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[Updated] Enhancing Video Discoverability with Smart Thumbnails
Enhancing Video Discoverability with Smart Thumbnails
Best YouTube Thumbnail Size: How to Make a Thumbnail for YouTube in 2024
Benjamin Arango
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
You must have heard the phrase, Never judge a book by its cover. But actually, we do judge everything by its cover. The same is the case with Youtube videos. No matter how good the content of your video is if you are unable to convey that with the thumbnail of your video, it will not bring any good to your channel. If you are looking forward to growing your channel and attracting more viewers, then having an appealing and eye-catching thumbnail is one of the most important factors. There are several things to be considered while creating a custom thumbnail if you want to make your videos look stunning and engaging. By following all these points, you can increase the chances of your channel’s growth.
In this article, we have 5 chapters for you：
- Best YouTube Thumbnail Size
- How Important is a Custom Thumbnail?
- Best Practices From Experiences
- How to Make a Fortnite Thumbnail
- How to Add a Custom Thumbnail to Your Video
Best YouTube Thumbnail Size
Being a content creator, you never know which device is being used by the viewer to watch your videos. It can be a smartphone, laptop, pc, or smart TV. It is very important to keep all these devices in mind while choosing a Youtube thumbnail size. For the best possible results, consider the following points while making a thumbnail for your Youtube videos.
- To cover all the devices perfectly, set the thumbnail resolution to 1280x720
- Save the thumbnail in JPG, GIF, or PNG format
- Try not to cross the 2MB limit
- Make sure to use a 16:9 aspect ratio for perfect results throughout the devices
How Important is a Custom Thumbnail?
Custom Thumbnail is a tool through which the viewers can understand everything about a video. It tells the viewers what to expect from a video, what not to expect, and what the video is all about. no matter if you create amazing content, if the thumbnail is not good enough to covey that to the viewers, all your hard work will be of no use and will not bring any good to your channel and its growth. According to Google ,90% of best-performing videos have custom thumbnails. It shows the importance of custom thumbnails.
Best Practice From Experiences
Now, since we know the importance of having a custom thumbnail, it is important to know how to make a thumbnail for Youtube look perfect, appealing, and eye-catching at the same time. There are some points to be considered while creating a thumbnail for Youtube. We will provide you with the best practices that we have learned throughout our journey of using Youtube and growing it from zero.
7 best practices can help you make your Youtube thumbnail stand out from the crowd and make its way out.
In a world full of machines and computers, people love to listen and interact with people instead of computer-generated voices and a voice without a face. Showing your face on a Youtube thumbnail makes it more appealing to users to click and listen to the person who is being shown in the thumbnail. Humans are more inclined towards faces. When there is a human element in a video, it increases its effectiveness. Check out the pics below, which one are you most likely to click through?
With your face, it is necessary to put some text on your Youtube thumbnail to let viewers know what this video is all about without clicking or watching it. Don’t use fancy fonts on Youtube thumbnail. It makes it hard for the viewers to read and understand what to expect in the video, especially for those watching YouTube on their 5 inches screen smartphone, ultimately decreasing the chances of your video being clicked and watched. I personally recommend you to use give these fonts a go while making YouTube thumbnail.
If you have ever noticed, Youtube thumbnails are very small in size, making it hard for viewers to notice any small elements. According to YouTube , more than 70% of Youtube watch time comes from mobile devices. While adding text in a thumbnail, instead of using sentences, make sure to use only words and make them large in size that can easily be noticed on small screens. Summurise your video in no more than 5 words.
When we navigate to a Youtube thumbnail and place the cursor on it, it shows us two icons, “Watch Later” and “Add to Queue,” located on its right size. Come on, you don’t want your beautiful thumbnail that cost you a few hours be covered. To avoid these icons from hiding your important stuff of thumbnail, make sure to put everything on the right side of your thumbnail.
Try to make all your thumbnails follow the same style. Following the same style for all your Youtube thumbnails will make your channel look unique and all your videos identical. It will be easy for viewers to identify your videos when they see them. It gives your channel a touch of its unique brand.
To make your Youtube thumbnail more appealing to the viewers, add circles and arrows to grab viewers’ attention to something very important in the video. It will increase the curiosity in the viewers and make them click your videos to learn more.
This whole process seems to be very hectic and time taking, but do you know, you can do everything on just one software? There is no need to edit a video in a different software then make a thumbnail in another software. With Filmora X, you can perform all these tasks on a single platform with so many amazing features. Whether you want to remove the background of your image or add attractive titles to it, Filmora X has got you covered.
It is one of the old tricks that so many people on Youtube use. It undoubtedly brings you clicks and more views, but once the viewer realizes that you have used irrelevant pictures or texts to attract them**. I**n reality, your video doesn’t contain any information related to it, you are going to lose their trust. They are never going to click on your videos again. Even if you don’t use such a trick anymore. Try to avoid such activities. Avoiding such activities can make your channel grow in the long term. Only use the text and images that are relevant to your content and stick to that.
Do you know that Youtube can show a 3-second preview of your video when someone hovers the cursor over it? It is one of the best ways to show the viewers the content of your video even when they don’t click on your video. These three seconds will help them decide whether to click on your video or not. This preview is selected by the system from the first half of your video according to its relevance and similarity with the topic. That’s why it is very important to add related information in the first half of the video, otherwise, Youtube will choose it randomly. If the preview is not selected for two days, it means your video is not eligible for it.
How to Make a Fortnite Thumbnail Super Fast and Free?
Many of you might be interested in how to make a fortnite thumbnail, so here it is. To make a Fortnite thumbnail for free, we are going to use Filmora X. Filmora X contains all kinds of features and elements that are required for a perfect and eye-catching thumbnail. To get started, make sure to download and install the latest version of Filmora X.
- Before we start making Fortnite Thumbnails, we have to take a screenshot of the gameplay. Open Fortnite and go to the Career tab. Here you will find Replays.
- It contains all your recent gameplays. We can use it to take a screenshot. If you are using a console, you will find 10 recent gameplays here. But if you are a PC user, you can find the last 100 gameplays. Select the gameplay you want to take a screenshot from.
- For our preferred angle, choose “Drone Free Camera” mode from the bottom right corner of the screen. It will allow us to use our preferred angle without any restriction. Choose an angle and take a screenshot.
- Open Filmora X, make sure to select the 16:9 screen ratio. Import the screenshot that you have taken from Fortnite.
- Place it into the timeline to start working on it.
- Now to separate the character from the background, go to the Effects. Under effects, you can find a tab named AI Portraits. Click on AI Portrait. Now drag the Human Segmentation and drop it on the screenshot in the timeline.
- It will ask you to purchase it. But there is no need to do that. Just hit Try It.
- This effect will remove the background of your screenshot.
- Now you can add a background of your choice. You can upload an image or choose a simple color from Filmora’s Media tab and drag it below the screenshot in the timeline.
- To add text to the screenshot, go to Titles. Here you can find a wide range of different and unique titles to choose from for your Fortnite Thumbnail. Choose any of the titles and place them accordingly.
- To make it more attractive, we can add icons and other elements from Filmora’s Element tab. You can also download the stickers from the internet and use them.
- After completing the thumbnail, click on the Snapshot icon located below the preview tab of Filmora. Or press “CTRL+ALT+S”. It will save a screenshot into the media panel of Filmora.
- Right-click on the screenshot and navigate to “Reveal in Explorer”. It will open the folder that contains all the screenshots taken from Filmora. Now you can use it as a Fortnite Thumbnail.
How to Add a Custom YouTube Thumbnail to Your Video in YouTube
Once you have successfully created a custom thumbnail, you can use it in your videos on Youtube.
- Open Youtube Studio and upload your video. While uploading the video, you can see a section named “Thumbnail”. Under this section, click on “Upload Thumbnail”.
- Select the thumbnail that you have made. Just like the one Fortnite thumbnail that we have created using Filmora X.
- The thumbnail will be uploaded and attached to the video. Now you can process all the settings and publish the video.
Conclusion
Thumbnail is the first thing that helps the viewer decide whether to click on a video or ignore it. Which increases the importance of having a well-structured and attractive thumbnail. By following the above guide, you can make an astonishing and clickable thumbnail in no time. For better and quick results, we recommend you using Filmora X. It allows you to perform all the tasks from video editing to thumbnail creation on a single platform.
Benjamin Arango
Benjamin Arango is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Benjamin Arango
Benjamin Arango
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
You must have heard the phrase, Never judge a book by its cover. But actually, we do judge everything by its cover. The same is the case with Youtube videos. No matter how good the content of your video is if you are unable to convey that with the thumbnail of your video, it will not bring any good to your channel. If you are looking forward to growing your channel and attracting more viewers, then having an appealing and eye-catching thumbnail is one of the most important factors. There are several things to be considered while creating a custom thumbnail if you want to make your videos look stunning and engaging. By following all these points, you can increase the chances of your channel’s growth.
In this article, we have 5 chapters for you：
- Best YouTube Thumbnail Size
- How Important is a Custom Thumbnail?
- Best Practices From Experiences
- How to Make a Fortnite Thumbnail
- How to Add a Custom Thumbnail to Your Video
Best YouTube Thumbnail Size
Being a content creator, you never know which device is being used by the viewer to watch your videos. It can be a smartphone, laptop, pc, or smart TV. It is very important to keep all these devices in mind while choosing a Youtube thumbnail size. For the best possible results, consider the following points while making a thumbnail for your Youtube videos.
- To cover all the devices perfectly, set the thumbnail resolution to 1280x720
- Save the thumbnail in JPG, GIF, or PNG format
- Try not to cross the 2MB limit
- Make sure to use a 16:9 aspect ratio for perfect results throughout the devices
How Important is a Custom Thumbnail?
Custom Thumbnail is a tool through which the viewers can understand everything about a video. It tells the viewers what to expect from a video, what not to expect, and what the video is all about. no matter if you create amazing content, if the thumbnail is not good enough to covey that to the viewers, all your hard work will be of no use and will not bring any good to your channel and its growth. According to Google ,90% of best-performing videos have custom thumbnails. It shows the importance of custom thumbnails.
Best Practice From Experiences
Now, since we know the importance of having a custom thumbnail, it is important to know how to make a thumbnail for Youtube look perfect, appealing, and eye-catching at the same time. There are some points to be considered while creating a thumbnail for Youtube. We will provide you with the best practices that we have learned throughout our journey of using Youtube and growing it from zero.
7 best practices can help you make your Youtube thumbnail stand out from the crowd and make its way out.
In a world full of machines and computers, people love to listen and interact with people instead of computer-generated voices and a voice without a face. Showing your face on a Youtube thumbnail makes it more appealing to users to click and listen to the person who is being shown in the thumbnail. Humans are more inclined towards faces. When there is a human element in a video, it increases its effectiveness. Check out the pics below, which one are you most likely to click through?
