The Best Royalty Free Music for Drone Videos: Our Top 10 Songs to Bring Your Aerial Footage to New Heights
Jourdan Aldredge
Jul 23, 2024
In a relatively short period of time, aerial camera technology has gone from a niche hobby to a mainstream industry. For a style of filming that used to be only available to those with budgets high enough to rent an actual helicopter and camera crew, aerial photography and cinematography have become an everyday part of many production workflows.
Yet, while we see aerial videography included in everything from wedding films to commercial projects to YouTube videos, this breathtaking footage isn’t always given the gravitas it truly deserves. That’s because the real secret to making the best use of aerial video isn’t just the beautiful cinematography but rather how it’s presented.
Pairing the right audio with your aerial drone videos is the true game-changer, and more content creators learn this daily. So, if you're looking to add aerial footage to your projects, we have hand-selected royalty free music for drone videos to help your content truly take flight.
10 top royalty free songs for drone videos
Now, we have a lot to explore about what type of music would work best for aerial drone videos. Plus, we also want to explore a bit more about how to properly use music in your drone video edits. But before we get caught up in the nuances of using royalty free drone music for your aerial shots, let’s give you what you really want here at the start.
Here are ten of our top royalty free music selections for your drone videos. (We’ll also further define what royalty free music is and why you should use it for your videos below as well.) But for now, if you’re here for the best music for drone videos, check out these tracks below.
- Description: A low-energy, underscore song best described as hopeful and inspiring. Synth and guitar are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 90
- Key: A Major
- Description: A medium-energy, electronic song best described as chill and happy. Ambient tones and drums are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 90
- Key: Bb/A# Major
- Description: A low-energy, ambient song that is best described as inspiring. Ambient tones and strings are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 92
- Key: F Major
- Description: A medium-energy, electronic song best described as chill and fun. Bass and drums are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 88
- Key: F Minor
- Description: A low-energy, electronic song best described as reflective and hopeful. Synth and ambient tones are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 121
- Key: B Major
- Description: A high-energy, electronic song best described as chill and fun. Bass and synth bass are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 128
- Key: A Minor
- Description: A high-energy rock song best described as angry and reflective. Ambient tones and bass are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 130
- Key: C Minor
- Description: A low-energy, hip-hop song best described as chill and quirky. Drums and electronic drums are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 92
- Key: A Minor
- Description: A high-energy, electronic song best described as fun and inspiring. Drums and samples are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 160
- Key: A Minor
- Description: A high-energy, electronic song best described as angry and suspenseful. Ambient tones and bass are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 100
- Key: F Major
These are just some top picks, though. If you’d like to explore any songs further (or dive deeper into our diverse genre library), check out our music on the Soundstripe app.
What is royalty free music?
Now that we’ve shared some of our top royalty free music for drone videos selections, let’s take a step back and explain why we’re recommending royalty free music for these types of videos.
We’ll also give a quicker primer on how music licensing for video works, and why it’s critical that you properly license any songs or sound effects which you plan to use in your videos—whether they’re aerial drone videos or any other type for that matter.
The very basics are that all music is copyright-protected. Copyrights extend to both the composer of any song and the recording artists. And, if you’d like to use any copyrighted music in your videos, you’ll need to secure licensing to use the track for all of its uses.
These copyrights are in place to protect the artists as well as yourself. If you’d like to use any songs or sound effects in your videos, you’d be best served by licensing royalty free music as it’s the only true way to both fairly compensate the artists, as well as protect yourself and your content.
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 drone videos
Since we’ve now covered the basics of royalty-free music and how it works, let’s dive back into providing you with plenty of top music selections for your drone videos. These are some genre-specific playlists, which should give you a better way to sort through our music library here at Soundstripe.
Description: Spacious music will accompany drone footage.
Description: Show your channel the world with these tracks curated for Travel Vlogs
Description: Our favorite cinematic tracks chosen by the smiling staffers at Soundstripe.
Description: Spacious and moody Ambient music for film soundtrack.
Description: Meditation music for a deeper connection to nature. Inspired by the Solfeggio Frequencies.
These playlists range from modern and poppy tracks to more toned-down and chilled-out tunes. You can explore more royalty free music playlists, too, if you’re looking for a different genre or vibe for your drone videos. But those are some of our favorites.
Tips for adding royalty free music to your drone videos
Hopefully, all of these royalty free music tracks and playlist recommendations have given you plenty of time to consider what type of music you’d like for the background of your drone videos. However, if you’re still concerned about adding music to your cinematic drone shots, here are some helpful tips and tricks to get the most out of your outstanding aerial cinematography.
- Look for songs that start quiet and slow and build as they go.
- Pick songs (or song stems) that match the length of your shot.
- Classical music and classical instruments provide cinematic quality.
- Consider multiple tracks for different aerial shots, and don’t be afraid to mix them up.
- Understand your videos and your audience, and pick tracks that would resonate with the themes of your videos overall.
Overall, we’d simply add that aerial shots, no matter how long or short, will be quite cinematic by nature. There’s something grandiose and beautiful about footage shot from above. Here are some drone flying tips to help you get the smoothest shots. And don’t overthink things. Let your drone footage speak for itself, and just use music to bring the moments to life.