If you are not sure which of the various paid royalty-free music sites is for you and is best fulfilling your needs, or you are interested in switching to another site and want to see a comparison of what you have and what you have in mind to purchase next, or you have questions regarding licensing, music quality, and other bonus features provided by each of these sites, then please keep reading.
Below sites are analyzed based on my personal opinion combined with research of other people’s comment in forums and by contacting some of the companies by email to get more details about e.g. licensing and their affiliate program.
Before we dive into each music site and how I did the evaluation, some important general understanding for YouTube uploaded content.
When you upload a video to YouTube, YouTube automatically analysis the video and audio parts of it against audio-visual content which was registered with a CONTENT ID by the content owner, and therefore looking for a match. Content ID is a popular digital fingerprinting system that content creators can use to easily identify and manage copyrighted content on YouTube.
In case a match is found to a Content ID registered content, a copyright notice will appear on the video, and the content owner may choose to take certain actions, such us:
Clearing the claim. This means the owner will not take any further actions and your video stays and functions as it is
Tracking the video’s viewership statistics. In this case the video isn’t affected as well but there are music sites which for example have a total revenue ceiling over all platforms used by the publisher/YouTube Channel Owner and therefore is interested to track the statistic
Monetizing the video. In this case the content owner is allowed to run ads on your video without the need to have your consent
Muting the audio. For example in case you used several songs and one is related to the match, this song is muted
Or even blocking a whole video from being viewed
Two more important information:
When uploading a video chose UNLISTED first instead of PUBLIC until all claims are cleared.
It is possible in case a music is often used from the same author to whitelist a complete YouTube Channel and by this to avoid any further notification claims.
More information can be found here: https://help.market.envato.com/hc/en-us/articles/204484680
PURCHASE CRITERIA:
The 3 most important KEY PURCHASING CRITERIA, I hope you agree with me here, when we buy a new product and therefore place the most value on, are PRICE, QUALITY, and VARIETY (which ensures that more likely our requirements are satisfied).
Additionally we should pay attention how well the product does in the following categories: EASE-OF-MIND e.g. licensing, SPECIAL FEATURES e.g. stems available for each song, EASE-OF-USE e.g. intuitive user interface and OUTLOOK e.g. since when does the company exist and what are the future plans (which is often not clear or shared by the company).
Reading through hundreds of posts and watching hundreds of videos, I can see that people are primarily looking to find music for their WEDDING, REAL ESTATE and YOUTUBE VLOG videos. Other categories are TUTORIALS (similar to VLOG) and CINEMATIC videos (Travel. Short Movie etc.).
EVALUATION CRITERIA:
1. Requirements: on-a-budget, allrounder, quantity, premium, ease-of-mind, time-sensitive
2. Quality: How to evaluate or judge a subjective topic like someone’s favorite music? Very difficult and therefore I can only use my subjective preference and the following categories how I judge music:
Excellent: a song to remember, a song which you want to listen to immediately again once it ends, a song which makes you take out your phone and find it through Shazam, a song which touches your heart, your emotions, your mood and pulls you out of whatever you were doing before the song started to play. A song which you want to put in your favorite playlist as you know that you want to connect memories to it every time you listen to it.
Very good. a song which you notice and which you like. A song which want to make you dance or turn up the volume. A song which would make it into one of your recent playlists and a song you want to share with your friends and listen to it for some time. A song which fits to the message - in case it is a video, a movie, an ad - and you like the total package.
Good. a song which is noticed by you but somehow rather unconsciously received. A song which you cannot find anything wrong with but you would not make the effort to put it in your playlist. It’s a nice melody, a “every-day-song” but nothing to go crazy about.
Fair. a song which isn’t really noticed by you without someone pointing to it or asking you “what do you think about this song?”. The melody and the instruments, the beat, everything is simply too normal to pay any attention to it.
Poor. a song which you cannot listen to and you want to skip it after a few seconds.
