notes:music:royalty_free_music
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Table of Contents
Royalty-free music
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list; rather, it's a personal list of artists and websites which caught my eye and which I might find myself going back to in the future.
Entries in bold are personal favourites.
Remember, if you want music fine-tuned for your project, you're going to have to pay for it.
Collections
- DOVA SYNDROME - popular royalty-free music repository in Japan, with many contributing artists; make sure to check the license for each file you download; if you're in Europe, using the YouTube channel may be an easier way to browse through their work.
- OpenGameArt - mixed bag quality-wise, some real hidden gems exist though; has a strong focus on using CC-style licenses.
Creators
CC0
CC-BY / OGA-BY
- Alcaknight - 100+ songs, piano-centric, with a visual novel vibe; must be downloaded from SoundCloud; CC-BY 3.0
- ISAo/AIRYLUVS - OGA-BY 3.0; more songs by the same artist available under other licenses
- OtoLogic - CC-BY 4.0
- Steven O'Brien - CC-BY 3.0; note that not all of the artist's music is Creative Commons
Informal licenses
- Peritune - 300+ songs; OGG/M4A versions are available for free for royalty-free use, lossless WAV versions must be purchased; credit appreciated but optional; premium BGMs available. (While the “about” page lists CC-BY 4.0 as the license, the other terms are contradictory.)
- Kevin MacLeod - if you've ever been to the Western Internet, you've heard his work. Has music for just about every occasion. Nobody got fired for using Kevin MacLeod BGMs.
- Ontama - 500+ songs; OGG/MP3 versions are available; credit not required.
- Ross Budgen - more experimental; credit required.
- TAM Music Factory - around since 1998! MP3/OGG/MIDI versions are avaialble. Credit not required for non-commercial use, required for commercial use; no need to notify TAM since June 2021; some songs can have the credit requirement waived for a fee. Some types of content (18+, sensitive, etc.) are not allowed - check with the website.
- Wingless Seraph - mostly game-centric songs; credit required.
Unique sources
- shiru8bit - CC-BY 3.0; has a lot of chiptune music in atypical formats.
More restrictive licenses than that
- Battle of the Bits - chiptune community with CC BY-NC-SA licensing. This is quite more restrictive than the typical expectation for “royalty-free music”, but if you're working on a jam game or a homebrew game, you might find this restriction irrelevant.
Lists I've used to make this list
These contain more artists than my own, so…!
- LemmaSoft forums' royalty-free music list - made with Ren'Py users in mind
notes/music/royalty_free_music.1675013735.txt.gz · Last modified: 2023/01/29 17:35 by asie