With your face, it is necessary to put some text on your Youtube thumbnail to let viewers know what this video is all about without clicking or watching it. Don’t use fancy fonts on Youtube thumbnail. It makes it hard for the viewers to read and understand what to expect in the video, especially for those watching YouTube on their 5 inches screen smartphone, ultimately decreasing the chances of your video being clicked and watched. I personally recommend you to use give these fonts a go while making YouTube thumbnail.
If you have ever noticed, Youtube thumbnails are very small in size, making it hard for viewers to notice any small elements. According to YouTube , more than 70% of Youtube watch time comes from mobile devices. While adding text in a thumbnail, instead of using sentences, make sure to use only words and make them large in size that can easily be noticed on small screens. Summurise your video in no more than 5 words.
When we navigate to a Youtube thumbnail and place the cursor on it, it shows us two icons, “Watch Later” and “Add to Queue,” located on its right size. Come on, you don’t want your beautiful thumbnail that cost you a few hours be covered. To avoid these icons from hiding your important stuff of thumbnail, make sure to put everything on the right side of your thumbnail.
Try to make all your thumbnails follow the same style. Following the same style for all your Youtube thumbnails will make your channel look unique and all your videos identical. It will be easy for viewers to identify your videos when they see them. It gives your channel a touch of its unique brand.
To make your Youtube thumbnail more appealing to the viewers, add circles and arrows to grab viewers’ attention to something very important in the video. It will increase the curiosity in the viewers and make them click your videos to learn more.
This whole process seems to be very hectic and time taking, but do you know, you can do everything on just one software? There is no need to edit a video in a different software then make a thumbnail in another software. With Filmora X, you can perform all these tasks on a single platform with so many amazing features. Whether you want to remove the background of your image or add attractive titles to it, Filmora X has got you covered.
It is one of the old tricks that so many people on Youtube use. It undoubtedly brings you clicks and more views, but once the viewer realizes that you have used irrelevant pictures or texts to attract them**. I**n reality, your video doesn’t contain any information related to it, you are going to lose their trust. They are never going to click on your videos again. Even if you don’t use such a trick anymore. Try to avoid such activities. Avoiding such activities can make your channel grow in the long term. Only use the text and images that are relevant to your content and stick to that.
Do you know that Youtube can show a 3-second preview of your video when someone hovers the cursor over it? It is one of the best ways to show the viewers the content of your video even when they don’t click on your video. These three seconds will help them decide whether to click on your video or not. This preview is selected by the system from the first half of your video according to its relevance and similarity with the topic. That’s why it is very important to add related information in the first half of the video, otherwise, Youtube will choose it randomly. If the preview is not selected for two days, it means your video is not eligible for it.
How to Make a Fortnite Thumbnail Super Fast and Free?
Many of you might be interested in how to make a fortnite thumbnail, so here it is. To make a Fortnite thumbnail for free, we are going to use Filmora X. Filmora X contains all kinds of features and elements that are required for a perfect and eye-catching thumbnail. To get started, make sure to download and install the latest version of Filmora X.
- Before we start making Fortnite Thumbnails, we have to take a screenshot of the gameplay. Open Fortnite and go to the Career tab. Here you will find Replays.
- It contains all your recent gameplays. We can use it to take a screenshot. If you are using a console, you will find 10 recent gameplays here. But if you are a PC user, you can find the last 100 gameplays. Select the gameplay you want to take a screenshot from.
- For our preferred angle, choose “Drone Free Camera” mode from the bottom right corner of the screen. It will allow us to use our preferred angle without any restriction. Choose an angle and take a screenshot.
- Open Filmora X, make sure to select the 16:9 screen ratio. Import the screenshot that you have taken from Fortnite.
- Place it into the timeline to start working on it.
- Now to separate the character from the background, go to the Effects. Under effects, you can find a tab named AI Portraits. Click on AI Portrait. Now drag the Human Segmentation and drop it on the screenshot in the timeline.
- It will ask you to purchase it. But there is no need to do that. Just hit Try It.
- This effect will remove the background of your screenshot.
- Now you can add a background of your choice. You can upload an image or choose a simple color from Filmora’s Media tab and drag it below the screenshot in the timeline.
- To add text to the screenshot, go to Titles. Here you can find a wide range of different and unique titles to choose from for your Fortnite Thumbnail. Choose any of the titles and place them accordingly.
- To make it more attractive, we can add icons and other elements from Filmora’s Element tab. You can also download the stickers from the internet and use them.
- After completing the thumbnail, click on the Snapshot icon located below the preview tab of Filmora. Or press “CTRL+ALT+S”. It will save a screenshot into the media panel of Filmora.
- Right-click on the screenshot and navigate to “Reveal in Explorer”. It will open the folder that contains all the screenshots taken from Filmora. Now you can use it as a Fortnite Thumbnail.
How to Add a Custom YouTube Thumbnail to Your Video in YouTube
Once you have successfully created a custom thumbnail, you can use it in your videos on Youtube.
- Open Youtube Studio and upload your video. While uploading the video, you can see a section named “Thumbnail”. Under this section, click on “Upload Thumbnail”.
- Select the thumbnail that you have made. Just like the one Fortnite thumbnail that we have created using Filmora X.
- The thumbnail will be uploaded and attached to the video. Now you can process all the settings and publish the video.
Conclusion
Thumbnail is the first thing that helps the viewer decide whether to click on a video or ignore it. Which increases the importance of having a well-structured and attractive thumbnail. By following the above guide, you can make an astonishing and clickable thumbnail in no time. For better and quick results, we recommend you using Filmora X. It allows you to perform all the tasks from video editing to thumbnail creation on a single platform.
Benjamin Arango
Benjamin Arango is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Benjamin Arango
Benjamin Arango
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
You must have heard the phrase, Never judge a book by its cover. But actually, we do judge everything by its cover. The same is the case with Youtube videos. No matter how good the content of your video is if you are unable to convey that with the thumbnail of your video, it will not bring any good to your channel. If you are looking forward to growing your channel and attracting more viewers, then having an appealing and eye-catching thumbnail is one of the most important factors. There are several things to be considered while creating a custom thumbnail if you want to make your videos look stunning and engaging. By following all these points, you can increase the chances of your channel’s growth.
In this article, we have 5 chapters for you：
- Best YouTube Thumbnail Size
- How Important is a Custom Thumbnail?
- Best Practices From Experiences
- How to Make a Fortnite Thumbnail
- How to Add a Custom Thumbnail to Your Video
Best YouTube Thumbnail Size
Being a content creator, you never know which device is being used by the viewer to watch your videos. It can be a smartphone, laptop, pc, or smart TV. It is very important to keep all these devices in mind while choosing a Youtube thumbnail size. For the best possible results, consider the following points while making a thumbnail for your Youtube videos.
- To cover all the devices perfectly, set the thumbnail resolution to 1280x720
- Save the thumbnail in JPG, GIF, or PNG format
- Try not to cross the 2MB limit
- Make sure to use a 16:9 aspect ratio for perfect results throughout the devices
How Important is a Custom Thumbnail?
Custom Thumbnail is a tool through which the viewers can understand everything about a video. It tells the viewers what to expect from a video, what not to expect, and what the video is all about. no matter if you create amazing content, if the thumbnail is not good enough to covey that to the viewers, all your hard work will be of no use and will not bring any good to your channel and its growth. According to Google ,90% of best-performing videos have custom thumbnails. It shows the importance of custom thumbnails.
Best Practice From Experiences
Now, since we know the importance of having a custom thumbnail, it is important to know how to make a thumbnail for Youtube look perfect, appealing, and eye-catching at the same time. There are some points to be considered while creating a thumbnail for Youtube. We will provide you with the best practices that we have learned throughout our journey of using Youtube and growing it from zero.
7 best practices can help you make your Youtube thumbnail stand out from the crowd and make its way out.
In a world full of machines and computers, people love to listen and interact with people instead of computer-generated voices and a voice without a face. Showing your face on a Youtube thumbnail makes it more appealing to users to click and listen to the person who is being shown in the thumbnail. Humans are more inclined towards faces. When there is a human element in a video, it increases its effectiveness. Check out the pics below, which one are you most likely to click through?
With your face, it is necessary to put some text on your Youtube thumbnail to let viewers know what this video is all about without clicking or watching it. Don’t use fancy fonts on Youtube thumbnail. It makes it hard for the viewers to read and understand what to expect in the video, especially for those watching YouTube on their 5 inches screen smartphone, ultimately decreasing the chances of your video being clicked and watched. I personally recommend you to use give these fonts a go while making YouTube thumbnail.
If you have ever noticed, Youtube thumbnails are very small in size, making it hard for viewers to notice any small elements. According to YouTube , more than 70% of Youtube watch time comes from mobile devices. While adding text in a thumbnail, instead of using sentences, make sure to use only words and make them large in size that can easily be noticed on small screens. Summurise your video in no more than 5 words.
When we navigate to a Youtube thumbnail and place the cursor on it, it shows us two icons, “Watch Later” and “Add to Queue,” located on its right size. Come on, you don’t want your beautiful thumbnail that cost you a few hours be covered. To avoid these icons from hiding your important stuff of thumbnail, make sure to put everything on the right side of your thumbnail.
Try to make all your thumbnails follow the same style. Following the same style for all your Youtube thumbnails will make your channel look unique and all your videos identical. It will be easy for viewers to identify your videos when they see them. It gives your channel a touch of its unique brand.
To make your Youtube thumbnail more appealing to the viewers, add circles and arrows to grab viewers’ attention to something very important in the video. It will increase the curiosity in the viewers and make them click your videos to learn more.
This whole process seems to be very hectic and time taking, but do you know, you can do everything on just one software? There is no need to edit a video in a different software then make a thumbnail in another software. With Filmora X, you can perform all these tasks on a single platform with so many amazing features. Whether you want to remove the background of your image or add attractive titles to it, Filmora X has got you covered.
It is one of the old tricks that so many people on Youtube use. It undoubtedly brings you clicks and more views, but once the viewer realizes that you have used irrelevant pictures or texts to attract them**. I**n reality, your video doesn’t contain any information related to it, you are going to lose their trust. They are never going to click on your videos again. Even if you don’t use such a trick anymore. Try to avoid such activities. Avoiding such activities can make your channel grow in the long term. Only use the text and images that are relevant to your content and stick to that.
Do you know that Youtube can show a 3-second preview of your video when someone hovers the cursor over it? It is one of the best ways to show the viewers the content of your video even when they don’t click on your video. These three seconds will help them decide whether to click on your video or not. This preview is selected by the system from the first half of your video according to its relevance and similarity with the topic. That’s why it is very important to add related information in the first half of the video, otherwise, Youtube will choose it randomly. If the preview is not selected for two days, it means your video is not eligible for it.
How to Make a Fortnite Thumbnail Super Fast and Free?
