Free background music for elearning – stock audio

These are 5 online proofing tools that might help learning designers involved in developing multimedia, to make your processes faster and more streamlined.
free audio library and background music

The other day I was asked by a team-mate about free audio resources that could be used in a course he was designing.

I shared with him some resources that I gathered. And then I thought – f one person asked, it is likely that someone else might wonder about the same. And I decided to write this post.

Thre are actually many sites that you could go to for royalty-free audio. You probably know some of them, and you don’t realise that you can use music from there!

When you consider adding audio to your online training, keep in mind these few points:
  • Don’t overdo it! Use background music carefully, in moderation.
  • Consider how it will impact the knowledge retention – you don’t want the background audio to ‘compete’ with the primary cognitive process.
  • Make sure that your background audio levels are low.
  • Use it with purpose – for example, to mask audio narration that sounds a bit hollow, or to set a mood or some context.
So, let’s get to the point! Here are some websites where you can find music for your online training or presentations.
Please make sure to adhere to best practices and attribute the source.

STOCK AUDIO LIBRARIES

Here are some websites I go to frequently.
ia 300000005 1

BENSOUND

There are some free tracks available for download. You can also subscribe and download any track from the entire library, including tracks only available for purchase, and all new tracks during one year in both mp3 and wav format.
ia 300000006

MOTION ARRAY

Royalty-Free music and sound effects. Motion Array is generally a paid repository, for filmmakers with tones of templates and pre-designed element, but they do have a good range of free sound effects available for download.
ia 300000007

POND5

Royalty-Free music and sound effects. Music for Every Project. Royalty-free stock music, now with expanded licensing rights. Rates starting at $15. There are some free tracks available too.
ia 300000008

FREE MUSIC ARCHIVE

We welcome all creators around the world to search, find and use music from our websites in their projects. The options: If your project has no budget check out SEARCH FMA and make sure you respect and follow the (CC) licensing conditions.
ia 300000009

FREESOUND

Freesound is a collaborative database of Creative Commons Licensed sounds. You can browse, download and share sounds on this platform.
ia 300000010

SOUNDCLOUD

Soundcloud is sometimes forgotten, but it is a great source of audio. Most of the music on SoundCloud is licensed under Creative Commons, which means that you are free to use the tracks as long as you follow the guidelines established by the artist.

ia 300000011

EPIDEMIC SOUND

Music subscriptions for content creators. Covered for social media, online platforms and websites.
ia 300000012

AUDIO BLOCKS

Unlimited Royalty-Free Music & SFX Download all the music, sound effects, and loops you need with a low-cost subscription.

ia 300000013

AUDIO JUNGLE

Royalty free music and audio tracks from $1 1,216,265 tracks and sounds from our community of musicians and sound engineers.
ia 300000014

JAMENDO

Royalty free music and audio tracks
ia 300000015

FREE PLAY MUSIC

Royalty free music and audio tracks for personal use only on YouTube, are really good deal – you’ll be able to access nearly all of their tracks for free. For businesses with a wide variety of music needs such as a video, advertisement you need a subscription..
And a few more.. I didn’t see many courses using audio outside of the main narration or background music. If you are here, reading this, let me know how do you use background audio in training you design, and what are there reasons you use it?

Credits: Photo by Juja Han onUnsplash

If you are interested in enhancing the quality of audio for your online productions, check this post where I explain why does quality of audio in online education matters.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

JOIN MY NETWORK, STAY CONNECTED, GET IN TOUCH!

JOIN MY NETWORK!

RELATED POSTS

Scroll to Top