Download Thousands of Free Music Tracks on YouTube Legally

By now, you know that YouTube isn’t only for watching cat videos and smartphone voyeurism. If you’re smart, it can be your go-to place for learning new skills and finding gems for research.

But one of the best uses for YouTube is as a source of free music that you can legally download for free and use for all kinds of projects and endeavors.

Grab Royalty-Free Music for Any Use

The YouTube Audio Library launched in 2013 with 1,000+ free musical tracks. Thanks to our growing smartphone video production skills, we need quality downloads for background music, right? Whether you’re uploading to YouTube or creating a private video, good background music makes a difference.

The channel now hosts more than five times that initial number. All are high-quality 320 Kbps audio tracks and sound effects with a royalty-free license.

You can also log into the channel with your Google ID for a better categorized view of the collection via the Creator’s Studio. The tabbed interface and filters make it easy to sort through the variety of tracks on offer. Genres span from funky to sad.

1. Go to Creator Studio > Create > Audio Library.
2. Use the tabs at the top of the page to choose Free music or Sound effects. The bars next to the songs show how popular a track is. A small icon indicates the Creative Commons attribution.
3. Sort through the tracks by Genre, Instrument, Mood, Duration, and Attribution. Click the arrow to download it.
4. For easy access in the future, select the star to add the track to your Favorites.

As you work your way through the list, you will come across many popular tracks. The Sound Effects tab on its own is exhaustive (e.g. “female monster attacking”). YouTube allows you to monetize the tracks via your project. But don’t forget to credit the artist if you see a Creative Commons attribution next to a track.

The Best Choice for Free Music to Download

Every resource for free media assets is like a goldmine. But when it comes from Google itself, it’s like hitting a motherlode. You don’t have to worry about usage restrictions and are free to put the music to any creative use.

Have you already used a track for any of your serious projects or downloaded it just for fun?