Where to Find Music for Your Radio Station
Find music for your radio station with a comprehensive list of free and paid marketplaces, ideal for any broadcaster.
How many songs have you received from artists in the past week? I bet the answer is few to none, which is why it’s up to you to discover the latest hits and uncover some old classics along the way. So get familiar with the best marketplaces to find music for your radio station, starting with free to use tracks.
Free to Use Music
Free to use music falls under Creative Commons, a license for non-profit organisations with permission to use the creator's work freely. It’s a way to share and make music more accessible for everyone. Find music for your radio station, free of charge.
HookSounds
HookSounds prides itself on offering the best curated, royalty-free music from some of the greatest musicians on the planet. So it's safe to say you won't find their exclusive high standard collection of music anywhere else.
The "Use & Mention" license gives you access to an extensive library of music for free. But tracks are for non-monetized content and can only be used as background music. For a small monthly fee, unlock HookSounds so you can broadcast all their music untethered.
Free Music Archive
Free Music Archive, or FMA for short, is a public domain archive and Creative Commons licensed songs. FMA is an ideal place to find originally curated music from new electronic to old country tracks. Find high-quality tracks to play the freshest music on your radio station.
You can download any track you want as there’s plenty to choose from; search through the list of curators, genres, and the most popular songs of the week or all time.
Envato
Better known as the leading marketplace for creative assets, Envato is a one-stop shop for graphic templates, stock photos, and music tracks.
Speaking of which, discover thousands of premium royalty-free music. All tracks are expertly composed, high-quality audio files, across a range of genres from Caribbean music to lofi beats. Then there’s Envato’s Audio Jungle, a more extensive library of tracks from a community of musicians and sound engineers.
Jamendo Music
Jamendo is a world of music discovery boasting some of the newest and best tracks. It’s about connecting musicians and music lovers together as a community.
There are more than 500,000 tracks shared by 40,000 artists from over 150 countries worldwide. You can stream all the music for free, simply download it and support the artist. Jamendo has a community of listeners happy to share and comment on the best tracks, which is ideal for stations looking to curate recommended playlists.
NoiseTrade
NoiseTrade is a music platform built on generosity by thousands of artists and labels wanting to connect with fans through the exchange of free music.
NoiseTrade gives you the tool to discover and share new music. Download entire albums from several thousand artists from around the world. Genres like hip-hop, dance, and pop are available for free, you can even get instrumental music which is perfect for your radio station jingles or promotions.
ccMixter
ccMixter is a large community of over 45,000 musicians collaborating and sharing music to anyone for free.
Built as an open source tool for anyone to contribute to as all of its music falls under Creative Commons licensing - Download and share royalty free tracks from ccMixter.
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is the world’s leading social sound platform with over 75 million music curators uploading around 12 hours of audio each minute.
There are literally millions of tracks and mixes from popular artists to undiscovered talent, all worth sharing with your listeners. Honestly, it’s still the best place to discover new and upcoming artists.
Paid Music
Most well-known artists from Fleetwood Mac to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers are not going to be free. Popular mainstream music, and even underground bands, will charge a fee. And broadcasting commercial music may require a license to cover royalties. If you're unsure about which license you need, get in touch.
I Like Music
I Like Music's incredibly large database includes every UK Top 40 single since the charts began, all of which are of broadcast quality and cheaper than any other provider!
Designed for and built by broadcasting professionals, I Like Music supply thousands upon thousands of tracks, ranging from all time classics to tracks you cannot obtain digitally anywhere else. Their 'Pay As You Go' pricing structure means you can download the latest tracks whenever you like, and the more tracks you purchase in bulk the cheaper they work out being.
Beatport
Beatport is home to a large collection of electronic music, ideal for DJs looking for full sets and mixes from independent artists.
It’s home to exclusive albums and artists only available on Beatport with 1 million tracks and over 120,000 artists, DJs, remixers, and musicians. Behind Beatport is massive community of cutting edge artists and fans that are constantly uploading and recommending new music, plus there’s encouragement for new users to get involved and share their favourite tracks.
YouTube Music
Google have thrown their hat into the ring with YouTube Music, a service aimed at music fans that want the latest songs, but are on a budget.
There are over currently over 35 million songs to download and stream, plus there’s a bunch of free music available with the occasional discount on selected albums from time to time. Much like SoundCloud, just about anyone can get on YouTube Music like DJs, basement bands, and other unknown artist, so it makes it great place to find cutting edge songs.
Bandcamp
Bandcamp is a self-promotional platform aimed at new and upcoming musicians that want to get heard (whilst making a bit of money on the side).
There’s plenty of genres of music for everyone like metal, jazz, folk, and experimental, which you can listen to individually or entire albums so as to get a taste for the artist or band. Discover amazing new music by following artists and fans who in turn share their favourite picks and new releases, this way you can easily keep your finger on the pulse within the music scene.
ZIPDJ
As the name suggests, ZIPDJ is for DJs, by DJs. The subscription-based service offers fully licensed music for DJs, radio broadcasters, and other music industry professionals.
Home to over 2,000 international labels, the browser-based platform lets you download unlimited tracks at a glossy high-quality 320kbps in MP3. And music is constantly rotated with new content added daily, so you always get fresh tracks.
Amazon
Amazon offers pretty much every artist and music track you can think of, either in digital or physical format. It’s the go to place to buy an album, alternatively it can be put to good use for search purposes as customer reviews give you a rough idea of how well received a track or album is.
As there are millions of artists on Amazon you’re really spoilt for choice, you can even preview tracks before you buy. Most can be bought in digital format, alternatively you can get audio CDs and grab the tracks from there.
CD Pool
CD Pool is a music resource purpose-built for DJs. You can pay a monthly subscription to have access to download all of the latest top 40 hits, along with pre-release promos and expletive-free edits already done for you. So for one convenient price, you never have to worry about falling behind the charts.
As well as subscription services, CD Pool has dozens of music libraries for sale, allowing you to bulk buy all of the modern classics, crowd-pleasers and one-hit wonders of the past few years.
Save Money, Rip CDs
On a budget? Try ripping 2nd hand compilation CDs. In the long run it's time-consuming, but cost-effective. Places like Amazon, MusicMagpie, and even garage sales sell cheap music. All are ideal for ripping into MP3 format, ready to add to your music library.
CD complications with 40 tracks are usually less than $5. That works out about $0.12 per track, which is a bargain. And if you're a music buff or collector looking to save, then ripping CDs is the best way forward.
Conclusion
Nowadays, music is everywhere online. Whether free to use or paid commercial music, you're never too far away from a marketplace with your favourite hits. Speaking of which, did you find music for your radio station on any places not listed here? If so, let us know in the comments.