I used the “Most Popular” or “Trending” Filter to evaluate the songs of each platform and listen to at least 100 songs.
Further, my experience shows that it is way more easy to find good songs in the following music styles: electronic, classical/piano music, ambient and hip-hop. It is quite difficult to find a good song with vocals and in the area of pop music and deep-house.
3. Quantity: The evaluated sites have a library with a range from 1000 tracks to almost 1 Mio tracks. Therefore we can say that the main ranges are:
1k+, 10k+, 30k+, 100k+, 500k+
4. Quantity SFX: The same applies for SFX libraries. 10k+, 30k+,
5. User Interface: clean, clear, user-friendly and showing the main sections on the home page. For example New Artists, Recently Added Songs, Featured Playlists e.g. in Music, SFX and Video.
6. Browse / Search / Filters: Most sites offer the following angles to find what you are looking for.
In general the expectation is that I browse the website and I immediately see the music library with Filters to narrow down my search. Most important filters to start with is for me “Staff Pick”, “Top Downloads”, and “Video Theme/Playlist”. Secondary is the “Music Genre”. Normally the playlist/song category defines the “Mood” but it can help to have additional filter(s) to narrow down the search.
Music Genre e.g. Electronic, Rock, Pop; Mood e.g. Angry, Inspiring, Calm, Happy; Characteristic e.g. Aggressive, Dynamic, Epic; Playlists e.g. Action, Club Beats, Holiday
BPM (Beats Per Minute), Energy e.g. Very Low - High
Vocals / Instrumental
Instrument / Element
Duration
Waveform
7. Supporting Search Tools: what tools do exist to look up a song? For example Spotify Playlists, Mobile Apps, but also how can you play the songs and how convenient is it. For example when listening to songs from Filmstro and PremiumBeat you have continuously the watermark of their name in each song after every 20 seconds or so. Very annoying when you wanna look for a song going through many songs. Another great source are websites which chose songs from any of the platforms eg MotionVFX. Their trailers and tutorials have great music from PremiumBeat and Artlist.
8. Price: the price range of the sites introduced below is from $3.60/month to up to $199 per song. There is one exception. I included UppBeat.io, launched in 2021, and therefore the “new kid on the block”, offers 10 tracks per month for free. Let’s see later if the quality of the tracks can keep up with the competition.
9. Payment: each of the platforms offer different options and often more then one of the following 4 options: one-time payment, monthly payment, yearly payment, and pay-as-you-go which means pay per song
10. Licensing: In general the licenses of these platforms are covering music for video productions (sync). Any other use case, eg podcast which implies there is no video, playing music at an event in the background, could be not covered and needs to be confirmed.
The main areas for which a license could cover you are: YouTube-only videos, YouTube videos up to 10k views, YouTube videos up to 50k subscribers, covered up to an income through all platforms with a maximum of 75k USD/past 12 months, covering YouTube incl./excl. Ads, Apps, Broadcasting, Podcasts, Theatrical Movies, TV.
Depending which company and plan you chose, you need to evaluate the criteria above continuously as you grow and move forward. E.g. some companies request that you relicense the same song used in a new project. Another topic is issuing cue sheets for broadcast/tv/theatrical projects. Cue sheets help the performing rights organizations to know whom to pay for the use of that song.
Note: Licensing is a topic which should be evaluated in detail for any platform you chose. It is also recommended, in case your requirement is very specific, to double check with a support person of the music platform company.
Here an example from Artlist which shows the various areas a license can cover. And it shows why Arlist is the BEST EASY-OF-MIND MUSIC SITE. There is no competitor with such a comprehensive and all-covering license:
“b.…and to use them [the songs] for integrating and/or synchronizing them in projects and productions combining sound, text, and images (in any language), such as video clips and segments, advertisements, presentations, games, animations, slides, multimedia, podcasts, audiobooks, software, films, series, various programs and so on (thereinafter Projects). The term Works used in the Agreement therein refers both to the works and to the recordings of the works in the Site’s Repertoire.”
