Finding Free Background Music for Your Story

Background music supports the emotional tone of a story without drawing attention to itself. The music should stay behind your voice - quiet enough that your narration is always the clearest thing in the mix.

Important: Using copyrighted music without permission - including popular songs - can result in your video being removed from platforms like YouTube. Always use music that is explicitly licensed for reuse.

Where to find free, legally usable music

  • Free Music Archive - freemusicarchive.org. Large curated library. Filter by license type. Look for CC BY (credit the artist) or CC0 (no restrictions at all).
  • ccMixter - ccmixter.org. Community music platform. Many instrumental and ambient tracks ideal for story backgrounds.
  • YouTube Audio Library - studio.youtube.com. Free music provided by YouTube for use in videos. Log in to YouTube Studio and click Audio Library. Tracks marked with a headphone icon are free to use with no attribution required.
  • Incompetech - incompetech.com/music. Music by composer Kevin MacLeod. All tracks are CC BY (credit him in your description). A reliable source for instrumental tracks in many genres.

Choosing the right music

  • Instrumental only - lyrics compete with your narration for the listener's attention.
  • Match the emotional tone, not just the topic. A story about loss benefits from a slow, sparse track. A story about a community celebration benefits from something warmer and livelier.
  • Choose something with minimal dynamic change. Tracks that are consistently quiet are easier to mix under narration than tracks that build to loud climaxes.
  • Test at low volume first. In DaVinci Resolve, lower the music track's audio level so it sits roughly 20 to 25 dB below your narration.

Crediting music in your story

Most Creative Commons licenses require attribution. Add a credit at the end of your video or in the description when you publish it:

Music: [Track Title] by [Artist Name], licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0.

Last modified: Thursday, 18 June 2026, 12:24 AM