Many of you might be interested in how to make a fortnite thumbnail, so here it is. To make a Fortnite thumbnail for free, we are going to use Filmora X. Filmora X contains all kinds of features and elements that are required for a perfect and eye-catching thumbnail. To get started, make sure to download and install the latest version of Filmora X.
- Before we start making Fortnite Thumbnails, we have to take a screenshot of the gameplay. Open Fortnite and go to the Career tab. Here you will find Replays.
- It contains all your recent gameplays. We can use it to take a screenshot. If you are using a console, you will find 10 recent gameplays here. But if you are a PC user, you can find the last 100 gameplays. Select the gameplay you want to take a screenshot from.
- For our preferred angle, choose “Drone Free Camera” mode from the bottom right corner of the screen. It will allow us to use our preferred angle without any restriction. Choose an angle and take a screenshot.
- Open Filmora X, make sure to select the 16:9 screen ratio. Import the screenshot that you have taken from Fortnite.
- Place it into the timeline to start working on it.
- Now to separate the character from the background, go to the Effects. Under effects, you can find a tab named AI Portraits. Click on AI Portrait. Now drag the Human Segmentation and drop it on the screenshot in the timeline.
- It will ask you to purchase it. But there is no need to do that. Just hit Try It.
- This effect will remove the background of your screenshot.
- Now you can add a background of your choice. You can upload an image or choose a simple color from Filmora’s Media tab and drag it below the screenshot in the timeline.
- To add text to the screenshot, go to Titles. Here you can find a wide range of different and unique titles to choose from for your Fortnite Thumbnail. Choose any of the titles and place them accordingly.
- To make it more attractive, we can add icons and other elements from Filmora’s Element tab. You can also download the stickers from the internet and use them.
- After completing the thumbnail, click on the Snapshot icon located below the preview tab of Filmora. Or press “CTRL+ALT+S”. It will save a screenshot into the media panel of Filmora.
- Right-click on the screenshot and navigate to “Reveal in Explorer”. It will open the folder that contains all the screenshots taken from Filmora. Now you can use it as a Fortnite Thumbnail.
How to Add a Custom YouTube Thumbnail to Your Video in YouTube
Once you have successfully created a custom thumbnail, you can use it in your videos on Youtube.
- Open Youtube Studio and upload your video. While uploading the video, you can see a section named “Thumbnail”. Under this section, click on “Upload Thumbnail”.
- Select the thumbnail that you have made. Just like the one Fortnite thumbnail that we have created using Filmora X.
- The thumbnail will be uploaded and attached to the video. Now you can process all the settings and publish the video.
Conclusion
Thumbnail is the first thing that helps the viewer decide whether to click on a video or ignore it. Which increases the importance of having a well-structured and attractive thumbnail. By following the above guide, you can make an astonishing and clickable thumbnail in no time. For better and quick results, we recommend you using Filmora X. It allows you to perform all the tasks from video editing to thumbnail creation on a single platform.
Benjamin Arango
Benjamin Arango is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Benjamin Arango
Benjamin Arango
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
You must have heard the phrase, Never judge a book by its cover. But actually, we do judge everything by its cover. The same is the case with Youtube videos. No matter how good the content of your video is if you are unable to convey that with the thumbnail of your video, it will not bring any good to your channel. If you are looking forward to growing your channel and attracting more viewers, then having an appealing and eye-catching thumbnail is one of the most important factors. There are several things to be considered while creating a custom thumbnail if you want to make your videos look stunning and engaging. By following all these points, you can increase the chances of your channel’s growth.
In this article, we have 5 chapters for you：
- Best YouTube Thumbnail Size
- How Important is a Custom Thumbnail?
- Best Practices From Experiences
- How to Make a Fortnite Thumbnail
- How to Add a Custom Thumbnail to Your Video
Best YouTube Thumbnail Size
Being a content creator, you never know which device is being used by the viewer to watch your videos. It can be a smartphone, laptop, pc, or smart TV. It is very important to keep all these devices in mind while choosing a Youtube thumbnail size. For the best possible results, consider the following points while making a thumbnail for your Youtube videos.
- To cover all the devices perfectly, set the thumbnail resolution to 1280x720
- Save the thumbnail in JPG, GIF, or PNG format
- Try not to cross the 2MB limit
- Make sure to use a 16:9 aspect ratio for perfect results throughout the devices
How Important is a Custom Thumbnail?
Custom Thumbnail is a tool through which the viewers can understand everything about a video. It tells the viewers what to expect from a video, what not to expect, and what the video is all about. no matter if you create amazing content, if the thumbnail is not good enough to covey that to the viewers, all your hard work will be of no use and will not bring any good to your channel and its growth. According to Google ,90% of best-performing videos have custom thumbnails. It shows the importance of custom thumbnails.
Best Practice From Experiences
Now, since we know the importance of having a custom thumbnail, it is important to know how to make a thumbnail for Youtube look perfect, appealing, and eye-catching at the same time. There are some points to be considered while creating a thumbnail for Youtube. We will provide you with the best practices that we have learned throughout our journey of using Youtube and growing it from zero.
7 best practices can help you make your Youtube thumbnail stand out from the crowd and make its way out.
In a world full of machines and computers, people love to listen and interact with people instead of computer-generated voices and a voice without a face. Showing your face on a Youtube thumbnail makes it more appealing to users to click and listen to the person who is being shown in the thumbnail. Humans are more inclined towards faces. When there is a human element in a video, it increases its effectiveness. Check out the pics below, which one are you most likely to click through?
With your face, it is necessary to put some text on your Youtube thumbnail to let viewers know what this video is all about without clicking or watching it. Don’t use fancy fonts on Youtube thumbnail. It makes it hard for the viewers to read and understand what to expect in the video, especially for those watching YouTube on their 5 inches screen smartphone, ultimately decreasing the chances of your video being clicked and watched. I personally recommend you to use give these fonts a go while making YouTube thumbnail.
If you have ever noticed, Youtube thumbnails are very small in size, making it hard for viewers to notice any small elements. According to YouTube , more than 70% of Youtube watch time comes from mobile devices. While adding text in a thumbnail, instead of using sentences, make sure to use only words and make them large in size that can easily be noticed on small screens. Summurise your video in no more than 5 words.
When we navigate to a Youtube thumbnail and place the cursor on it, it shows us two icons, “Watch Later” and “Add to Queue,” located on its right size. Come on, you don’t want your beautiful thumbnail that cost you a few hours be covered. To avoid these icons from hiding your important stuff of thumbnail, make sure to put everything on the right side of your thumbnail.
Try to make all your thumbnails follow the same style. Following the same style for all your Youtube thumbnails will make your channel look unique and all your videos identical. It will be easy for viewers to identify your videos when they see them. It gives your channel a touch of its unique brand.
To make your Youtube thumbnail more appealing to the viewers, add circles and arrows to grab viewers’ attention to something very important in the video. It will increase the curiosity in the viewers and make them click your videos to learn more.
This whole process seems to be very hectic and time taking, but do you know, you can do everything on just one software? There is no need to edit a video in a different software then make a thumbnail in another software. With Filmora X, you can perform all these tasks on a single platform with so many amazing features. Whether you want to remove the background of your image or add attractive titles to it, Filmora X has got you covered.
It is one of the old tricks that so many people on Youtube use. It undoubtedly brings you clicks and more views, but once the viewer realizes that you have used irrelevant pictures or texts to attract them**. I**n reality, your video doesn’t contain any information related to it, you are going to lose their trust. They are never going to click on your videos again. Even if you don’t use such a trick anymore. Try to avoid such activities. Avoiding such activities can make your channel grow in the long term. Only use the text and images that are relevant to your content and stick to that.
Do you know that Youtube can show a 3-second preview of your video when someone hovers the cursor over it? It is one of the best ways to show the viewers the content of your video even when they don’t click on your video. These three seconds will help them decide whether to click on your video or not. This preview is selected by the system from the first half of your video according to its relevance and similarity with the topic. That’s why it is very important to add related information in the first half of the video, otherwise, Youtube will choose it randomly. If the preview is not selected for two days, it means your video is not eligible for it.
How to Make a Fortnite Thumbnail Super Fast and Free?
Many of you might be interested in how to make a fortnite thumbnail, so here it is. To make a Fortnite thumbnail for free, we are going to use Filmora X. Filmora X contains all kinds of features and elements that are required for a perfect and eye-catching thumbnail. To get started, make sure to download and install the latest version of Filmora X.
- Before we start making Fortnite Thumbnails, we have to take a screenshot of the gameplay. Open Fortnite and go to the Career tab. Here you will find Replays.
- It contains all your recent gameplays. We can use it to take a screenshot. If you are using a console, you will find 10 recent gameplays here. But if you are a PC user, you can find the last 100 gameplays. Select the gameplay you want to take a screenshot from.
- For our preferred angle, choose “Drone Free Camera” mode from the bottom right corner of the screen. It will allow us to use our preferred angle without any restriction. Choose an angle and take a screenshot.
- Open Filmora X, make sure to select the 16:9 screen ratio. Import the screenshot that you have taken from Fortnite.
- Place it into the timeline to start working on it.
- Now to separate the character from the background, go to the Effects. Under effects, you can find a tab named AI Portraits. Click on AI Portrait. Now drag the Human Segmentation and drop it on the screenshot in the timeline.
- It will ask you to purchase it. But there is no need to do that. Just hit Try It.
- This effect will remove the background of your screenshot.
- Now you can add a background of your choice. You can upload an image or choose a simple color from Filmora’s Media tab and drag it below the screenshot in the timeline.
- To add text to the screenshot, go to Titles. Here you can find a wide range of different and unique titles to choose from for your Fortnite Thumbnail. Choose any of the titles and place them accordingly.
- To make it more attractive, we can add icons and other elements from Filmora’s Element tab. You can also download the stickers from the internet and use them.
- After completing the thumbnail, click on the Snapshot icon located below the preview tab of Filmora. Or press “CTRL+ALT+S”. It will save a screenshot into the media panel of Filmora.
- Right-click on the screenshot and navigate to “Reveal in Explorer”. It will open the folder that contains all the screenshots taken from Filmora. Now you can use it as a Fortnite Thumbnail.
How to Add a Custom YouTube Thumbnail to Your Video in YouTube
Once you have successfully created a custom thumbnail, you can use it in your videos on Youtube.
- Open Youtube Studio and upload your video. While uploading the video, you can see a section named “Thumbnail”. Under this section, click on “Upload Thumbnail”.
- Select the thumbnail that you have made. Just like the one Fortnite thumbnail that we have created using Filmora X.
- The thumbnail will be uploaded and attached to the video. Now you can process all the settings and publish the video.