“c. The License includes the right to present and/or play in public and/or distribute the Works being integrated and/or synchronized as part of the Projects, in all existing means of media, inclusive of smart phones, tablets, personal computers, in various internet sites, in social networks, in online stores (such as iTunes), in video sharing sites (such as Vimeo, YouTube and so on), on television and in any other known means, and inclusive of physically by CDs or any other data storage device.”
“d….and [the license] does not limit the number of Projects in which you are entitled to integrate and/or synchronize the Works you downloaded from the Site, in condition the daily number of downloads does not exceed 40 Works….”
11. License validity: 2 main options are available, though the latter is the most common on: valid after cancellation, valid until cancellation
12. Affiliate registration: there are mainly 3 situations. Either you have companies which are not interested as long as you dont have enough traction, meaning followers, then you have easy-to-register companies, without any evaluation, and then you have companies to pre-evaluate your channel and that your vision is matching to their service.
13. Affiliate programs. there are several options existing depending to which company you talk to. The main option is the “Affiliate Program”. You’ll receive a unique ID and a unique affiliate link which you can share with your audience. Every creator using your link and signing up rewards you. Another option is “Free year of Membership”. In case you get selected by a company, they sponsor you e.g. with one year free of membership if you make a dedicated video, article or podcast to promote their service. Finally, there is the possibility to even discuss bigger “Profit Share” in case you have a large audience and you are a highly influential creator.
14. Differentiator(s): differentiators can be e.g. that with each song you can also get stems, loops and shorts (e.g. PremiumBeat), or you have Spotify Playlists which helps you find music “on-the-go” (e.g. EpidemicSound), or SoundCloud Playlist (Marmorset), or once you found your favorite song you can click an option “find similar song” helping you to find an even better song (e.g. PremiumBeat), or through a partnership you can get a better deal (e.g. AudioHero and TubeBuddy),
LIST OF ROYALY-FREE MUSIC SITES:
How to use each of these platforms?
The first step would be to look around on the home page and how to e.g. listen to the Top Downloads or Top Staff Pick or Trending Songs. This gives a first glimpse about what music is offered.
Let’s use 3 different scenarios to find a song.
One scenario is for a Wedding Video, hence we will search for a song related to “First Love” as the freshly married couple know each other since high school.
The second scenario is to find a song for a futuristic short action movie. Hence we search for a song related to “Future” and use this is our search term.
The third scenario is to find a song for our cooking vlog in which we make Spaghetti. Hence we search for a song related to “Italian”.
Our fourth scenario - in case SFX is offered - will search for a police dispatch sound for our futuristic short action movie.
A fifth scenario could be to search for video footage for our action movie e.g. the search term “Night City Mobile” as we are looking for a person using a mobile phone in a city by night e.g. standing in front of a window, the person mirroring in the glass, and we as the viewer can also the the big city through the glass.
1. Artlist.io, since 2015
First impression: looks nice and friendly with the black and yellow style
Library: 12k+ Music, (new) SFX | License: easy/comprehensive/life-time valid - even after cancellation | Price (music): $16.60/month, billed yearly $199 | Mix/Edit/Remaster: ? | Affiliate: easy-to-register/PDF Partner Agreement to be signed | Differentiator(s): license valid-after-cancellation
License: https://artlist.io/Content/Art-list_LicenseAgreement.pdf
Quality (music): the music is mainly GOOD to VERY GOOD but not outstanding. Still suitable for most use cases and with enough time, there are some gems to be found.
