Whether you’re looking for free podcast music or in need of guidance around how to (legally!) use music for maximum effect in your content, our podcast music guide has you covered!
Here, we’ll answer all the frequently asked questions about scoring your content with a tune or two. We also list our favourite podcast music libraries so you can pick something safe and legal to use on your show.
You can jump straight to those recs now if you like.
We have some exclusive deals and coupon codes for you there, too!
Or, read on for our musical masterclass… (don’t worry, nobody is going to sing at you)
This post contains affiliate links to services we think you’ll find useful. We may earn a small commission should you choose to sign up to them, though never at any extra cost to yourself.
Do I NEED Podcast Music?
There’s no rule saying that you must have music in your podcast. Some great podcasts have no music at all. But having your own theme tune adds a layer of identity and professionalism to any show.
Adding music in itself won’t make your show sound professional or polished – this is all down to your content – but it can really enhance the sound of a well-recorded and engaging conversation.
When used carelessly, podcast music can also negatively affect your listener’s experience. A theme tune that’s a little too long, a music bed that’s a little too loud, or a transition piece where the tone is at odds with the content can be jarring. Podcast music done well should be barely noticeable to the listener’s conscious mind, save for those opening few seconds where they instantly recognise your episode opening.
Types of Podcast Music
First, let’s look at how music is typically used in podcasting and audio content.
Podcast Intro Music: Your Theme Tune
Your podcast intro music is also known as your theme tune. It’s the music that opens the show, and it’ll usually play towards the end of your episodes, too (where it would, unsurprisingly, be known as your podcast outro music).
Podcast intro music lets folks identify your show within a second or two of it starting. The likelihood is that your latest episode is in a playlist with a few other shows, so if the listener isn’t looking at their phone, they’ll still know that it’s you almost immediately.
With podcast intro music, you want to keep it short and sweet. Anything longer than about eight seconds without any talking can begin to grate on listeners. They’ll just hit the skip button or use an app like Overcast to auto-start a minute or two into every episode. Remember, this isn’t like TV, where at least some visuals occupy people during theme music.
Likewise, don’t force people to sit through a long theme tune at the end. Five to eight seconds is more than enough. You can still use a lot more of your music by fading it underneath your voice, both at the beginning and end of the episode. You just don’t want to force people to listen to a song and nothing else. If they wanted to do that, they’d just put on their favourite album.
Podcast Background Music (AKA Music Beds)
Background music is less common in podcasting. You’ll typically find it in audio drama or documentary podcasts, but not so much in most solo or interview shows.
Background music can also be known as a “music bed”, which plays underneath a vocal segment to add some ambience and mood. This type of music can also be used to fade up and transition between different content segments.
Going down this route means it’s going to take you a lot longer to edit and produce your podcast. Podcast listeners also don’t tend to expect this type of music, either. If done well, it can be a nice bonus for them. But will it impact your ability to release new episodes on a consistent and sustainable basis?
Stingers, Transitions, Idents, & Bumpers
Conversation crafts the narrative of your podcast, but you can punctuate moments with stingers or bridge two different segments with musical transitions. Bumpers might work well for ongoing segments like “Mailbag” or “The Question of the Week”.
Idents are more common on radio shows, where the listener needs to be reminded what station they’re tuned into, but podcasters can use them to play ongoing Calls to Action on episodes, for example, mentioning your social handles or asking the listener to rate and review.
What Music Can I LEGALLY Use in My Podcast? Stay Podsafe!
So, now that you have an idea about HOW you’ll use music in your podcast, let’s talk about what music you can legally use. This type of music is often referred to as “Podsafe”.
It’s your duty to make sure you have permission to use whatever music you play on your podcast. Generally, there are three ‘Podsafe’ options available to you.
1. Royalty-Free Music for Podcasters
With Royalty-Free music, you buy the license for a piece of podcast music (as opposed to paying ongoing royalties, hence the name!). This entitles you to use the music as and when you wish, for the duration of the license.
Most one-off music purchases give you a lifetime license, and a lot of the newer ‘subscription’ services give you a license, as long as you have an active subscription. That doesn’t mean you need to go back and remove music from old episodes when you’re no longer paying a subscription – it just means that you shouldn’t be adding tracks to new episodes after that point.
Terms and conditions will vary, however. Be sure to familiarise yourself with this information when you choose a particular platform.
2. Creative Commons Music for Podcasters
There are various types of Creative Commons licenses. Most entitle you to use a piece of music for free and without permission, so long as you credit the composer.
Some Creative Commons licenses permit commercial use, whilst others don’t. It’s usually pretty clear which is which, though. Again, read any license carefully to make sure you’re covered.
