, but others require you to credit the creator.

Most of the free music is distributed under a Creative Commons license.

There are several Creative Commons licenses, so make sure you read the conditions carefully. 

If it doesn't scare you, let's start!

Pixabay

Pixabay is a place not only for music, it also offers stock images and videos. There are over 2.7 million pieces of high-quality content that you can use commercially and noncommercially. You don't have to credit the creator, but do it if you can, it is really appreciated.

What is allowed:

• All content (e.g. images, videos, music) on Pixabay can be used for free for commercial and noncommercial use across print and digital, except in the cases mentioned in "What is not allowed".
• Attribution is not required. Giving credit to the artist or Pixabay is not necessary but is always appreciated by our community.
• You can make modifications to content from Pixabay.

What is not allowed:

• Don't redistribute or sell Pixabay content on other stock or wallpaper platforms.
• Don't sell unaltered copies of content, e.g. don't sell an exact copy of a stock photo as a poster, print or on a physical product.
• Don't portray identifiable people in a bad light or in a way that is offensive.
• Don't use content with identifiable persons or brands to create a misleading association with a product or service.

Chosic

Next on our list is Chosic, which provides 218 tracks just in the gaming category. Of course, there are many others ready to be used in your projects. The music can be used for commercial purposes, and you will need to credit the artist in most cases.

What you can't do:

• You cannot claim music as your own or register it in any store/platform.
• You can use music for Facebook videos but you cannot register them to the Facebook Rights Manager Service.
• You may not use music in an audio track that you intend to put into the Content ID system.

Videvo

The team behind Videvo has a straightforward goal: to provide affordable stock footage and enable creators worldwide to produce fantastic visual content. Initially, they started as a free stock footage service, but they have expanded their offerings by including sound effects and music tracks. Currently, they have over 1.5 million premium stock assets available for use.

As a free user, you'll get access to over 50,000+ free stock video clips and motion graphics, animated backgrounds, and hundreds of free sound effects.

The company only works with a select number of trusted providers for premium content, and gives each a bigger cut of the pie, so that earnings are not diluted across thousands of contributors. By working with fewer, more well-established contributors, the team can also be sure that the content has been sourced responsibly and is safe to use. Furthermore, the content is provided in 1080p HD minimum resolution, and most of the content is now provided in 4K.

ccMixter Music

Here, you can find music for games, films, videos, and anything else you can think of. There are licenses for commercial and noncommercial use. You can use filters to choose the right license and see instrumental songs. You are required to give credit to the musicians.

Free Music Archive

The Archive provides access to independent artists and original music under Creative Commons licenses. Most tracks allow you to copy and redistribute them in any medium or format, but there are different conditions, so read them before downloading. You can sort the files by genre or check out the chart of popular melodies.

Twin Musicom

Everything on this site is offered under the Creative Commons By Attribution license, which means you have to credit Twin Musicom. The tracks can be used in vlogs, gaming videos, home movies, commercials, as well as video games, plays, live streams, and more. All free songs are available in MP3 encoded at 128 kbps CBR. 

You can filter the results by genre or mood. While it doesn't have a vast collection of music, it is still useful and easy to navigate.

Incompetech

Incompetech is run by Kevin MacLeod and offers a sizable collection of tracks. The author allows using what you like wherever you want as long as their contribution is mentioned. And if you like Kevin's music, you can commission a piece, and he will write something great for you, even for free because he likes composing so much. We strongly recommend donating though, it is hard work after all.

There is also a list of other websites you can use to find music in the Q&A section, check it out.

ZapSplat

Music, sound effects, and SFX packs can be found here. Use them for your works royalty free but don't share the files with third parties. As usual, you have to credit the source. Basic accounts are allowed three downloads per 10 minutes, if you want to remove the limitation (as well as the attribution requirement), you'll have to become a Gold member.

Purple Planet Music

This website is a collection of music written and performed by Chris Martyn and Geoff Harvey. You can use the MP3s for free at 192kbps, with attribution required. High-quality WAVs are available for those who support the creators. Choose from a variety of moods and use the files in YouTube videos, including monetized channels, Facebook and other social media, your website, vlog, or podcast.

IndieGameMusic

This platform is created by Roald Strauss, a musician, game- and system developer, and computer scientist, who wants to make it easier for indie game developers with a tight budget to find music for their games.

IndieGameMusic asks you to specify the platform your project will be released on and the mood needed for the scene. You can also search for artists available for project work.

While you are free to download the music, you need to contact the author and request a license, even if it is free, before including it in your game.

Free Music on Reddit

There are plenty of YouTube channels offering entire playlists of royalty-free music, it would be impossible to get them all in one list, so here is a subreddit where users collect freely-distributable compositions. You'll see many links to songs of different genres. It's a bit chaotic and it might not be easy to find what you're looking for, but it's worth a shot.

This is it for our list of free music for developers and artists. We are sure you have your own sources, so share them in the comments and don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform, our Reddit page, and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.