Top Artists: Ian Post, LiQWYD, Def Maniac, Kevin Graham, MARLOE (artist is also on Audiio), Vic Sage, Nate Rose, Maya Isac, Stanley Gurvich
Top Albums: Apex by Kevin Graham, Future Dream by Lux-Inspira, Kick Lee by Kick Lee, Magnetism by Ian Post, Benjamin by Josh Leake, Binary Love by Stanley Gurvich
Top Songs: Selfish by Theeves (Electronic, Pop, Hip-Hop), Yes Man by Nate Rose (Hip-Hop, Soul & RnB, Pop), Anthem Of A Quirky Hipster by Rex Banner (Pop), Clarity by Ian Post (Cinematic, Classical, Ambient), Beyond Here by Salt Of The Sound - several variations of the song (Cinematic, Ambient), The Future Is Now by MARLOE (Pop, Electronic), Take It To The Top by Ofrin (Electronic, Pop), Backboard by Vic Sage (HipHop, Electronic), Human Spirit by Hans Johnson (Cinematic, World), The Racer by Tristan Barton (Cinematic, Acoustic) - 2 version available
What I like: Artlist’s license covers a huge range of use-cases from YouTube, to Podcasts to TV broadcasts. This is very difficult to find from any of the other competitors. Another competitive advantage is the “Lifetime License Usage”, meaning you still can use the downloaded songs in your projects after you cancelled your subscription. I also like that if you found a good song, they also link to the “Full Album” - if existing - and also show you “Similar songs” and “Similar Albums”. Some songs provide also the corresponding Lyrics. It also comes in handy to have SFX available, though the library is still comparable small.
What should be improved: definitely the SFX library which was recently added. In some areas there aren’t many sounds existing. Further, the Filter options are quite limited only offering 4 Filters: Mood, Video Theme, Genre and Instrument. Also the Search isn’t really good e.g. the song Forest by LiQWYD is not found by it’s name through the search, only by the artist’s name. And searching for the song “So Good” only delivers the correct result if it is written with a starting upper-case letter. The search for “so good” will deliver no matching result (and shows other songs instead). And talking about the Search, why is the Search - on of the most important feature - not always visible but instead disappearing to the left? The Search also doesn’t “remember” the previous search terms e.g. compared to EpidemicSound. The UI and Filter Options are the weakest part of Artlist.
Conclusion: You always get what you pay for and for that, Artlist is great and hard to beat! If you want peace of mind regarding licensing, knowing that you want to reuse a lot of your songs in future projects, and you found good songs for your individual video area, then go for Arstlist.
2. Audiio.com, since 2018
Firsr impression:
Library: 4k+ Music/SFX (together, no information found for each) | License: easy/all-excl-broadcast/life-time for published videos during subscription, but after cancellation song/sound cannot be used anymore for a new projects | Price (music): life-time $199 (with discount code) or music+sfx $16.60/month, billed yearly $199 | Mix/Edit/Remaster: allowed? | Affiliate: easy | Differentiator(s): license lifetime usage; lifetime purchase available
Quality (music): the music is GOOD to VERY GOOD though the music library is (still) small. It is one of the younger platforms out there. But there are some gems offered and especially songs with Vocals are a lot to be found.
Top Artists: Matthew L. Fisher, Willyecho, Jay Warren, MARLOE, Nate Good,
Top Albums: n/a on audiio
Top Songs: Night by Scarlet Parke (Pop, Singer-Songwriter), Felony Love by Jay Warren (Pop, RnB), The Only Way … by Matthew L. Fisher, (Cinematic) The Future Is Now by MARLOE (Pop), Right Side Of The Road by Lonely Wild (Folk, Indie Rock), Locked Out by Jay Warren (Hip-Hop), Dangerous Love by Willyecho (Cinematic, Indie, Pop), Unwanted Tears - Strings by Philip Daniel (Cinematic, Classical), Build A Home by Jeffrey Martin (Acoustic, Folk, Singer-Songwriter), Cut Throat Feat. JONES by Doran Robin (Electronic, Pop, Rock)
What I like: you pay once and you have for a lifetime all music offerings available. That is unbeatable and nowhere to be found. I doubt that this service offering will stay forever though (as of writing, we have February 2021). The music quality - though the library is small compared to the competition - is quite good! I like that several songs are available with or without Vocals (Instrumental Version). It also comes in handy to have several options to filter and combine the search term. You can chose out of 8 Filters: Genre, Mood, Element, Energy, Vocals, Duration, Instrumental, Lyrical.
