May 27, 2022
When you think back to some of the most memorable scores in modern film history, maybe you think of John Williams’s work in the Jurassic Park, Star Wars, and Harry Potter films. Or maybe a different composer or film comes to mind first.
Whatever the case, great cinematic scores leave a lasting impression on us and are forever linked to the films we know and love. The right music (or sound effects) can instantly make on-screen moments more captivating and powerful — so much so that it’s impossible to look away.
When you’re off the clock and part of the viewing audience, you probably don’t give too much thought to all of the work that went into a film’s music curation. But as soon as you’re back behind-the-scenes of a production again, it’s a much different story.
The stakes are high when you’re the one in charge of building a stellar soundtrack, and there are a few different approaches you could take for your videos:
- Compose and produce your own original music.
- License music that you outsource elsewhere.
- Do both.
If you’re looking for a way to license an unlimited amount of music — without the usual hassle of royalty payments, negotiations, etc. — you’ve landed on the right blog post, because we're talking about the marriage between royalty free music and cinematic music.
So we’ve put together this rundown of the top cinematic playlists and tracks from Soundstripe as well as some tips for navigating and filtering our royalty free music library. So let’s get into it.
Introducing our top cinematic playlists
Cinematic music comes in many different genres, styles, and moods. So as long as the music fits the on-screen moment and the sound quality is top notch, a song from any genre has the potential to be “cinematic.”
One of the best ways to narrow your search initially is to start with a curated playlist that has the type of music you’re looking for. While there’s a ton of options to choose from, we’ve put together this list of our most cinematic royalty free music playlists to-date.
Soundscapes
Listen and license here.
Big Epic Beauty
Listen and license here.
Film Underscore
Listen and license here.
Dark Cinematic
Listen and license here.
Wedding: Inspiring Cinematic
Listen and license here.
Cinematic Staff Picks
Listen and license here.
If you’re looking for an alternative way to find the right royalty free music, you can start your search within the music catalog by selecting the “Soundtrack/Cinematic” genre filter. From there, you can include or exclude as many filters as you want to get even more curated results.
Here’s an example of what your search experience could look like if you were searching for sad classical music that has very low to medium energy:
Once you find a royalty free song you like, you also have the option to click the “Similar Songs” icon and get a dropdown list of five more recommendations. This feature can help you save even more time during the song search process.
10 trending cinematic songs in our catalog
There are thousands of songs in our library, which is great if you want a variety of royalty free music, but it still presents a lot to sort through on your own. The good news is that we've optimized the search experience so that you can find and license the right track in five minutes or less.
To give you a better idea of the royalty free music you’ll find in our catalog, here are 10 of the most popular cinematic tracks available today:
1. “Slow Rise” by EVOE
Genre: Ambient
Instruments: Drums and ambient tones
Listen and license here.
2. “Lonely Boy” by Alsever Lake
Genre: Acoustic
Instruments: Guitar and acoustic guitar
Listen and license here.
3. “Vanished” by Wicked Cinema
Genre: Ambient
Instruments: Strings and horns
Listen and license here.
4. “Flora” by Markus Huber
Genre: Classical
Instruments: Piano and strings
Listen and license here.
5. “Just Around The Corner” by Shimmer
Genre: Classical
Instruments: Percussion and xylophone / mallets
Listen and license here.
6. “We Can Make It Together” by Joshua Spacht
Genre: Classical
Instruments: Piano and strings
Listen and license here.
7. “Beyond The Horizon” by Sounds Like Sander
Genre: Classical
Instruments: Piano and strings
Listen and license here.
8. “Graze” by Wild Wonder
Genre: Ambient
Instruments: Strings and piano
Listen and license here.
9. “Waiting For Light” by Ian Kelosky
Genre: Ambient
Instruments: Xylophone / mallets and percussion
Listen and license here.
10. “Rise” by Louis Lion
Genre: Electronic
Instruments: Synth and electronic drums
Listen and license here.
New cinematic music for 2022
Our catalog of royalty free music is constantly growing week by week, so a new supply of cinematic music is always right around the corner. From electronic beats to ambient scores to classical melodies, these seven tracks are some of the most recent releases in our library as of 2022.
1. “Reign Of Terror” by Kalgash
Genre: Electronic
Instruments: Drums and electronic drums
Listen and license track here.
2. “Oscillations” by Matteo Galesi
Genre: Classical
Instruments: Cello and violin
Listen and license track here.
3. “In The Misty Valley” by Cristina Scannicchio
Genre: Ambient
Instruments: Strings and ambient tones
Listen and license track here.
4. “Lucid Dreams” by Craig Allen Fravel
Genre: Ambient
Instruments: Ambient tones
Listen and license track here.
5. “Darkness Approaches” by Louis Lion
Genre: Suspenseful Score
Instruments: Synth and piano
Listen and license track here.
6. “Floating in Em” by Ian Kelosky
Genre: Underscore
Instruments: Cello and violin
Listen and license track here.
7. “Miles Away” by Michael Briguglio
Genre: Suspenseful Score
Instruments: Synth and strings
Listen and license track here.
Looking for more royalty free music?
As ideal as it would be, it’s not always possible to produce a ton of original music for your videos. The same is true about licensing copyrighted music directly from a publisher. Both options can quickly drain your budget and leave you with less time to pull something great together in post-production.
Hopefully, this blog has shed light on the fact that there’s another more affordable and deadline-friendly way to license high quality cinematic music for your videos. (You can also find professionally made sound effects that way too.)
When you sign up for Soundstripe, you can license an unlimited amount of royalty free music and unlock more perks with your plan. If you’d like to learn more about our royalty free music library’s variety before making a decision, here are a few more articles worth checking out next: