The fastest ways to find royalty-free music for YouTube

You’re a YouTuber in need of some music for your steady stream of video content. You want your channel to have a more professional, polished look as well as a certain vibe that speaks to your personality. But if you don’t write and produce your own music ( or have friends who do it) and don’t have the budget to hire a composer, you may be wondering what to do.

Thankfully, the internet makes it quite easy to find background music for YouTube videos. As you’re about to learn, royalty-free music will become a great friend for your YouTube background music needs.

What is YouTube royalty-free music?

Historically, when using music for film, television, or video, creators were required to license music for their projects. Usually, this meant paying for a “needle drop” or “sync” license, an arrangement in which a user would pay the song’s and recording’s owner (typically a record label) a fee each time the song/recording was used. This very quickly gets expensive, especially if the artist and/or song is particularly well-known and beloved.

Alternatively, YouTubers and filmmakers can look for background music for video and music for commercial use in the public domain or Creative Commons. Public domain music is that which is free to use, though perhaps with some restrictions. So if you’re looking for free background music for YouTube, you can consider those free. Just be aware that using some type of free non-copyrighted music for YouTube might make your videos look antiquated or less appealing.

Royalty-free music is yet another type of music license. Not to be confused with copyright-free music for YouTube like public domain tunes, which is basically free music for YouTube videos (and any other types of videos for that matter), royalty-free music is a music license in which a song is bought only once and used for as long as one wishes. That is to say, the user doesn’t have to pay a royalty (a fee) every time they use the song. While not as cheap as no-copyright background music, when you consider the highly expensive alternative of using popular songs, royalty-free BGM will probably give you more value for your money than free music for YouTube videos.

Practically speaking, this means that YouTubers can use a piece of royalty-free music for as many projects as they like. You could, for instance, use a royalty-free tune as your channel’s theme music or use several different ones for specific segments in your videos.

Where to find royalty-free music for videos?

As noted above, you don’t have to look very far to find royalty-free music platforms, many of them subscription-based, like Artlist. These platforms exist to serve YouTubers, Twitch streamers, filmmakers, advertisers and many other people in need of background music.

While checking out the options, be aware that platforms will have different restrictions in their License Agreements, so be sure to read them. For instance, there might be time limits, geographic restrictions or even stipulations as to what media the songs can be used in. You really don’t want to be restricted as to when, where and how you use the YouTube royalty-free music you license.

Perfect music for your YouTube channel

How Artlist’s royalty-free music library works

Of course, we think that Artlist is the best platform for finding and purchasing royalty-free music. We have thousands upon thousands of songs, all of which are easy to search. As for the subscription, license and user experience, efficiency and simplicity are the main factors.

With an Artlist subscription, you get unlimited access to the catalog. Every song and sound is available to you. The Artlist license has almost no restrictions regarding the video content you’re creating or the platform you’re posting it on. And there is no limit on the number of projects you can use a song in. This means you can use the same track for your YouTube channel but also if you later decide to launch a podcast or produce a film. In the future perhaps you decide to transition into directing commercials. Well, you can use the same song there.

The Artlist license also covers all social media channels, websites, broadcasts and wedding videos. It’s up to you how you want to use royalty-free music, but aside from YouTube videos, tunes can also be used in animations, games and apps (background only), slides and presentations.

One important thing to note is that your Artlist subscription entitles you to the use of royalty-free songs but it does not mean you own the song/recording itself.

Below, we’ll explain the Artlist catalog’s functionality.

The fastest ways to find YouTube royalty-free music on Artlist

Since efficiency is a key factor when it comes to looking for music for your YouTube video, let’s look at the fastest ways to find the perfect song for your content.

The Artlist search filters

Start by typing a vibe, idea, or term into the search bar or browse freely. Either way, Artlist’s filters are here to help you refine your search without boxing in your creativity. You can filter by mood, video theme, genre, vocals, instruments, duration, or BPM. 

You can layer and combine filters to get more precise, or remove them just as easily to expand your options. Then sort your results by Staff Picks, Top Downloads, or Newest to see what’s fresh, proven, or personally recommended. And if you’re in a hurry, turn Highlights on — it’ll start each song preview at its most exciting moment, so you get a feel for it right away.

Mood

Using the Mood filter, you can search for songs that are uplifting, Playful, Dark, Sexy, and so on. If you click on any of those moods, you’ll be presented with songs that match that mood, which you can listen to before downloading.

Video theme

In Video theme, you search for songs that fit different types of videos, like Business & Corporate, Vlog, Commercials, Sports & Fitness and many others. The Artlist Media team experts use their knowledge and experience to categorize each song according to the types of videos it is best suited for.

Genre

The Genre filter is pretty straightforward/ You will find styles like Hip Hop, Cinematic, Pop, Electronic, Classical and many others.

Instruments

Instruments is a great filter if you know that you’re looking for a song featuring acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, wind instruments, and dozens of others.

You can click on as many filters as you like, and it will narrow your search until you find that perfect song. But there is another very efficient way to make your search more accurate…

The exclude feature

Once you try it, you’ll realize that the ‘Exclude’ feature can help speed up your search significantly. It allows you to exclude any filter from your search. If you’re looking for a Classical piece that doesn’t feature a Piano, a Cinematic piece that is not Sad or a Rock song that is not Retro, excluding these categories from your search can save you a ton of time.

You can find the ‘Exclude’ feature when you click on any category filter (Mood, Genre, Video Theme and Instrument). It appears as a ‘-’ sign.

Similar songs

To view similar songs of a music track you’re interested in, just click on the overlapping circles icon on its right. You’ll then see a list of related songs that you can download directly, save to your favorites, share with others, or add to a collection.

Search the way you actually think

No more forcing your ideas into awkward keywords. Artlist’s AI-powered search understands what you mean — even if it’s vague, messy, or emotional. Just type something like “lo-fi chill beat for rainy night video” or “epic instrumental for slow motion reveal,” and let the AI do the rest.

It’s trained to understand creative language, recognize intent, and overlook things like typos or phrasing differences. The result? You get accurate, relevant tracks on your first try — and you spend less time guessing what to type next.

Create on-trend

Need music that aligns with what your audience is hearing right now? Artlist has two powerful features to help you tap into the moment.

First, there are trending tags — a live pulse of what other creators are searching for. They update in real-time, so you can spot creative trends as they happen and use them to spark new ideas.

Then there’s Trending in Social Media — a widget that shows you the top songs on TikTok, YouTube, and Spotify every week. You can even filter by country across 17 global markets, so if your audience is in Germany, Mexico, or the US, you’ll see what’s charting for them specifically.

For every trending song, Artlist suggests up to 10 royalty-free tracks from its own catalog that are musically similar and creatively aligned. 

Artboards

AI-powered artboards help with organizing, planning, and refining the vision for your next video. You can use Artboards to pin down a look, a sound, a feeling — then let AI suggest more music, footage, and sound effects that match your theme. It’s especially helpful when you’re working with a client, pulling references for an edit, or just feeling out a new idea. Whether you’re totally clear on what you want or just looking for inspiration, Artboards help you bring it together in one creative space.

Collections

On the Spotlight section of the platform, you will find various collections of curated music – songs that were handpicked with a certain theme in mind. While this may be a slightly different approach to finding YouTube royalty-free music, it could prove to be one of the fastest ways of getting the perfect royalty song for your YouTube video.

Why? Because since the collections are curated by our expert Media team, you can be certain that you will be listening to the best songs in the theme they were curated for.

For example, if you’re looking for a song in the trendy trap genre, you will find the heaviest kicks and illest drops Artlist has to offer on a special Trap collection. You can find a broad collection like perfect for YouTube or a narrower one for the travel vlog genre, as well as ones that offer inspiration from some of the best YouTubers out there, like Camera Girl Helena, D4Darious, and Currently Hannah, amongst others.

If you want to go retro, you can find collections with 1980s and 1990s vibes, as well as dreamy, nostalgic songs that would be ideal for Super 8 film-inspired videos.

If you want to get really specific, you can even find curated collections that would fit drone aerial footage or enhance your FPV (First-person view) videos.

A short recap

To create that polished, professional look and a vibe that represents your personality, you’re going to want music. Outside of making your own, enlisting the help of a composer friend or using free music for your YouTube videos that might be antiquated or of low quality, royalty-free music is the easiest way to do it.

Explore your options but keep an eye on the platform’s License Agreement and features. You’re going to want a license that gives you the maximum amount of freedom with a feature-rich way of browsing tunes.