What should be improved: more music and more SFX to be added. Also songs do not have a linked Album to it. There is no function to select “Similar Songs” which is very useful to find a variety of other, similar songs once the “matching” song is found. And why do I see Hip-Hop and even Rock as additional Genre when I filter only for “Electronic” (same for Artlist)? The search does not remember the previous search terms.
Further, I receive a warning “This webpage is using significant memory. Closing it may improve the responsiveness of your Mac.”
Conclusion: Good to Very Good music for a one-time payment is hard to beat (music only)! If price is your main concern and you only want music, Audiio could be an option over Artlist. Though the music is a bit better on Artlist.
3. AudioJungle.net, since 2008
First impression: website looks “old”, where to start, looks all complicated
Library: 600k+ music, 600k+ SFX | License: complicated/many variations/life-time; no limitation for Views and Impressions on YouTube | Price: start at $1 per track | Mix/Edit/Remaster: ? | Affiliate: using Evato Affiliate, and “Impact Radius”, the affiliate network, for the contractual agreement and management | Differentiator(s): huge library, possible to purchase one song, community
Quality (music):
Top Artists:
Top Albums:
Top Songs:
What I like: the various categories and especially “Rising stars” - other called it “Trending” - which is really a clever way to promote either older tracks which are relevant in the current moment e.g. due to festivals, special season, events but also to see new tracks added which get picked up by others in popularity (but would not show up under “Most Popular Songs”). Great idea! What I also like is the amazing variety of music. If you have the challenge to find really a special song, e.g. acapella, a choir of children singing, a short song for an intro or 30-second product spot, whatever the speciality, quite likely you find (fast) a matching song on AudioJungle.net
What should be improved: first of all the aural watermark should be removed. So far I only found it as well with Filmstro and PremiumBeat and it is simply annoying when browsing through many songs. The website definitely needs a new design!
4. AudioHero.com, since 2016
Library: 300k+ Music/SFX | License: easy/comprehensive/valid-subscription | Price: per track, starting at $1 | Quality Music: good | Quality SFX: very good | Mix/Edit/Remaster: ? | Affiliate: Easy sign up, 30-50% | Differentiator(s): very good deal in combination with TubeBuddy
Quality (music):
Top Artists:
Top Albums:
Top Songs:
What I like:
What should be improved: // horrible website (mobile)
5. EnvatoElements.com, since 2009
As EnvatoElements - same as PremiumBeat - provides non-P.R.O and P.R.O music, here some more information about this specific topic:
https://help.elements.envato.com/hc/en-us/articles/360016663591#h_981339039171540770832069
Library: 4k+ Music/SFX | License: easy/all-excl-broadcast/life-time | Price (creative assets): start from $16.50/month | Quality Music: satisfying | Quality SFX: satisfying | Mix/Edit/Remaster: allowed | Affiliate: difficult, channel verification, #of-followers | Differentiator(s): Students get 30% off; millions of creative assets like graphic templates, video templates, stock photos, music tracks, web templates
Quality (music):
Top Artists:
Top Albums:
Top Songs:
What I like:
What should be improved:
6. EpidemicSound.com, since 2009
First impression: where can I browse the music, annoying to need to scroll to button, so many playlists where to start
Library: 30k+ Music/60k+ SFX | License: easy/3 plans/life-time | Price: start at $12/month | Quality Music: epic | Quality SFX: n/a | Affiliate: must have a business entity or registered company | Bonus: alternate versions of chosen song; stems for further customization
License: https://support.epidemicsound.com/s/article/youtube-copyright-claim-and-content-id-information
Quality:
Top Artists:
Top Albums:
Top Songs:
What I like: several great features are standing out and the user interface - first overwhelming then appreciating - is one of the best. There is for example the option to switch between “Full Mix” and each “Stem” while you listen to a song, on the fly. Stems are very helpful to extend a song or mix it in different variation. The search remembers the search terms which helps to be more efficient when selecting over several occasions the same word(s) - including a “Clear History” button. There are dozens of Playlists for almost every thinkable “theme”, and the fact that a song which was already playes, is grayed out, comes in handy when surfing through the various playlists as songs can appear in several playlists. What I also like is the possibility to use the Arrow-Keys to navigate through the songs (next, previous, fast forward/back), instead having to use the mouse course. There are so many details in the UI which is simply perfect.