Conclusion
Thumbnail is the first thing that helps the viewer decide whether to click on a video or ignore it. Which increases the importance of having a well-structured and attractive thumbnail. By following the above guide, you can make an astonishing and clickable thumbnail in no time. For better and quick results, we recommend you using Filmora X. It allows you to perform all the tasks from video editing to thumbnail creation on a single platform.
Benjamin Arango
Benjamin Arango is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Benjamin Arango
15 Online Audio Haven Sites for Video Content Makers
15 Best Sites to Find & Download Royalty-Free Music for YouTube
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
Choosing great royalty-free music for your YouTube videos will help put your audience in the right frame of mind, cover up flaws in your background audio, and help viewers feel more engaged with your content.
YouTube provides a free audio library, but since a lot of creators use it everyone’s videos can start to sound the same. Here are 15 alternative places where you can get royalty-free music for free! It’ll say at the beginning of every section whether they require attribution or allow commercial use.
Best Sites for Royalty-Free Music for YouTube Creators [Free Download]
If you are using Wondershare Filmora video editor , you will find there are some royalty-free music tracks and sound effects already pre-programmed in the Audio library. You will find different styles of music tacks, varying from Young & Bright to Electronic. Download Filmora, and you will get the royalty-free audio library and powerful video editing tools.
1. Audionautix
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. You must credit the site with ‘music by audionautix.com’ if you want to use this music (if you have a website, they ask that you include a link back to them).
Paid Options? No. All of the music on this site is free.
One of the first things you’ll see when you arrive on Audiionautix is a ‘YouTube Friendly’ button. They know that most people browsing their music library are looking for songs for YouTube videos, and that want you to know their music is safe from copyright claims.
All of the music in the Audionautix collection was created by one man, Jason Shaw, but there’s still a huge variety of tracks.
On the front page of Audionautix, there are three selections you can make to start your music search – genre, mood, and tempo. Genres range from hard rock to bluegrass to techno (there are 28 genres in total), and the moods include things like ‘uplifting’, ‘evil’, and ‘bouncy’ (there are 37 of those). The tempos are fast, medium, and slow. So, if you want a medium-tempo acoustic song with a calming mood, you can easily find all of the songs that meet those qualifications.
Not every combination will deliver results, so it can be easier to just choose two of the three search parameters.
2. Bensound
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. You must include one of the following in your video description: “Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music” or “Music: Song title - Bensound.com”
Paid Options? Yes. If you don’t want to credit Bensound (or can’t for some reason) then you need to purchase a license. Licensing starts at about $28 USD (price listed as €24) per track.
The most popular music from Bensound is displayed on the first page. Beyond the titles of the tracks, each has a short description that will give you a good idea of what to expect from the song before you listen. You’ll need to listen to a song to know if you want it, but the descriptions are a fast way to figure out if you don’t want something. For example, ‘A New Beginning’ could be anything based on that title, but the description lets you know it’s ‘punk rock’ with an ‘epic/achievement’ feeling.
You can narrow down the music you are shown by choosing a genre from the menu near the top of your page (there are 8 genres including cinematic, electronica, and corporate/pop). There’s also a search bar, and you can choose whether to display popular or new songs first.
All of the music on Bensound was created by Benjamin TISSOT, a composer based in France. He has been creating music for over 10 years.
3. dig.ccMixter
Commercial Use? Depends. Some songs are available for commercial use, some are not. It is easy to search only for songs which are.
Attribution Required? Yes. You must credit the musicians.
Paid Options? Yes. You can purchase licenses to get around commercial use or attribution restrictions. Personal licenses are $22 USD.
Musicians upload their work to ccMixter and make it available to creators like you at dig.ccMixter. Over 45,000 musicians have participated and this has resulted in a huge variety of music for you to discover.
Clicking ‘tag search’ at the top of the page is probably the best way to start your search. The ‘tags’ are displayed in three categories – genre, instrument, and style. You can click as many tags as you want from each category (i.e. you can check off ‘classical’ for the genre and then both bass and cello for instruments).
By default, your search will return results that have even just one of the tags you selected, but you can click ‘match all’ to see results that include all of your selected tags.
To the right of the screen, there’s a button called ‘filters’ and if you click it it’ll let you narrow your results by license (you can choose to only browse music that is free for commercial use). You can also specify if you only want instrumental songs.
If you do not use the ‘free for commercial use’ filter then you will need to click on songs to see whether their creative commons licenses allow commercial use.
If you’re an indie game developer, they have a Music for Video Games section for you too.
4. Free Music Archive
Commercial Use? Depends on the song.
Attribution Required? Depends on the song.
Paid Options? No. Everything is free.
There is a huge selection on Free Music Archive (they include songs curated by other sites, including other sites on this list), but using this site can be a bit trickier than using other sites because there are so many different licenses at play. There are even several licenses that do not allow songs to be used in YouTube videos (any Creative Commons license with ‘ND / No Derivatives’ will not allow for use in a video). You should read this page before downloading anything from the Free Music Archive to use on YouTube.
To start browsing Free Music Archive for music you can use for your videos, go to ‘Curators’ in the top menu, and select ‘Music for Video’. There’s no point in browsing music you might not be allowed to use for YouTube, and so the site has made it easy to find the music you can.
By default this screen will not include music you can use commercially, so you need to check ‘allows for commercial use’ in the side menu if that’s important to you. You can also select a genre and specify if you only want instrumental songs.
5. Free Stock Music
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? No.
Paid Options? No. Everything is free.
Simply choose a genre from the ‘Free Music’ drop-down menu to start browsing Free Stock Music’s collection. There are 10 genres including Pop, Hip Hop, and Corporate.
There are not a lot of ways to customize your search results on this site. You just can search for a keyword, like ‘happy’, but you can’t narrow your results down by things like instrument or mood like you can on some other sites. You just have to scroll through either your search results or the chosen genre until you find something.
To make it a bit easier, Free Stock Music has included detailed descriptions of each song you can read while your browsing and these descriptions do tend to include details about instruments and the moods of the songs.
You need to create a free account on Free Stock Music to access their songs.
6. Incompetech
Commercial Use? YouTube monetization allowed. Other kinds of commercial use may be restricted.
Attribution Required? Yes. You can put the attribution in your video description.
Paid Options? Yes. If you cannot (or do not want to) credit Incompetech then you can purchase a license instead. Licensing 1 piece of music costs $30.
Incompetech allows you to browse one of three ways. The ‘Full Search’ will be best for most people, but if you want to see every song in alphabetical order you can click on ‘Full List’, or you can browse collections like ‘Comedic’ in ‘View Collections’ (but not every piece of music on the site can be found in a collection).
If you go into ‘Full Search’ you’ll see a list of all the music and be able to filter it by feel, tempo, genre, and length. For example, you could set ‘Feels’ to ‘Grooving’ or ‘Length’ to ‘3:00-3:29’.
You can also use the search bar to look for an instrument or song title.
Clicking Expand All will reveal descriptions of all the songs and a ‘listen now’ button, but it will stretch the page a lot. You can see more details about individual songs, and listen to them, by clicking on the title. You won’t be taken to a new page, which is convenient.
You can also download all the music at once (by clicking ‘download all the music on this site at once’).
7. Josh Woodward
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. Attribution goes in your description box and it should look like this: Music - “SONG TITLE HERE” by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/
Paid Options? Yes. If you cannot give Josh credit for some reason you can buy a single-song license for $30.
Josh Woodward is a singer-songwriter who has chosen to allow the free use of all his music (although he does appreciate donations).
You’ll immediately see a list of music on Josh’s site (not everything, there are over 200 songs on this site), and you can change what is displayed by using the filters on the right of the page. The filters available are Playlist, Genre, Album, Tags, Tempo, and Length.
The playlists are songs that have been bundled together around a theme like ‘fun and fast’ or ‘popular in videos’.
There are nine genres to choose from including ‘dark acoustic’ and ‘Americana’.
The albums are albums that Josh has released.
You can also search the song titles and lyrics by typing keywords into the search bar.
At the top of the page, there’s a player you can use to preview the songs, and you can choose whether to browse vocal songs or songs with lyrics (the results below may not appear to change, but if you use the player you’ll hear the instrumental version instead of the version with vocals).
8. Looperman
Commercial Use? Allowed for loops, but they make no guarantees.
Attribution Required? Unclear. The site doesn’t address attribution so it may be up to whoever has uploaded the loop you want to use.
Paid Options? No.
Looperman is a community for musicians. The goal is to provide instrumental loops and acapella vocals to other musicians for their own projects. In theory, all of the music loops and sounds are completely free to use in your projects, but since it’s a community they cannot guarantee that a user hasn’t uploaded something they don’t own (they aren’t allowed to, so in theory you should be safe, but the site doesn’t make any guarantees).
If you want to use vocals it seems like you have to talk to the person who owns the vocals about whether you can use them commercially or whether you need to include attribution.
9. Moby Gratis
Commercial Use? Never allowed. You cannot make money from the project you use this music in any way, including YouTube monetization or through a service like Patreon.
Attribution Required? Yes. Put this in your video description: Music: [Track Name] by Moby courtesy of Mobygratis.com
Paid Options? No.
Moby is a Grammy-nominated, VMA-winning, artist whose work you have probably heard on the radio. Even if you aren’t familiar with Moby himself, he has co-written, produced, and remixed music for other major artists like David Bowie, Guns N’ Roses, and Daft Punk.
Moby has chosen to make a catalog of his work available to independent filmmakers for non-commercial projects. Not all of the music provided on the site is available for YouTube, only the music marked Unreleased (if it has been released, then it will be flagged by YouTube’s copyright system). There is a lot of music under the ‘Unreleased’ category, though.
In order to download songs, you will need to make an account, and it takes about 24 hours for your account to be approved.
10. Musopen
Commercial Use? Depends on the song.
Attribution Required? Depends on the song
Paid Options? No.
Musopen provides music that is either in the ‘public domain’, or protected by Creative Commons licenses. If it’s in the public domain that means that nobody owns the copyright and anyone can use it for anything (however, Musopen does warn that they do not review uploads from their users so it is possible that someone could upload something they claim is public domain and be lying or wrong).
Creative Commons licenses all have their own conditions. Some may block commercial use, some may require attribution. The ones you need to watch out for as a video creator are the ones marked ‘No Derivatives’, because you can’t use songs licensed this way in videos.
You can start using Musopen by typing a keyword into the search bar on the main page, or scrolling down to select ‘Browse royalty free music recordings’. Besides music recordings, Musopen provides sheet music. If you have some musical talent and want to record your own music for your videos then this might be useful. If not, you probably want to stick to the recordings.
If you click on the Music Discovery Tool you’ll be able to search the recordings not only by instrument, but by license (so you can make sure you’re only looking at music that is in the public domain, or make sure you’re not looking at anything with that ‘No Derivatives’ condition.
11. TeknoAXE
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes.
Paid Options? No.
All of the music on TeknoAXE is covered under a CC4.0 license, which means you can share and adapt the music for any purpose so long as you provide attribution.
