If you’re going to podcast, you need to do it right and have quality music that you can use without any strings attached. You can’t just go grab a segment of a Foo Fighters song that you love to use for your bumper music unless you enjoy getting in lots of legal trouble.
Of course, you can always work with the music publisher to work out a deal, but that won’t be cheap, even if it’s possible. So you can save that for later in your podcasting career.
You can also have someone create a custom piece for you. That’s a fantastic option if you’ve got the budget for it. But a lot of people don’t have the time or budget for creating a custom piece for their podcast, so digging deep into some stock music libraries will give you a ton of options that you can get started with quickly and reasonably cheap.
I’m currently working on a couple different podcast projects and we’ve wanted a broad selection so we can find something that will fit our style.
I’ve been searching through different options for music, and found some good ones. These are my notes from my search.
Here it is my 8 Podsafe Music Sources!
Shockwave Sound
This was the place where I found the music that I use for my podcast. They have a huge selection and a lot of variety to fit just about any application or taste. There is also a lot of variety in track lengths to fit your particular application. The prices here are really solid too. A 30 second track will cost around $15.
Audio Jungle
This is a beautiful site from the good folks at Envato. Their selection doesn’t seem to be quite a broad as some other sites, but there is good stuff here. Audio Jungle is comparable in price to Shockwave Sound. It has a couple different options that allow for some extended licensing, so it depends on your need.
Pond5
The Pond5 music site is a great site with a lot variety. Stock music is just one thing that Pond5 does, similar to Audio Jungle. It’s super easy to sample the tracks – all you have to do is hover. Prices are good here, and I found a couple quality short tracks for around $5 and several others at $15.
Music Bakery
The Music Bakery has a really solid selection of music, with good variety of tracks with different lengths. It’s easy to navigate and find what you’re looking for, but a little expensive compared to some of the others I’ve listed here with 30 second tracks costing $34.
StockMusic.net
StockMusic.net has a ton of tracks to choose from, and there is definitely some really high quality tracks here. You can find short tracks, or longer ones, but the price is a good bit higher than other sites, costing $39.95 per 30 second track.
AudioBlocks
This site is subscription-based, so it’s a little bit different than the others, but if you find yourself in regular need of stock media this just may be the source for you.
TheMusiCase.com
There is some good stuff here. Easy to preview tracks here too, and a lot of variety. It’s easy to use their search tool to filter down to the type of tracks you’re looking for. In addition to standard music tracks you can also find a lot of sound effects available that are fairly inexpenisve.
PremiumBeat.com
Lots of categories and easy to find quality choices. They also have a lot of sound effects to spice things up should it be needed for your particular application. Pricing here is also a little expensive, starting at $39.95 for the standard license.
Conclusion
It’s really easy to get lost in listening to different tracks, trying to find the perfect one. I’ve spent a lot of time – more than I’d like to admit – poring over all the different options. Using these sources will give you plenty for your search. Without a doubt, you’ll find something that will work for you.
Question – Where did you get your podcast music from?