What should be improved: rather quality then quantity. It is time-consuming to dig through the overwhelming library and through the dozens of rather fair than good songs. Also features like “Similar Songs” or songs within a Playlist e.g. “Running” are not really related to the song nor playlist theme.
Conclusion: the huge music library has benefits and disadvantages. I found it a lot more time consuming to find “the right song”. The same goes for the Spotify Playlist. At a first glimpse, it sounds like a perfect feature to research the song for the next video on the go. But the Sportify Playlist isn’t structured by any category. You have 24+ hours of music of all kind of genre. It is way to time-consuming to go through all the songs.
That the huge library can be of course a big asset was the scenario when I was looking for an Italien-vibe song for a cooking B-Roll which I found through the search. Considering the price and the amount of songs, together with the SFX library, Epidemicsound is definitely a good site to have on your side. Outstanding is the UI and Filters. But also overwhelming and therefore often time-consuming until the right song is found.
Therefore, if you have enough time to search for songs, and you want to dig several times per week through the Epidemicsound library to pre-filter the songs which you like (becoming a Music Treasure Hunter), or your area does not require very good to excellent music hence no need to find the gems within Epidemicsound, and/or you are in the need for a wide variety of songs e.g. from wedding videos to vlogs about cooking to short cinematic movies, and you also need to manage only one YouTube channel, Epidemicsound could be the best choice for you.
7. Filmstro.com, since 2014
First impression: good music, annoying watermark, can’t listen to the music while browsing another website/tab - page must be open (mobile)
Library: 4k+ Music/SFX | License: easy/all-excl-broadcast/life-time | Price: music+sfx, yearly, $199; music life-time $199 (with discount code) or $299; no monthly subscription | Quality Music: satisfying | Quality SFX: satisfying | Mix/Edit/Remaster: allowed | Affiliate: difficult, channel verification, #of-followers | Bonus: live orchestral Masterworks collection for cinema-quality soundtracks; shorts, loops and stems
8. MusicBed.com, since 2012
Lot of songs with Vocals
Library: 10k+ Music | License: medium/5plans | Price: start at $19.99/m (max 50k subs YouTube) | Quality Music: satisfying | Quality SFX: satisfying | Mix/Edit/Remaster: allowed | Affiliate: not available | Bonus: live orchestral Masterworks collection for cinema-quality soundtracks; shorts, loops and stems
Annoying: to browse and listen to the music, an account is a must-to-have
9. MusicVine.com, since 2015
Library: 4k+ Music | License: relicense/use-case dependent/6-license-types/life-time | Price (music): start at $13.99/month, billed yearly $167.88; single license start at $39 | Quality Music: satisfying | Quality SFX: satisfying | Mix/Edit/Remaster: allowed | Affiliate: not yet available, but coming soon | Differentiator(s): covers YouTube up to $75k annual revenue from all distribution platforms collectively
Annoying: when listening to the songs and browsing another tab, the music stops after the song ends. Need to go back to the tab to automatically start and play the next song
10. PremiumBeat, since 2005
Library: 20k+ Music | License: easy/standard&pro/life-time | Price: start at $64.95/month or one-time per track start ar $49 | Quality Music: epic | Quality SFX: n/a | Affiliate: difficult, channel verification, #of-followers | Bonus: live orchestral Masterworks collection for cinema-quality soundtracks; PRO-free tracks; shorts, loops and stems; “find similar song” feature, PB-account also provides access to shutterstock.com;