TeknoAXE’s music is divided into four categories: electronic dance music, rock and metal music, orchestra and soundtrack, and miscellaneous. There are several sub-categories under every category.
Once you’ve clicked into subcategory you’ll see thumbnails for every song in the category. Click on one to be taken to the song’s page, where you can listen to it before you decide if you want to download.
There are tons of places where you can find great royalty-free music you can use on YouTube, so start hunting! Finding the perfect song for that cool montage you’ve got planned, your intro sequence, or the background of your vlog will take your content to a new level of quality.
12. PacDV
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. Music by <www.pacdv.com/sounds/>
Paid Options? No.
PacDV is primarily a sound effects site, but they have a music section as well (just click Music in the menu to the left under Sound Effects. ‘Free Music’ under resources is a completely different site). There is no way to filter down the music, and there is no search function.
There is a column in the list of music for ‘moods/emotions’, so you can get an idea of which songs you might want to listen to before you click to their pages.
13. Partners In Rhyme
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. Credit them in your video description.
Paid Options? Yes. You can’t buy a license for free songs to get around attribution, but they do offer paid music. At $100 or more per song, their paid music is outside the budget of most YouTubers.
Partners In Rhyme is mostly a paid site, and they’re at the pricier end of the spectrum for paid sites. The reason they’re included on this list is that they have kindly curated a selection of free music for use on YouTube or in projects like podcasts (the link above will take you to the free page, not the site in general).
There isn’t a search function for the free music, or a way to narrow down what’s displayed, but you can click the play button next to any title to hear what the song sounds like. To download, just right click and choose ‘save file’ or ‘save target as’.
14. Purple Planet Music
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. Put ‘Music: http://www.purple-planet.com’ in your video description.
Paid Options? Yes. If you want to use the music for anything besides YouTube, or if you don’t want to give them credit, then you can buy a license for $5.
Purple Planet Music is a team of three people, two of whom compose, perform, record, and produce all of the music you’ll find on this site (the third is the studio manager).
From the home page of Purple Planet choose one of the categories listed under ‘Royalty Free Music’. The categories are more related to moods than genres and include things like ‘cute’, ‘sneaky’, and ‘reflective’. Because they know you may want to use this music in film projects, you can even find categories like ‘dark backgrounds’.
Once you click into a category everything is listed, you can’t narrow your results. There’s not an overwhelming number of songs in each category, though, so it’s easy to choose something just by reading descriptions and listening to what’s there.
15. Sounds Crate
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? No.
Paid Options? Yes. You can upgrade to a Pro account for $49 per year to access more content.
Sounds Crate has music and sound effects. After you click into music, you’ll see thumbnails for sections related to a number of themes such as action music, corporate music, and hip hop. You’ll be able to preview and download all the songs in the category once you’re on the category page.
You are only allowed 5 downloads per day while you’re using Sounds Crate for free. They also request a $10 annual donation from free users, but it’s optional.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
Choosing great royalty-free music for your YouTube videos will help put your audience in the right frame of mind, cover up flaws in your background audio, and help viewers feel more engaged with your content.
YouTube provides a free audio library, but since a lot of creators use it everyone’s videos can start to sound the same. Here are 15 alternative places where you can get royalty-free music for free! It’ll say at the beginning of every section whether they require attribution or allow commercial use.
Best Sites for Royalty-Free Music for YouTube Creators [Free Download]
If you are using Wondershare Filmora video editor , you will find there are some royalty-free music tracks and sound effects already pre-programmed in the Audio library. You will find different styles of music tacks, varying from Young & Bright to Electronic. Download Filmora, and you will get the royalty-free audio library and powerful video editing tools.
1. Audionautix
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. You must credit the site with ‘music by audionautix.com’ if you want to use this music (if you have a website, they ask that you include a link back to them).
Paid Options? No. All of the music on this site is free.
One of the first things you’ll see when you arrive on Audiionautix is a ‘YouTube Friendly’ button. They know that most people browsing their music library are looking for songs for YouTube videos, and that want you to know their music is safe from copyright claims.
All of the music in the Audionautix collection was created by one man, Jason Shaw, but there’s still a huge variety of tracks.
On the front page of Audionautix, there are three selections you can make to start your music search – genre, mood, and tempo. Genres range from hard rock to bluegrass to techno (there are 28 genres in total), and the moods include things like ‘uplifting’, ‘evil’, and ‘bouncy’ (there are 37 of those). The tempos are fast, medium, and slow. So, if you want a medium-tempo acoustic song with a calming mood, you can easily find all of the songs that meet those qualifications.
Not every combination will deliver results, so it can be easier to just choose two of the three search parameters.
2. Bensound
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. You must include one of the following in your video description: “Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music” or “Music: Song title - Bensound.com”
Paid Options? Yes. If you don’t want to credit Bensound (or can’t for some reason) then you need to purchase a license. Licensing starts at about $28 USD (price listed as €24) per track.
The most popular music from Bensound is displayed on the first page. Beyond the titles of the tracks, each has a short description that will give you a good idea of what to expect from the song before you listen. You’ll need to listen to a song to know if you want it, but the descriptions are a fast way to figure out if you don’t want something. For example, ‘A New Beginning’ could be anything based on that title, but the description lets you know it’s ‘punk rock’ with an ‘epic/achievement’ feeling.
You can narrow down the music you are shown by choosing a genre from the menu near the top of your page (there are 8 genres including cinematic, electronica, and corporate/pop). There’s also a search bar, and you can choose whether to display popular or new songs first.
All of the music on Bensound was created by Benjamin TISSOT, a composer based in France. He has been creating music for over 10 years.
3. dig.ccMixter
Commercial Use? Depends. Some songs are available for commercial use, some are not. It is easy to search only for songs which are.
Attribution Required? Yes. You must credit the musicians.
Paid Options? Yes. You can purchase licenses to get around commercial use or attribution restrictions. Personal licenses are $22 USD.
Musicians upload their work to ccMixter and make it available to creators like you at dig.ccMixter. Over 45,000 musicians have participated and this has resulted in a huge variety of music for you to discover.
Clicking ‘tag search’ at the top of the page is probably the best way to start your search. The ‘tags’ are displayed in three categories – genre, instrument, and style. You can click as many tags as you want from each category (i.e. you can check off ‘classical’ for the genre and then both bass and cello for instruments).
By default, your search will return results that have even just one of the tags you selected, but you can click ‘match all’ to see results that include all of your selected tags.
To the right of the screen, there’s a button called ‘filters’ and if you click it it’ll let you narrow your results by license (you can choose to only browse music that is free for commercial use). You can also specify if you only want instrumental songs.
If you do not use the ‘free for commercial use’ filter then you will need to click on songs to see whether their creative commons licenses allow commercial use.
If you’re an indie game developer, they have a Music for Video Games section for you too.
4. Free Music Archive
Commercial Use? Depends on the song.
Attribution Required? Depends on the song.
Paid Options? No. Everything is free.
There is a huge selection on Free Music Archive (they include songs curated by other sites, including other sites on this list), but using this site can be a bit trickier than using other sites because there are so many different licenses at play. There are even several licenses that do not allow songs to be used in YouTube videos (any Creative Commons license with ‘ND / No Derivatives’ will not allow for use in a video). You should read this page before downloading anything from the Free Music Archive to use on YouTube.
To start browsing Free Music Archive for music you can use for your videos, go to ‘Curators’ in the top menu, and select ‘Music for Video’. There’s no point in browsing music you might not be allowed to use for YouTube, and so the site has made it easy to find the music you can.
By default this screen will not include music you can use commercially, so you need to check ‘allows for commercial use’ in the side menu if that’s important to you. You can also select a genre and specify if you only want instrumental songs.
5. Free Stock Music
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? No.
Paid Options? No. Everything is free.
Simply choose a genre from the ‘Free Music’ drop-down menu to start browsing Free Stock Music’s collection. There are 10 genres including Pop, Hip Hop, and Corporate.
There are not a lot of ways to customize your search results on this site. You just can search for a keyword, like ‘happy’, but you can’t narrow your results down by things like instrument or mood like you can on some other sites. You just have to scroll through either your search results or the chosen genre until you find something.
To make it a bit easier, Free Stock Music has included detailed descriptions of each song you can read while your browsing and these descriptions do tend to include details about instruments and the moods of the songs.
You need to create a free account on Free Stock Music to access their songs.
6. Incompetech
Commercial Use? YouTube monetization allowed. Other kinds of commercial use may be restricted.
Attribution Required? Yes. You can put the attribution in your video description.
Paid Options? Yes. If you cannot (or do not want to) credit Incompetech then you can purchase a license instead. Licensing 1 piece of music costs $30.
Incompetech allows you to browse one of three ways. The ‘Full Search’ will be best for most people, but if you want to see every song in alphabetical order you can click on ‘Full List’, or you can browse collections like ‘Comedic’ in ‘View Collections’ (but not every piece of music on the site can be found in a collection).
If you go into ‘Full Search’ you’ll see a list of all the music and be able to filter it by feel, tempo, genre, and length. For example, you could set ‘Feels’ to ‘Grooving’ or ‘Length’ to ‘3:00-3:29’.
You can also use the search bar to look for an instrument or song title.
Clicking Expand All will reveal descriptions of all the songs and a ‘listen now’ button, but it will stretch the page a lot. You can see more details about individual songs, and listen to them, by clicking on the title. You won’t be taken to a new page, which is convenient.
You can also download all the music at once (by clicking ‘download all the music on this site at once’).
7. Josh Woodward
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. Attribution goes in your description box and it should look like this: Music - “SONG TITLE HERE” by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/
Paid Options? Yes. If you cannot give Josh credit for some reason you can buy a single-song license for $30.
Josh Woodward is a singer-songwriter who has chosen to allow the free use of all his music (although he does appreciate donations).
You’ll immediately see a list of music on Josh’s site (not everything, there are over 200 songs on this site), and you can change what is displayed by using the filters on the right of the page. The filters available are Playlist, Genre, Album, Tags, Tempo, and Length.
The playlists are songs that have been bundled together around a theme like ‘fun and fast’ or ‘popular in videos’.
There are nine genres to choose from including ‘dark acoustic’ and ‘Americana’.
The albums are albums that Josh has released.
You can also search the song titles and lyrics by typing keywords into the search bar.
At the top of the page, there’s a player you can use to preview the songs, and you can choose whether to browse vocal songs or songs with lyrics (the results below may not appear to change, but if you use the player you’ll hear the instrumental version instead of the version with vocals).
8. Looperman
Commercial Use? Allowed for loops, but they make no guarantees.
Attribution Required? Unclear. The site doesn’t address attribution so it may be up to whoever has uploaded the loop you want to use.
Paid Options? No.
