The Best Royalty Free Music for Filmmakers: Top 10 Cinematic Tracks to Elevate your Feature Film Scores
Jourdan Aldredge
Sep 20, 2024
For many filmmakers—or content creators looking to become filmmakers one day—their biggest goal is to make a feature film one day. You know, like a real-life 90-minute feature-length film—like the ones you see in movie theaters.
And while it certainly takes quite a bit of budget, perseverance, and perhaps luck to make a feature film happen, there is no end to their potential. So if you’re on your own journey to make a feature film of your own, we’re here to help you however we can.
One way in which we can support all of you aspiring feature filmmakers is by providing high quality royalty free soundtrack music for your features. Music is a hugely important part of the filmmaking process as it can be a driving force powering your story and pushing your narrative forward.
So, whether you’re still in the script writing phase or deep into your assembly cut in post-production, let’s give you hand-selected royalty free music tracks and playlists to help you bring your feature film to life.
10 top royalty free songs for feature films
Now, while we’ll go into some tips and tricks for working with royalty free music in your feature films below (as well as better explain why and how royalty free music might actually be your best option for indie features), let’s start by helping you choose the music for your royalty free movie soundtrack.
These are just a handful of tracks from the Soundstripe music library. There’s a lot more to browse through if you’re interested. However, if you want some tracks to review right away, here are ten picks we think you’d be wise to consider for your feature film.
Description: A low-energy, classical song best described as reflective and romantic. Strings and cello are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 171
Key: C Major
Description: A medium energy, score song best described as suspenseful and reflective. Strings and violin are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 145
Key: B Major
Description: A medium-energy world song best described as hopeful and inspiring. Strings and synth are the primary instruments in this track.BPM: 120
Key: G Major
Description: A medium energy, score song best described as happy and hopeful. Strings and violin are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 130
Key: D Minor
Description: A low-energy, classical song best described as reflective and romantic. Strings and piano are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 92
Key: G Major
Description: A low-energy jazz song best described as romantic and happy. Accordion and piano are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 135
Key: F Major
Description: A low-energy, corporate song best described as quirky and calm. Accordion and horns are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 152
Key: D Major
Description: A medium-energy, score song best described as scary and suspenseful. Drums and electronic drums are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 155
Key: D Minor
Description: A low-energy, electronic song best described as hopeful and inspiring. Piano and ambient tones are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 117
Key: C Major
Description: A medium-energy, electronic song best described as scary and suspenseful. Synth and bass are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 110
Key: D Minor
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?
As promised, let’s present a quick argument as to why you might want to consider royalty free music for feature films in the first place. Despite any preconceived notions about the term, “royalty free” doesn’t mean free music. It simply means music that has its copyrights covered for you.
Taking a step back, 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.
Royalty free music can be a great option for your feature films simply because it’s easy to find and use. Soundstripe’s music is composed and recorded by Grammy-winning artists who know (and care) about making great music for all types of films and video content.
If you’re still looking for more information, discover what royalty free music means and how to use it for your projects with our guide to “what is royalty free music.”
Our top playlists for royalty free music for feature films
Now that we’ve covered some basic definitions and gone over some reasons to use royalty free music in film, let’s get back to giving you some of the best royalty free music for filmmakers to consider using in feature projects.
Again, remember that these are just a handful of playlists worth reviewing. However, there’s still much more in the hopper to explore on the Soundstripe app. For now, though, here are some curated playlists that feature copyright free cinematic music and film-worthy tracks that would be perfect for your projects.
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 remember that these are still just a small grouping of playlists for feature film projects.
Tips for using royalty free music in your feature projects
Let’s wrap things up by giving you some tips and tricks to remember as you search for the right royalty free film scores“. Ideally, when creating a feature film, you should have some soundtrack options in mind before you start.
But even if you find yourself deep into the process of film editing, it never hurts to search for the right soundtrack elements to better suit your vision for your film.
- Understand the difference between music that works as part of your film’s soundtrack (which is part of the ambiance of your film) versus music that would work as songs in the universe of your film (which would sound more like pop songs and other genre tracks).
- Consider adding royalty free sound effects (also offered by Soundstripe) to your feature films.
- For a feature film, it can sometimes be OK to use the same soundtrack music multiple times in your film, particularly if it’s meant to serve as a callback to earlier events or action.
- Experiment with when and when not to use the soundtrack in your film. Sometimes, it makes more sense to let scenes breathe independently; in others, a soundtrack might help fill dull voids.
- Find music that fits with the overall themes of your film. Don’t be afraid to switch your soundtrack up if you feel something isn’t working or are boxing you in.
Ultimately, we all know that feature films take a long time to create. A feature film is more often than not a labor of love, meaning you should never feel the need to rush the process or work with anything (soundtrack or script) that feels less than perfect.
So have fun on your feature filmmaking journey, but also give yourself the time you need to fully realize your vision. Hopefully, the music provided above will help you on your journey.