11. SoundStripe.com, since 2015
Library: 5k+ Music/SFX (40k+) | License: relicense/comprehensive/none-lifetime | Price (music): start at $12.50/month, billed yearly, $149; single song $39.95 | Quality Music: satisfying | Quality SFX: satisfying | Mix/Edit/Remaster: not allowed, only shorten, loop or fade | Affiliate: difficult, channel verification, #of-followers | Differentiator(s): best user interface
12. UppBeat.io, since 2021
Library: 1k+ Music | License: easy/all-excl-broadcast/life-time | Price (music): 10 tracks/month for free; upgrade to premium for $6.99/month | Mix/Edit/Remaster: allowed | Affiliate: easy, register through their website | Differentiator(s): new service offering since 2021, 10 tracks per month for free
Quality music: surprisingly good! Considering that they just started in 2021 and that they are providing 10 tracks for free, the quality is definitely good. When I listened through the playlist, I had from time to time a moment when I thought, wow, this track is actually great. Most of the time when this happened I saw that the track I liked is only available through the “Premium” plan.
Top Artists: Zoo, A.T.M, All Good Folks, Vens Adams, Paulo Kalazzi, Soundroll
Others:
13. AudioBlocks
14. Pond5
15. MusicGateway
16. MotionGraphics
17. SoundSnap, since 2007, SFX only (bigggest SFX library with more than 400k sounds though I could not find a police dispatch sound effect)
18. De Wolf, since XXX
19. Fryfly, since XXX
20. FindTheTune.com, since 2004
Offering a huge library with 800k+ music tracks. Though the website wasn’t intuitive to use. Therefore it didn’t make it into the Top 12.
21. MarmosetMusic.com, since 2010
22. bandcamp.com, since XXX
Provides a playlist available on soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/marmosetmusic. Nevertheless, I could not find the style of music I need for my videos. Hence it did not make it into the Top 12.
Some additional information about the sites above.
Artlist.io. The licenses aren’t uniform. In case you are looking for songs for your podcasts, only a handful of songs are licensed for that use case.
AudioJungle vs. EnvatoElements: AudioJungle is an Envato Marketplace selling individual licenses for an item - no subscription. Envato Elements is a subscription service with unlimited downloads for a monthly fee. If an item is on Elements, it is usually also on the Marketplace available, but most Marketplace items are not available on Elements.
PremiumBeat offers beside full tracks, shorts, loops and stems so that you can remix the tracks yourself.
MusicVine offers single-track licensing and “all you can eat” subscription.
UppBeat, launched recently in 2021, is actually not fitting 100% in this category as it offers free music tracks - 10 downloads per month - with currently over 1k tracks. There is an option to “Go Premium” for $6.99/month for unlimited downloads. Without Premium, you will hear short ads playing while streaming through the UppBeat playlist, similar what you have when listening to the free version of Spotify.
IN-A-NUTSHELL:
YOUR ALLROUNDERS: EnvatoElements.com
YOUR BUDGET FRIENDS: Audiio.com, AudioHero.com (especially in combination with TubeBuddy), UppBeat.io
YOUR QUANTITY PUSHERS (Music): AudioJungle.com, EpidemicSound.com
YOUR QUANTITY PUSHERS (SFX): AudioJungle.com, EpidemicSound.com
YOUR PREMIUM KINGS: MusicVine.com, MusicBed.com, PremiumBeat.com
YOUR FAST FINDERS: MusicVine.com
YOUR EASY LICENSERS: Artlist.io
YOUR 2nd WINGMANS: PremiumBeat.com
Comparison Table of Top Paid Royalty-Free Music Sites:
Price is the starting price for each service and depending on the exact requirement, a higher plan could be necessary resulting in higher costs.