Looperman is a community for musicians. The goal is to provide instrumental loops and acapella vocals to other musicians for their own projects. In theory, all of the music loops and sounds are completely free to use in your projects, but since it’s a community they cannot guarantee that a user hasn’t uploaded something they don’t own (they aren’t allowed to, so in theory you should be safe, but the site doesn’t make any guarantees).
If you want to use vocals it seems like you have to talk to the person who owns the vocals about whether you can use them commercially or whether you need to include attribution.
9. Moby Gratis
Commercial Use? Never allowed. You cannot make money from the project you use this music in any way, including YouTube monetization or through a service like Patreon.
Attribution Required? Yes. Put this in your video description: Music: [Track Name] by Moby courtesy of Mobygratis.com
Paid Options? No.
Moby is a Grammy-nominated, VMA-winning, artist whose work you have probably heard on the radio. Even if you aren’t familiar with Moby himself, he has co-written, produced, and remixed music for other major artists like David Bowie, Guns N’ Roses, and Daft Punk.
Moby has chosen to make a catalog of his work available to independent filmmakers for non-commercial projects. Not all of the music provided on the site is available for YouTube, only the music marked Unreleased (if it has been released, then it will be flagged by YouTube’s copyright system). There is a lot of music under the ‘Unreleased’ category, though.
In order to download songs, you will need to make an account, and it takes about 24 hours for your account to be approved.
10. Musopen
Commercial Use? Depends on the song.
Attribution Required? Depends on the song
Paid Options? No.
Musopen provides music that is either in the ‘public domain’, or protected by Creative Commons licenses. If it’s in the public domain that means that nobody owns the copyright and anyone can use it for anything (however, Musopen does warn that they do not review uploads from their users so it is possible that someone could upload something they claim is public domain and be lying or wrong).
Creative Commons licenses all have their own conditions. Some may block commercial use, some may require attribution. The ones you need to watch out for as a video creator are the ones marked ‘No Derivatives’, because you can’t use songs licensed this way in videos.
You can start using Musopen by typing a keyword into the search bar on the main page, or scrolling down to select ‘Browse royalty free music recordings’. Besides music recordings, Musopen provides sheet music. If you have some musical talent and want to record your own music for your videos then this might be useful. If not, you probably want to stick to the recordings.
If you click on the Music Discovery Tool you’ll be able to search the recordings not only by instrument, but by license (so you can make sure you’re only looking at music that is in the public domain, or make sure you’re not looking at anything with that ‘No Derivatives’ condition.
11. TeknoAXE
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes.
Paid Options? No.
All of the music on TeknoAXE is covered under a CC4.0 license, which means you can share and adapt the music for any purpose so long as you provide attribution.
TeknoAXE’s music is divided into four categories: electronic dance music, rock and metal music, orchestra and soundtrack, and miscellaneous. There are several sub-categories under every category.
Once you’ve clicked into subcategory you’ll see thumbnails for every song in the category. Click on one to be taken to the song’s page, where you can listen to it before you decide if you want to download.
There are tons of places where you can find great royalty-free music you can use on YouTube, so start hunting! Finding the perfect song for that cool montage you’ve got planned, your intro sequence, or the background of your vlog will take your content to a new level of quality.
12. PacDV
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. Music by <www.pacdv.com/sounds/>
Paid Options? No.
PacDV is primarily a sound effects site, but they have a music section as well (just click Music in the menu to the left under Sound Effects. ‘Free Music’ under resources is a completely different site). There is no way to filter down the music, and there is no search function.
There is a column in the list of music for ‘moods/emotions’, so you can get an idea of which songs you might want to listen to before you click to their pages.
13. Partners In Rhyme
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. Credit them in your video description.
Paid Options? Yes. You can’t buy a license for free songs to get around attribution, but they do offer paid music. At $100 or more per song, their paid music is outside the budget of most YouTubers.
Partners In Rhyme is mostly a paid site, and they’re at the pricier end of the spectrum for paid sites. The reason they’re included on this list is that they have kindly curated a selection of free music for use on YouTube or in projects like podcasts (the link above will take you to the free page, not the site in general).
There isn’t a search function for the free music, or a way to narrow down what’s displayed, but you can click the play button next to any title to hear what the song sounds like. To download, just right click and choose ‘save file’ or ‘save target as’.
14. Purple Planet Music
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. Put ‘Music: http://www.purple-planet.com’ in your video description.
Paid Options? Yes. If you want to use the music for anything besides YouTube, or if you don’t want to give them credit, then you can buy a license for $5.
Purple Planet Music is a team of three people, two of whom compose, perform, record, and produce all of the music you’ll find on this site (the third is the studio manager).
From the home page of Purple Planet choose one of the categories listed under ‘Royalty Free Music’. The categories are more related to moods than genres and include things like ‘cute’, ‘sneaky’, and ‘reflective’. Because they know you may want to use this music in film projects, you can even find categories like ‘dark backgrounds’.
Once you click into a category everything is listed, you can’t narrow your results. There’s not an overwhelming number of songs in each category, though, so it’s easy to choose something just by reading descriptions and listening to what’s there.
15. Sounds Crate
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? No.
Paid Options? Yes. You can upgrade to a Pro account for $49 per year to access more content.
Sounds Crate has music and sound effects. After you click into music, you’ll see thumbnails for sections related to a number of themes such as action music, corporate music, and hip hop. You’ll be able to preview and download all the songs in the category once you’re on the category page.
You are only allowed 5 downloads per day while you’re using Sounds Crate for free. They also request a $10 annual donation from free users, but it’s optional.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
Choosing great royalty-free music for your YouTube videos will help put your audience in the right frame of mind, cover up flaws in your background audio, and help viewers feel more engaged with your content.
YouTube provides a free audio library, but since a lot of creators use it everyone’s videos can start to sound the same. Here are 15 alternative places where you can get royalty-free music for free! It’ll say at the beginning of every section whether they require attribution or allow commercial use.
Best Sites for Royalty-Free Music for YouTube Creators [Free Download]
If you are using Wondershare Filmora video editor , you will find there are some royalty-free music tracks and sound effects already pre-programmed in the Audio library. You will find different styles of music tacks, varying from Young & Bright to Electronic. Download Filmora, and you will get the royalty-free audio library and powerful video editing tools.
1. Audionautix
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. You must credit the site with ‘music by audionautix.com’ if you want to use this music (if you have a website, they ask that you include a link back to them).
Paid Options? No. All of the music on this site is free.
One of the first things you’ll see when you arrive on Audiionautix is a ‘YouTube Friendly’ button. They know that most people browsing their music library are looking for songs for YouTube videos, and that want you to know their music is safe from copyright claims.
All of the music in the Audionautix collection was created by one man, Jason Shaw, but there’s still a huge variety of tracks.
On the front page of Audionautix, there are three selections you can make to start your music search – genre, mood, and tempo. Genres range from hard rock to bluegrass to techno (there are 28 genres in total), and the moods include things like ‘uplifting’, ‘evil’, and ‘bouncy’ (there are 37 of those). The tempos are fast, medium, and slow. So, if you want a medium-tempo acoustic song with a calming mood, you can easily find all of the songs that meet those qualifications.
Not every combination will deliver results, so it can be easier to just choose two of the three search parameters.
2. Bensound
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. You must include one of the following in your video description: “Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music” or “Music: Song title - Bensound.com”
Paid Options? Yes. If you don’t want to credit Bensound (or can’t for some reason) then you need to purchase a license. Licensing starts at about $28 USD (price listed as €24) per track.
The most popular music from Bensound is displayed on the first page. Beyond the titles of the tracks, each has a short description that will give you a good idea of what to expect from the song before you listen. You’ll need to listen to a song to know if you want it, but the descriptions are a fast way to figure out if you don’t want something. For example, ‘A New Beginning’ could be anything based on that title, but the description lets you know it’s ‘punk rock’ with an ‘epic/achievement’ feeling.
You can narrow down the music you are shown by choosing a genre from the menu near the top of your page (there are 8 genres including cinematic, electronica, and corporate/pop). There’s also a search bar, and you can choose whether to display popular or new songs first.
All of the music on Bensound was created by Benjamin TISSOT, a composer based in France. He has been creating music for over 10 years.
3. dig.ccMixter
Commercial Use? Depends. Some songs are available for commercial use, some are not. It is easy to search only for songs which are.
Attribution Required? Yes. You must credit the musicians.
Paid Options? Yes. You can purchase licenses to get around commercial use or attribution restrictions. Personal licenses are $22 USD.
Musicians upload their work to ccMixter and make it available to creators like you at dig.ccMixter. Over 45,000 musicians have participated and this has resulted in a huge variety of music for you to discover.
Clicking ‘tag search’ at the top of the page is probably the best way to start your search. The ‘tags’ are displayed in three categories – genre, instrument, and style. You can click as many tags as you want from each category (i.e. you can check off ‘classical’ for the genre and then both bass and cello for instruments).
By default, your search will return results that have even just one of the tags you selected, but you can click ‘match all’ to see results that include all of your selected tags.
To the right of the screen, there’s a button called ‘filters’ and if you click it it’ll let you narrow your results by license (you can choose to only browse music that is free for commercial use). You can also specify if you only want instrumental songs.
If you do not use the ‘free for commercial use’ filter then you will need to click on songs to see whether their creative commons licenses allow commercial use.
If you’re an indie game developer, they have a Music for Video Games section for you too.
4. Free Music Archive
Commercial Use? Depends on the song.
Attribution Required? Depends on the song.
Paid Options? No. Everything is free.
There is a huge selection on Free Music Archive (they include songs curated by other sites, including other sites on this list), but using this site can be a bit trickier than using other sites because there are so many different licenses at play. There are even several licenses that do not allow songs to be used in YouTube videos (any Creative Commons license with ‘ND / No Derivatives’ will not allow for use in a video). You should read this page before downloading anything from the Free Music Archive to use on YouTube.
To start browsing Free Music Archive for music you can use for your videos, go to ‘Curators’ in the top menu, and select ‘Music for Video’. There’s no point in browsing music you might not be allowed to use for YouTube, and so the site has made it easy to find the music you can.
By default this screen will not include music you can use commercially, so you need to check ‘allows for commercial use’ in the side menu if that’s important to you. You can also select a genre and specify if you only want instrumental songs.
5. Free Stock Music
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? No.
Paid Options? No. Everything is free.
Simply choose a genre from the ‘Free Music’ drop-down menu to start browsing Free Stock Music’s collection. There are 10 genres including Pop, Hip Hop, and Corporate.
There are not a lot of ways to customize your search results on this site. You just can search for a keyword, like ‘happy’, but you can’t narrow your results down by things like instrument or mood like you can on some other sites. You just have to scroll through either your search results or the chosen genre until you find something.
To make it a bit easier, Free Stock Music has included detailed descriptions of each song you can read while your browsing and these descriptions do tend to include details about instruments and the moods of the songs.
