The Best Royalty Free Music for Documentaries: Enhance Your Impact with Our Top 10 Documentary Songs
Jourdan Aldredge
Sep 11, 2024
As the film industry changes rapidly in this new age of streaming content and AI, one genre of filmmaking is becoming perhaps more important than ever before. Documentary filmmaking is the art of finding true people, capturing true moments, and telling true stories.
Documentaries can be vehicles to bring great change and good into the world. But they’re also quite tricky to pull off—requiring sometimes years of work and dedication. So if you are a documentary filmmaker, or someone looking to try a documentary project, we’re here to help.
One easy way to make your documentary films more watchable and engaging is simply with your soundtrack. Royalty free music, like the tracks we offer here at Soundstripe, can be a great way to help your projects hit their thematic elements and better present their arguments overall.
So, to help you on your documentary filmmaking journey, here’s some of the best royalty free music for the soundtracks of your documentary projects.
10 top royalty free songs for documentaries
While we’ll review some documentary soundtrack tips and tricks below, let’s start by giving you what you came here for—high-quality royalty free music to make your documentaries better.
We have ten hand-selected documentary songs from our music library here at Soundstripe, curated specifically for use in documentary-style projects. These tracks are all royalty free (more on that later) and ready for you to use in whatever shorts, features, or even client or commercial projects you need them for.
So check out some of our best documentary music to help you tell your stories.
Description: A very low-energy, ambient song that is best described as calm and sad. Strings and piano are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 118
Key: C Major
Description: A low-energy rock song that is best described as inspiring and hopeful. Synth and electric guitar are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 100
Key: A Minor
Description: A medium-energy, classical song that is best described as inspiring. Strings and horns are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 100
Key: G Minor
Description: A low-energy, score song that is best described as suspenseful and scary. Ambient tones and piano are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 60
Key: B Minor
Description: A medium energy, score song that is best described as reflective and inspiring. Big drums and samples are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 110
Key: D Minor
Description: A medium-energy, classical song that is best described as hopeful and inspiring. Strings and harp are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 60
Key: C Major
Description: A low-energy, score song that is best described as hopeful. Strings and ambient tones are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 115
Key: C Minor
Description: A low-energy, ambient song that is best described as reflective and romantic. Ambient tones and synth are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 75
Key: C Major
Description: A low-energy, classical song that is best described as reflective and suspenseful. Piano and strings are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 110
Key: A Minor
Description: A very low-energy rock song that is best described as calm and chill. The guitar and electric guitar are the primary instruments on this track.
BPM: 63
Key: B Major
Of course, this isn’t all of the music we offer. If you’d like to explore all of our royalty free music tracks in our Soundstripe library, we highly recommend checking out our Soundstripe app.
What is royalty free music?
By the way, when searching for copyright free documentary music for your projects, it'd be helpful to know a thing or two about how music licensing works and the benefits of possibly using royalty free music. We’ll keep this short, but it’s important to understand that all music has basic copyrights associated with it.
These copyrights extend to both the composer of the music as well as the musicians who recorded the music. And if you want to use any music in any short films or other projects, you’ll need to obtain permission from the copyright owners.
To help with this process, companies like Soundstripe offer music that is fully licensed and cleared for subscribers to use in their videos and content. The artists have been compensated, and as a Soundstripe subscriber, you can use any song or sound effect in our libraries in your videos without paying additional royalties or fees—hence the “royalty free” term.
If you’re still looking for more information, here’s a full guide to what royalty free music is and how it works, as well as some other helpful resources for understanding the nuances of copyrighted music and how to license music for video.
Our top playlists for royalty free music for documentary films
Next, let’s get back to giving you some royalty free music to consider for your documentaries. In addition to the individual track recommendations shared above, we also have some more curated playlists tailored for documentary projects and similar genre work.
We also offer downloadable previews, which you can add to your edits if you’d like to really explore and feel how the songs might sound with any footage you’ve already shot for your film or if you have any tonal comparisons.
Description: Building and Cinematic tracks trending among our members who create video content for Documentaries.
Description: Modern Orchestral Score tracks are trending among our members who create video content for documentaries.
Description: Soundtrack music for Science Fiction films.
Description: Soundtrack music for Adventure films.
Description: Inspiring soundtracks that highlight a positive life change.
Description: Screams, creatures, and all of the sounds you need to create your next horror project
Cinematic Staff Picks Playlist
Description: The smiling staffers at Soundstripe chose their personal favorite cinematic tracks.
Please keep in mind, though, that these are still just a small grouping of playlists for documentary projects. If you’re still looking for more information, discover what royalty free music means and how to use it for your commercial projects with our guide to “what is royalty free music.”
Tips for using royalty free music in your documentary projects
Now that we’ve given you many royalty free music tracks and playlists to help you find the right soundtrack for your documentary projects, let’s give you some additional tips and tricks for putting those audio layers underneath your films.
Remember these points as you select the right royalty free music for your documentary projects. Use these tracks as the bedrock of your artistic expression.
- Find the right style and music genre to match your documentary's tone and mood.
- You can also consider adding royalty free sound effects (SFX) to your documentary projects.
- Download preview tracks and see how they sound and feel in film as you edit.
- Consider creating musical motifs that connect with different characters in your stories (these can be the same song, the same artist, the same musical genre, or even the same musical instruments).
- Don’t be afraid to let the music become a character itself by giving your audience time to listen to songs over static shots or even black screens with text.
- You can also use music stems from any song to rearrange the music to better suit your footage, or just use the part of the track that best suits your film.
At the end of the day, though, there are no right or wrong answers about the best tracks—or ways to use the tracks—in your documentary projects. You also don’t always need music to tell a story. But if you do find that your projects need an extra level of immersion or impact, these songs and tips should be a huge help for your filmmaking process.