Royalty Free Music for Short Films: Our 10 Best Tracks and Playlists for Your Perfect Soundtrack
Jourdan Aldredge
Aug 27, 2024
In an ideal world, every film and video project, whether that be a short indie film or a giant corporate video, would have its own unique soundtrack custom recorded. However, we of course don’t live in that world. Custom soundtracking is usually reserved for projects with a high budget.
That being said, just because you don’t have a composer at your disposal doesn’t mean you can’t use custom soundtrack-quality music for your films and videos. Short films, in particular, are probably the best example of a low-budget type of filmmaking that could benefit the most from high-quality soundtracking yet is the least equipped to make it happen.
This is why we’re here to present you with some of the best royalty free music specifically for your short indie film projects. Let our roster of Grammy-winning musicians give you thousands of cinema-quality songs and playlists to help you find the perfect score for your short film.
10 top royalty free songs for short films
Now, while we’ll get into some tips for using royalty free music for your short films below, let’s start by simply providing you with some cinematic-quality audio tracks for you to consider using in your projects.
Of course, every short film is going to be different depending on the style and genre that you’re going for, but here are some hand-selected songs that should give you a quick understanding of the type of quality and diversity that Soundstripe’s music library has to offer for your filmmaking needs.
Description: A low-energy, score song best described as inspiring and hopeful. Strings and violin are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 90
Key: D Major
Description: A medium-energy soundtrack / cinematic song best described as reflective and suspenseful. Strings and synth are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 120
Key: F Major
Description: A low-energy, ambient song best described as reflective and calm. Piano and strings are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 125
Key: Eb/D# Minor
Description: A medium-energy, score song best described as hopeful and inspiring. Strings and violin are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 80
Key: G Minor
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 medium-energy, electronic song best described as reflective and hopeful. Bass and synth bass are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 121
Key: Eb/D# Minor
Description: A medium energy, score song best described as fun and happy. Strings and percussion are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 101
Key: D Major
Description: A medium-energy, score song best described as scary and suspenseful. Strings and violin are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 133
Key: G Minor
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
Description: A low-energy, score song best described as hopeful and inspiring. Strings and violin are the primary instruments in this track.
BPM: 80
Key: G Major
If you’d like to further explore all of our royalty free music tracks in our Soundstripe library, then we highly recommend checking out all of our music on our Soundstripe app.
What is royalty free music?
When sourcing music for your short films (or any other video projects), you should know a thing or two about how music licensing for video works and the benefits of possibly using royalty free music. We’ll keep this brief. Still, 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 short films
Now, with a stronger understanding of how music licensing works and the benefits of using royalty free music for your short films, let’s give you even more tracks to listen to as you begin your journey to choose the music for your film’s soundtrack.
Along with the highlighted track selections above, here are some hand-picked playlists covering a range of genres and styles. We suggest listening to as many of these tracks as possible in each playlist to get a better understanding of the quality of our songs here at Soundstripe.
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.
Cinematic Staff Picks Playlist
Description: The smiling staffers at Soundstripe chose personal favorite cinematic tracks.
Description: Spacious and moody Ambient music for film soundtrack.
Description: Dynamic Electronic score perfect for cinematic projects
Description: Soundtrack music for Adventure films.
Description: Fall in love with these cinematic tracks
Description: Frightening score and underscore tracks for the next great Horror film.
Description: Soundtrack music for Science Fiction films.
As always, please remember that these are just a handful of recommended playlists for your short films. We have plenty more playlists and tracks to share with you on our app, which you can check out here.
Tips for using royalty free music in your short films
Filmmaking is not an objective form of art. There are no right or wrong answers for how you should write, shoot, edit, or soundtrack your short films. But with that being said, there are some helpful tips and tricks that we can share with you to help you on your filmmaking journey.
Keep these points in mind as you select the right royalty free music for your short films. Use these tracks as the bedrock of your artistic expression.
- Ask questions about your film’s genre and tone to inform your soundtracking decisions.
- Download preview tracks and see how they sound and feel in film as you edit.
- You can also consider adding royalty free sound effects to your short films.
- Try using music to set the mood for a scene by layering it before each scene and slowly ramping it up in volume.
- Don’t try to move too fast with your short films and your soundtrack; give your music (and your filmmaking ability) time to impact your audience.
If you find yourself stuck or at an artistic impasse, a great way to spark some more creativity might be to go back to your soundtrack and see if you can find any other songs that fit your vision for your film. If you can connect with just one song, you can use that audio as the inspiration for what you’d like to show your audience with your film.