You need to create a free account on Free Stock Music to access their songs.
6. Incompetech
Commercial Use? YouTube monetization allowed. Other kinds of commercial use may be restricted.
Attribution Required? Yes. You can put the attribution in your video description.
Paid Options? Yes. If you cannot (or do not want to) credit Incompetech then you can purchase a license instead. Licensing 1 piece of music costs $30.
Incompetech allows you to browse one of three ways. The ‘Full Search’ will be best for most people, but if you want to see every song in alphabetical order you can click on ‘Full List’, or you can browse collections like ‘Comedic’ in ‘View Collections’ (but not every piece of music on the site can be found in a collection).
If you go into ‘Full Search’ you’ll see a list of all the music and be able to filter it by feel, tempo, genre, and length. For example, you could set ‘Feels’ to ‘Grooving’ or ‘Length’ to ‘3:00-3:29’.
You can also use the search bar to look for an instrument or song title.
Clicking Expand All will reveal descriptions of all the songs and a ‘listen now’ button, but it will stretch the page a lot. You can see more details about individual songs, and listen to them, by clicking on the title. You won’t be taken to a new page, which is convenient.
You can also download all the music at once (by clicking ‘download all the music on this site at once’).
7. Josh Woodward
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. Attribution goes in your description box and it should look like this: Music - “SONG TITLE HERE” by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/
Paid Options? Yes. If you cannot give Josh credit for some reason you can buy a single-song license for $30.
Josh Woodward is a singer-songwriter who has chosen to allow the free use of all his music (although he does appreciate donations).
You’ll immediately see a list of music on Josh’s site (not everything, there are over 200 songs on this site), and you can change what is displayed by using the filters on the right of the page. The filters available are Playlist, Genre, Album, Tags, Tempo, and Length.
The playlists are songs that have been bundled together around a theme like ‘fun and fast’ or ‘popular in videos’.
There are nine genres to choose from including ‘dark acoustic’ and ‘Americana’.
The albums are albums that Josh has released.
You can also search the song titles and lyrics by typing keywords into the search bar.
At the top of the page, there’s a player you can use to preview the songs, and you can choose whether to browse vocal songs or songs with lyrics (the results below may not appear to change, but if you use the player you’ll hear the instrumental version instead of the version with vocals).
8. Looperman
Commercial Use? Allowed for loops, but they make no guarantees.
Attribution Required? Unclear. The site doesn’t address attribution so it may be up to whoever has uploaded the loop you want to use.
Paid Options? No.
Looperman is a community for musicians. The goal is to provide instrumental loops and acapella vocals to other musicians for their own projects. In theory, all of the music loops and sounds are completely free to use in your projects, but since it’s a community they cannot guarantee that a user hasn’t uploaded something they don’t own (they aren’t allowed to, so in theory you should be safe, but the site doesn’t make any guarantees).
If you want to use vocals it seems like you have to talk to the person who owns the vocals about whether you can use them commercially or whether you need to include attribution.
9. Moby Gratis
Commercial Use? Never allowed. You cannot make money from the project you use this music in any way, including YouTube monetization or through a service like Patreon.
Attribution Required? Yes. Put this in your video description: Music: [Track Name] by Moby courtesy of Mobygratis.com
Paid Options? No.
Moby is a Grammy-nominated, VMA-winning, artist whose work you have probably heard on the radio. Even if you aren’t familiar with Moby himself, he has co-written, produced, and remixed music for other major artists like David Bowie, Guns N’ Roses, and Daft Punk.
Moby has chosen to make a catalog of his work available to independent filmmakers for non-commercial projects. Not all of the music provided on the site is available for YouTube, only the music marked Unreleased (if it has been released, then it will be flagged by YouTube’s copyright system). There is a lot of music under the ‘Unreleased’ category, though.
In order to download songs, you will need to make an account, and it takes about 24 hours for your account to be approved.
10. Musopen
Commercial Use? Depends on the song.
Attribution Required? Depends on the song
Paid Options? No.
Musopen provides music that is either in the ‘public domain’, or protected by Creative Commons licenses. If it’s in the public domain that means that nobody owns the copyright and anyone can use it for anything (however, Musopen does warn that they do not review uploads from their users so it is possible that someone could upload something they claim is public domain and be lying or wrong).
Creative Commons licenses all have their own conditions. Some may block commercial use, some may require attribution. The ones you need to watch out for as a video creator are the ones marked ‘No Derivatives’, because you can’t use songs licensed this way in videos.
You can start using Musopen by typing a keyword into the search bar on the main page, or scrolling down to select ‘Browse royalty free music recordings’. Besides music recordings, Musopen provides sheet music. If you have some musical talent and want to record your own music for your videos then this might be useful. If not, you probably want to stick to the recordings.
If you click on the Music Discovery Tool you’ll be able to search the recordings not only by instrument, but by license (so you can make sure you’re only looking at music that is in the public domain, or make sure you’re not looking at anything with that ‘No Derivatives’ condition.
11. TeknoAXE
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes.
Paid Options? No.
All of the music on TeknoAXE is covered under a CC4.0 license, which means you can share and adapt the music for any purpose so long as you provide attribution.
TeknoAXE’s music is divided into four categories: electronic dance music, rock and metal music, orchestra and soundtrack, and miscellaneous. There are several sub-categories under every category.
Once you’ve clicked into subcategory you’ll see thumbnails for every song in the category. Click on one to be taken to the song’s page, where you can listen to it before you decide if you want to download.
There are tons of places where you can find great royalty-free music you can use on YouTube, so start hunting! Finding the perfect song for that cool montage you’ve got planned, your intro sequence, or the background of your vlog will take your content to a new level of quality.
12. PacDV
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. Music by <www.pacdv.com/sounds/>
Paid Options? No.
PacDV is primarily a sound effects site, but they have a music section as well (just click Music in the menu to the left under Sound Effects. ‘Free Music’ under resources is a completely different site). There is no way to filter down the music, and there is no search function.
There is a column in the list of music for ‘moods/emotions’, so you can get an idea of which songs you might want to listen to before you click to their pages.
13. Partners In Rhyme
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. Credit them in your video description.
Paid Options? Yes. You can’t buy a license for free songs to get around attribution, but they do offer paid music. At $100 or more per song, their paid music is outside the budget of most YouTubers.
Partners In Rhyme is mostly a paid site, and they’re at the pricier end of the spectrum for paid sites. The reason they’re included on this list is that they have kindly curated a selection of free music for use on YouTube or in projects like podcasts (the link above will take you to the free page, not the site in general).
There isn’t a search function for the free music, or a way to narrow down what’s displayed, but you can click the play button next to any title to hear what the song sounds like. To download, just right click and choose ‘save file’ or ‘save target as’.
14. Purple Planet Music
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. Put ‘Music: http://www.purple-planet.com’ in your video description.
Paid Options? Yes. If you want to use the music for anything besides YouTube, or if you don’t want to give them credit, then you can buy a license for $5.
Purple Planet Music is a team of three people, two of whom compose, perform, record, and produce all of the music you’ll find on this site (the third is the studio manager).
From the home page of Purple Planet choose one of the categories listed under ‘Royalty Free Music’. The categories are more related to moods than genres and include things like ‘cute’, ‘sneaky’, and ‘reflective’. Because they know you may want to use this music in film projects, you can even find categories like ‘dark backgrounds’.
Once you click into a category everything is listed, you can’t narrow your results. There’s not an overwhelming number of songs in each category, though, so it’s easy to choose something just by reading descriptions and listening to what’s there.
15. Sounds Crate
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? No.
Paid Options? Yes. You can upgrade to a Pro account for $49 per year to access more content.
Sounds Crate has music and sound effects. After you click into music, you’ll see thumbnails for sections related to a number of themes such as action music, corporate music, and hip hop. You’ll be able to preview and download all the songs in the category once you’re on the category page.
You are only allowed 5 downloads per day while you’re using Sounds Crate for free. They also request a $10 annual donation from free users, but it’s optional.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
Choosing great royalty-free music for your YouTube videos will help put your audience in the right frame of mind, cover up flaws in your background audio, and help viewers feel more engaged with your content.
YouTube provides a free audio library, but since a lot of creators use it everyone’s videos can start to sound the same. Here are 15 alternative places where you can get royalty-free music for free! It’ll say at the beginning of every section whether they require attribution or allow commercial use.
Best Sites for Royalty-Free Music for YouTube Creators [Free Download]
If you are using Wondershare Filmora video editor , you will find there are some royalty-free music tracks and sound effects already pre-programmed in the Audio library. You will find different styles of music tacks, varying from Young & Bright to Electronic. Download Filmora, and you will get the royalty-free audio library and powerful video editing tools.
1. Audionautix
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. You must credit the site with ‘music by audionautix.com’ if you want to use this music (if you have a website, they ask that you include a link back to them).
Paid Options? No. All of the music on this site is free.
One of the first things you’ll see when you arrive on Audiionautix is a ‘YouTube Friendly’ button. They know that most people browsing their music library are looking for songs for YouTube videos, and that want you to know their music is safe from copyright claims.
All of the music in the Audionautix collection was created by one man, Jason Shaw, but there’s still a huge variety of tracks.
On the front page of Audionautix, there are three selections you can make to start your music search – genre, mood, and tempo. Genres range from hard rock to bluegrass to techno (there are 28 genres in total), and the moods include things like ‘uplifting’, ‘evil’, and ‘bouncy’ (there are 37 of those). The tempos are fast, medium, and slow. So, if you want a medium-tempo acoustic song with a calming mood, you can easily find all of the songs that meet those qualifications.
Not every combination will deliver results, so it can be easier to just choose two of the three search parameters.
2. Bensound
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. You must include one of the following in your video description: “Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music” or “Music: Song title - Bensound.com”
Paid Options? Yes. If you don’t want to credit Bensound (or can’t for some reason) then you need to purchase a license. Licensing starts at about $28 USD (price listed as €24) per track.
The most popular music from Bensound is displayed on the first page. Beyond the titles of the tracks, each has a short description that will give you a good idea of what to expect from the song before you listen. You’ll need to listen to a song to know if you want it, but the descriptions are a fast way to figure out if you don’t want something. For example, ‘A New Beginning’ could be anything based on that title, but the description lets you know it’s ‘punk rock’ with an ‘epic/achievement’ feeling.
You can narrow down the music you are shown by choosing a genre from the menu near the top of your page (there are 8 genres including cinematic, electronica, and corporate/pop). There’s also a search bar, and you can choose whether to display popular or new songs first.
All of the music on Bensound was created by Benjamin TISSOT, a composer based in France. He has been creating music for over 10 years.
3. dig.ccMixter
Commercial Use? Depends. Some songs are available for commercial use, some are not. It is easy to search only for songs which are.
Attribution Required? Yes. You must credit the musicians.