3. Public Domain Music for Podcasters
Music becomes free of copyright and enters the public domain after a certain number of years. Usually, this follows the artist or copyright holder’s death. The law and time period differ from country to country, but 70 years after death is a ballpark figure.
That said, there’s a further grey area here. There’s a big difference between the song itself (which may be in the public domain) and its recording or performance. If a musician today performed and recorded an ancient public domain song, they’d be the copyright holder of that rendition, and you wouldn’t be allowed to use it without their permission. Err on the side of caution when thinking of using music you believe to be in the public domain.
Can I Use Copyrighted Music on My Podcast?
In short, no. You might hear someone claiming that you can use copyrighted music for “up to 7 seconds” or read some debates around what constitutes “fair use” of music. “Fair use” is a defence you can try to use if you get in trouble for alleged copyright violation. But why even take the risk of needing a defence when plenty of legal options are available?
Using copyrighted music in your show risks being kicked off Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, which would massively damage the reach of any podcast.
Here’s a deeper dive into using copyrighted music in a podcast.
In summary, ask yourself, “Will my listeners unsubscribe because they don’t get to hear 10 seconds of Bohemian Rhapsody at the start?”
If the answer is “yes,” then it’s definitely time to revisit the content planning stages!
If you want to learn more about how the law applies to podcast music, check out this interview with Gordon Firemark on Podcraft. He’s a media lawyer who discusses copyright and fair use in great detail.
Best Podcast Music Libraries
Alright, time for some resources. Need a tune for true crime? A ditty for drama? Or a cappella for comedy? You’ll find every type of podcast music imaginable on these great podcast music platforms.
AudioHero
AudioHero is an online library of more than 300,000 royalty-free music tracks and sound effects available to you for download. We have teamed up with them to bring you some exclusive discounts, too.
Get 50% off their annual plan each year using the coupon code TPH50
Get 30% off their monthly plan each month using the coupon code TPH30
Epidemic Sound
Limited offer: We’ve teamed up with Epidemic Sound to bring you an exclusive offer on their service. Sign up to Epidemic Sound’s annual personal plan using coupon code PODCAST50 to get a massive 50% off!
Epidemic boasts a library of over 30,000 tracks, and they add new ones every week. They also have a 60,000-strong sound effect library. This is ideal if you like to do a bit of soundscaping in your show.
Their subscription tier prices are £10 a month for the Personal Plan and £39 for the Commercial Plan.
Try the subscription plans for free for 30 days when signing up below! Try it, keep it if you like it, otherwise unsubscribe before the trial ends and you won’t get charged.
Shutterstock
Shutterstock takes a strict approach to quality control in their library, and they say that most who submit music don’t get accepted. This highly exclusive approach to curation makes their library of tracks stand out.
Shutterstock’s new unlimited subscription includes both Music and SFX. 30,000 tracks and 8,000 Metaverse-ready immersive SFX – starting at $16.60/mo USD.
100% of Shutterstock’s tracks are copyright clear and can be used forever once licensed, and finding the right music for your projects is easy. Their library is optimised for painless search, thanks to precise filters that let you browse by genre, mood, popularity, freshness, and more. The in-house music team adds dozens of tracks weekly, so you’ve always got new music at your fingertips.
With a robust selection of pricing plans, bundles, and licenses, good deals exist for every budget and need. In addition to traditional pay-per-song licensing, customers can sign up for a subscription that offers unlimited downloads.
Shutterstock currently has a free trial offer that grants users up to two Shutterstock Music tracks at no cost.
PremiumBeat by Shutterstock
PremiumBeat’s royalty-free music tracks are 100% exclusive and copyright clear. PremiumBeat collections span multiple styles giving you the feel of big production houses. They have a ton of sound effects available in their library, too, if you’re working on something a bit more highly-produced!
Get 10% off PremiumBeat sitewide using coupon code PODCASTPB
Envato Elements
Envato Elements is the subscription service from long-time royalty-free asset marketplace, Envato. They’re behind some of the biggest creative marketplaces on the web, of which Audiojungle is the audio showpiece.
Envato’s Royalty free music library
Envato’s elements subscription gives you access to their full royalty-free music library, boasting nearly 100,000 tunes. Add to that 575,000 sound effects and there’s no doubt you’ll find everything you need. To help with that, Elements offers all the standard categories and search filters, allowing you to narrow down your search super-fast. And one thing that stands out is their vocal sample library, which might interest podcasters who are looking to produce more sophisticated theme tunes to really suit their brand.
Envato costs more than other libraries if you buy it monthly ($33). But buying an annual subscription drops the price to around the same as the competition (equivalent to $15 per month).
