Music Resources That Won’t End in a Copyright Strike

Whether you are streaming or creating videos, music is an important resource for any content creator. However, adding background music to your streams is not as simple as opening Spotify and playing your favorite playlist. Much of the music found on popular music streaming platforms is copyrighted, and using it can result in receiving copyright strikes. Platforms like Twitch have a three strike policy that can end in account termination if music guidelines are not followed.

Finding music that won’t end in a copyright strike can be difficult and confusing to do, especially with the many resources that show up with a quick Google search. To aid in simplifying the process, below is a list of several music resources available for content creators to use, and some are completely free.

Music

StreamBeats

StreamBeats provides DMCA-free music for content creators to use absolutely free, without credit.

Pros:

  • Free
  • Variety of genres
  • Downloadable tracks
  • No attribution required

Cons:

  • Music genres may not appeal to everyone

Chillhop

Chillhop music is a Dutch label brand that partners with musicians worldwide to provide lofi beats.

Pros:

  • Free
  • Large selection of tracks
  • User created playlists

Cons:

  • Limited to lofi
  • Attribution required

Pretzel

Pretzel offers a library of 600k Twitch safe and 150k Youtube safe tracks.

Pros:

  • Large selection of tracks and genres
  • Downloadable tracks
  • 60+ curated stations

Cons:

  • Paid service
  • Unlimited download plan is pricey
  • Attributes artist in chat every time a song plays

Epidemic Sound

Epidemic Sound provides users access to 50k music tracks and 200k sound effects tracks that can be used on a variety of platforms and projects.

Pros:

  • Unlimited downloads
  • Music and sound effects

Cons:

  • Paid service
  • Attribution required
  • Personal plan is limited to 1 channel

OWN3D Music

OWN3D has been around for many years offering professional overlays and alerts to streamers. They have partnered with Epidemic Sound to offer access to over 10k music tracks and 25k sound effects tracks.

Pros:

  • Free option available
  • Pro plan includes access to overlays, alerts, and tools
  • Access to a portion of Epidemic Sound’s library
  • No attribution required

Cons:

  • Free option is limited to 30 minutes of music or playlists per day and 25 sound effects
  • Unlimited access requires a paid add on to the OWN3D Pro plan
  • No downloadable tracks

Monstercat Gold

Monstercat is a Canada based record label that offers a Gold plan that gives access to thousands of music tracks for content creators to use.

Pros:

  • Variety of genres
  • Downloadable tracks
  • No require attribution
  • Usable on up to 6 channels

Cons:

  • Paid service
  • Smaller library of tracks compared to other options

NCS

NCS offers more than 1,500 music tracks across a large variety of electronic genres.

Pros:

  • Free
  • Downloadable tracks

Cons:

  • Attribution required
  • Limited to electronic genre

Soundstripe

Soundstripe provides music tracks and sound effects tracks and is used by several top organizations including Adobe and Microsoft.

Pros:

  • Music and sound effects
  • Downloadable tracks
  • Curated playlists
  • No require attribution

Cons:

  • Paid service
  • Creator plan is limited to 1 channel

Legis Music

Legis Music provides over 200 royalty-free music tracks for a onetime payment.

Pros:

  • Onetime payment for lifetime access
  • Variety of genres
  • Downloadable tracks
  • No attribution required

Cons:

  • Paid service
  • Small library
  • Personal plan required to use on Twitch and YouTube

Slipstream Music

Slipstream Music has 650k+ music tracks and 300k+ sound effects tracks

Pros:

  • Free option available
  • Variety of genres
  • Large library
  • Curated playlists
  • Creator plan allows 1 channel per platform
  • Paid plan does not require attribution

Cons:

  • Free option is limited in available tracks and requires attribution
  • Paid plan is needed to access the full library
  • Users with multiple channels on 1 platform will need to upgrade to the Pro plan

Outertone

Outertone has more than 2k tracks available for content creators to use in their projects.

Pros:

  • Free
  • Downloadable tracks available on Soundcloud

Cons:

  • Limited selection of genres
  • No dedicated music player on Outertone’s website
  • Attribution required

GameChops

GameChops features a variety of remixes and covers of songs found in video games.

Pros:

  • Free
  • Available to stream on major music platforms

Cons:

  • Attribution required
  • No dedicated music player on GameChops’ website

Conclusion

Whether you are just starting out as a content creator, or have several years experience, this list provides a great variety of options that will fit into any budget. These resources, when fellowing the companies guidelines (such as attribution), provide content creators with great sources of music for any project.

This list will be updated and expanded as new music resources are released and discovered. Feel free to leave a comment below about any resources you know of!