Paid Options? Yes. You can purchase licenses to get around commercial use or attribution restrictions. Personal licenses are $22 USD.
Musicians upload their work to ccMixter and make it available to creators like you at dig.ccMixter. Over 45,000 musicians have participated and this has resulted in a huge variety of music for you to discover.
Clicking ‘tag search’ at the top of the page is probably the best way to start your search. The ‘tags’ are displayed in three categories – genre, instrument, and style. You can click as many tags as you want from each category (i.e. you can check off ‘classical’ for the genre and then both bass and cello for instruments).
By default, your search will return results that have even just one of the tags you selected, but you can click ‘match all’ to see results that include all of your selected tags.
To the right of the screen, there’s a button called ‘filters’ and if you click it it’ll let you narrow your results by license (you can choose to only browse music that is free for commercial use). You can also specify if you only want instrumental songs.
If you do not use the ‘free for commercial use’ filter then you will need to click on songs to see whether their creative commons licenses allow commercial use.
If you’re an indie game developer, they have a Music for Video Games section for you too.
4. Free Music Archive
Commercial Use? Depends on the song.
Attribution Required? Depends on the song.
Paid Options? No. Everything is free.
There is a huge selection on Free Music Archive (they include songs curated by other sites, including other sites on this list), but using this site can be a bit trickier than using other sites because there are so many different licenses at play. There are even several licenses that do not allow songs to be used in YouTube videos (any Creative Commons license with ‘ND / No Derivatives’ will not allow for use in a video). You should read this page before downloading anything from the Free Music Archive to use on YouTube.
To start browsing Free Music Archive for music you can use for your videos, go to ‘Curators’ in the top menu, and select ‘Music for Video’. There’s no point in browsing music you might not be allowed to use for YouTube, and so the site has made it easy to find the music you can.
By default this screen will not include music you can use commercially, so you need to check ‘allows for commercial use’ in the side menu if that’s important to you. You can also select a genre and specify if you only want instrumental songs.
5. Free Stock Music
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? No.
Paid Options? No. Everything is free.
Simply choose a genre from the ‘Free Music’ drop-down menu to start browsing Free Stock Music’s collection. There are 10 genres including Pop, Hip Hop, and Corporate.
There are not a lot of ways to customize your search results on this site. You just can search for a keyword, like ‘happy’, but you can’t narrow your results down by things like instrument or mood like you can on some other sites. You just have to scroll through either your search results or the chosen genre until you find something.
To make it a bit easier, Free Stock Music has included detailed descriptions of each song you can read while your browsing and these descriptions do tend to include details about instruments and the moods of the songs.
You need to create a free account on Free Stock Music to access their songs.
6. Incompetech
Commercial Use? YouTube monetization allowed. Other kinds of commercial use may be restricted.
Attribution Required? Yes. You can put the attribution in your video description.
Paid Options? Yes. If you cannot (or do not want to) credit Incompetech then you can purchase a license instead. Licensing 1 piece of music costs $30.
Incompetech allows you to browse one of three ways. The ‘Full Search’ will be best for most people, but if you want to see every song in alphabetical order you can click on ‘Full List’, or you can browse collections like ‘Comedic’ in ‘View Collections’ (but not every piece of music on the site can be found in a collection).
If you go into ‘Full Search’ you’ll see a list of all the music and be able to filter it by feel, tempo, genre, and length. For example, you could set ‘Feels’ to ‘Grooving’ or ‘Length’ to ‘3:00-3:29’.
You can also use the search bar to look for an instrument or song title.
Clicking Expand All will reveal descriptions of all the songs and a ‘listen now’ button, but it will stretch the page a lot. You can see more details about individual songs, and listen to them, by clicking on the title. You won’t be taken to a new page, which is convenient.
You can also download all the music at once (by clicking ‘download all the music on this site at once’).
7. Josh Woodward
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. Attribution goes in your description box and it should look like this: Music - “SONG TITLE HERE” by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/
Paid Options? Yes. If you cannot give Josh credit for some reason you can buy a single-song license for $30.
Josh Woodward is a singer-songwriter who has chosen to allow the free use of all his music (although he does appreciate donations).
You’ll immediately see a list of music on Josh’s site (not everything, there are over 200 songs on this site), and you can change what is displayed by using the filters on the right of the page. The filters available are Playlist, Genre, Album, Tags, Tempo, and Length.
The playlists are songs that have been bundled together around a theme like ‘fun and fast’ or ‘popular in videos’.
There are nine genres to choose from including ‘dark acoustic’ and ‘Americana’.
The albums are albums that Josh has released.
You can also search the song titles and lyrics by typing keywords into the search bar.
At the top of the page, there’s a player you can use to preview the songs, and you can choose whether to browse vocal songs or songs with lyrics (the results below may not appear to change, but if you use the player you’ll hear the instrumental version instead of the version with vocals).
8. Looperman
Commercial Use? Allowed for loops, but they make no guarantees.
Attribution Required? Unclear. The site doesn’t address attribution so it may be up to whoever has uploaded the loop you want to use.
Paid Options? No.
Looperman is a community for musicians. The goal is to provide instrumental loops and acapella vocals to other musicians for their own projects. In theory, all of the music loops and sounds are completely free to use in your projects, but since it’s a community they cannot guarantee that a user hasn’t uploaded something they don’t own (they aren’t allowed to, so in theory you should be safe, but the site doesn’t make any guarantees).
If you want to use vocals it seems like you have to talk to the person who owns the vocals about whether you can use them commercially or whether you need to include attribution.
9. Moby Gratis
Commercial Use? Never allowed. You cannot make money from the project you use this music in any way, including YouTube monetization or through a service like Patreon.
Attribution Required? Yes. Put this in your video description: Music: [Track Name] by Moby courtesy of Mobygratis.com
Paid Options? No.
Moby is a Grammy-nominated, VMA-winning, artist whose work you have probably heard on the radio. Even if you aren’t familiar with Moby himself, he has co-written, produced, and remixed music for other major artists like David Bowie, Guns N’ Roses, and Daft Punk.
Moby has chosen to make a catalog of his work available to independent filmmakers for non-commercial projects. Not all of the music provided on the site is available for YouTube, only the music marked Unreleased (if it has been released, then it will be flagged by YouTube’s copyright system). There is a lot of music under the ‘Unreleased’ category, though.
In order to download songs, you will need to make an account, and it takes about 24 hours for your account to be approved.
10. Musopen
Commercial Use? Depends on the song.
Attribution Required? Depends on the song
Paid Options? No.
Musopen provides music that is either in the ‘public domain’, or protected by Creative Commons licenses. If it’s in the public domain that means that nobody owns the copyright and anyone can use it for anything (however, Musopen does warn that they do not review uploads from their users so it is possible that someone could upload something they claim is public domain and be lying or wrong).
Creative Commons licenses all have their own conditions. Some may block commercial use, some may require attribution. The ones you need to watch out for as a video creator are the ones marked ‘No Derivatives’, because you can’t use songs licensed this way in videos.
You can start using Musopen by typing a keyword into the search bar on the main page, or scrolling down to select ‘Browse royalty free music recordings’. Besides music recordings, Musopen provides sheet music. If you have some musical talent and want to record your own music for your videos then this might be useful. If not, you probably want to stick to the recordings.
If you click on the Music Discovery Tool you’ll be able to search the recordings not only by instrument, but by license (so you can make sure you’re only looking at music that is in the public domain, or make sure you’re not looking at anything with that ‘No Derivatives’ condition.
11. TeknoAXE
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes.
Paid Options? No.
All of the music on TeknoAXE is covered under a CC4.0 license, which means you can share and adapt the music for any purpose so long as you provide attribution.
TeknoAXE’s music is divided into four categories: electronic dance music, rock and metal music, orchestra and soundtrack, and miscellaneous. There are several sub-categories under every category.
Once you’ve clicked into subcategory you’ll see thumbnails for every song in the category. Click on one to be taken to the song’s page, where you can listen to it before you decide if you want to download.
There are tons of places where you can find great royalty-free music you can use on YouTube, so start hunting! Finding the perfect song for that cool montage you’ve got planned, your intro sequence, or the background of your vlog will take your content to a new level of quality.
12. PacDV
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. Music by <www.pacdv.com/sounds/>
Paid Options? No.
PacDV is primarily a sound effects site, but they have a music section as well (just click Music in the menu to the left under Sound Effects. ‘Free Music’ under resources is a completely different site). There is no way to filter down the music, and there is no search function.
There is a column in the list of music for ‘moods/emotions’, so you can get an idea of which songs you might want to listen to before you click to their pages.
13. Partners In Rhyme
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. Credit them in your video description.
Paid Options? Yes. You can’t buy a license for free songs to get around attribution, but they do offer paid music. At $100 or more per song, their paid music is outside the budget of most YouTubers.
Partners In Rhyme is mostly a paid site, and they’re at the pricier end of the spectrum for paid sites. The reason they’re included on this list is that they have kindly curated a selection of free music for use on YouTube or in projects like podcasts (the link above will take you to the free page, not the site in general).
There isn’t a search function for the free music, or a way to narrow down what’s displayed, but you can click the play button next to any title to hear what the song sounds like. To download, just right click and choose ‘save file’ or ‘save target as’.
14. Purple Planet Music
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? Yes. Put ‘Music: http://www.purple-planet.com’ in your video description.
Paid Options? Yes. If you want to use the music for anything besides YouTube, or if you don’t want to give them credit, then you can buy a license for $5.
Purple Planet Music is a team of three people, two of whom compose, perform, record, and produce all of the music you’ll find on this site (the third is the studio manager).
From the home page of Purple Planet choose one of the categories listed under ‘Royalty Free Music’. The categories are more related to moods than genres and include things like ‘cute’, ‘sneaky’, and ‘reflective’. Because they know you may want to use this music in film projects, you can even find categories like ‘dark backgrounds’.
Once you click into a category everything is listed, you can’t narrow your results. There’s not an overwhelming number of songs in each category, though, so it’s easy to choose something just by reading descriptions and listening to what’s there.
15. Sounds Crate
Commercial Use? Allowed.
Attribution Required? No.
Paid Options? Yes. You can upgrade to a Pro account for $49 per year to access more content.
Sounds Crate has music and sound effects. After you click into music, you’ll see thumbnails for sections related to a number of themes such as action music, corporate music, and hip hop. You’ll be able to preview and download all the songs in the category once you’re on the category page.
You are only allowed 5 downloads per day while you’re using Sounds Crate for free. They also request a $10 annual donation from free users, but it’s optional.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
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- Title: [Updated] Enhancing Video Discoverability with Smart Thumbnails
- Author: Brian
- Created at : 2024-05-25 13:24:03
- Updated at : 2024-05-26 13:24:03
- Link: https://youtube-video-recordings.techidaily.com/updated-enhancing-video-discoverability-with-smart-thumbnails/
- License: This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