Envato’s huge advantage, justifying that cost for many, are the other resources you get alongside the music. Photos, stock video, YouTube templates, graphics templates, you name a creative asset, Envato’s got it. So, if you do other things around your podcast – like video or image-heavy social – then this could really work for you.
Podcast Music & Sound Effects With Videvo
Royalty-free platform Videvo offers free stock music and SFX, ideal for starting a podcast with little or no money. It has thousands of tracks that you can browse by genre or mood.
Music With Voice-Over: Music Radio Creative
Music Radio Creative goes beyond simply helping you choose music for your podcast. They will also work with you to design tailor-made intros, outros, transitions, stingers, and jingles. They collaborate with some of the best voice-over talents in the world to craft your message into these segments.
Their client list boasts some of the top podcasters around, like Pat Flynn, Cliff Ravenscraft, and John-Lee Dumas. They are very much the premium option, which automatically makes you think they’d be really expensive. But you can actually get something great for between £200 and £300. Using MRC won’t break the bank.
Complete Custom: Freelance Composers
If you’d like something truly unique scored, you can commission a freelance musician. This might mean approaching someone you already know or hiring someone on a freelancer marketplace. This is potentially the most costly option, but it would almost guarantee you find the perfect podcast music.
Where Can I Find Free Podcast Music?
It is possible to get podcast music for free. But, being free, that music is going to be used on a lot of other podcasts.
If you listen to more than a few dozen shows, you’ll start to hear the same music pop up again and again. This doesn’t help your audio branding or make you sound very professional.
But if you’re on a budget or purely podcasting from a hobbyist or creative outlet perspective, then, by all means, go down the free route though. You can always upgrade later on if you feel the need.
Full Free Podcast Music Packs: The Podcast Host
First, check out our collection of free podcast music packs. These small collections of packs are normally only available to Alitu subscribers. However, recently, we released a selection of them for use by anyone as long as you include a small credit on your website and in your show.
Each pack includes intro music, outro music and transition ‘stings’, as well as a loop or two, all on the same theme. So you can use them throughout your show and create a really polished, consistent brand.
Single Free Podcast Music Tracks: Incompetech
Incompetech is an extensive library of free-to-use music created by composer Kevin MacLeod. A lot of his work is scored for film and documentary. These can really work well on fictional pieces if you’re an audio drama or docu-pod creator.
There are a whole load of tracks on there that would certainly fit as the theme tune for a spoken word podcast, though. You can use their music for free so long as you credit the site on your episodes and show notes. If you don’t want to list credits, you can buy a standard license for any particular track.
Podcast Music Case Studies
As I said at the beginning, there are no “rules” when it comes to podcast music. It’s all about what works best for the type of show you’re doing. Let’s take a look at three of ours, each taking a very different approach.
Pocket-Sized Podcasting: No Music
Pocket-Sized Podcasting is a “one quick tip each day” show that teaches you how to podcast. Episodes are, on average, only a minute long. We felt that having music on these short episodes would be overkill, so we chose not to include any at all.
PodCraft: Intro & Outro Music
PodCraft is a much longer-form “how-to podcast” series where we go in-depth on a particular topic. Episodes can be 45 minutes to an hour long. PodCraft has a short intro and outro track that long-time listeners will know the minute they hear it.
Hostile Worlds: Music Throughout
Hostile Worlds is a fully soundscaped audio drama and documentary-style hybrid. There are few moments in the show that don’t include music. Beds tend to run underneath each conversation or monologue, while music is also used to transition between scenes.
Final Thought on Music: “Does This Enhance My Listener’s Experience?”
As we’ve learned in this guide, there are loads of ways you can use podcast music and no shortage of places to get it. Just like anything else in podcasting, there are no hard “rules” about any of this. If you’re ever in doubt, always come back to your audience. Here are some handy resources on that front to bookmark for future reading:
And, Once You’ve Picked Your Podcast Music…
Our ‘Podcast Maker’ tool, Alitu, can streamline your show’s recording, editing, production, and publishing.
Alitu is designed to help people who have never recorded or mixed audio before to create great-sounding content quickly and simply. It’s also the perfect tool for busy, time-poor podcasters.
You can record directly into Alitu (either solo, or with a remote guest), easily chop out any mistakes, add in your fancy new podcast music (Alitu has its own free podcast music library, too!), and it’ll help you create a nice fade-out effect, automated for all future episodes.
Once your episode is mixed, you can publish it directly to Apple, Spotify, and all other podcast-listening apps from within your Alitu dashboard. Give it a shot for free, and see for yourself!
Originally posted on September 13, 2024 @ 1:24 am