Music can add mood, professionality, and a change of pace to your podcast. Regardless of whether you play songs in the background or the foreground, sporadically or non-stop, music is a powerful tool that shouldn't be overlooked.
There many excellent services that provide podcasters with access to music libraries and provide podcasters with licenses to use copyrighted music. And, there are tons of unaffiliated bands, musicians, and record labels who are more than happy to let podcasters use their music if you just ask.
We're limiting this chart to sites that offer 1,000 or more songs to podcasters. In the future, we plan to ad comparison charts for individual record labels and bands. (We love and support indie bands and labels. If we had the time and resources to list every single independent band and label we would, but thats pretty much impossible right now.)
| Provider | Description | Logo | No. of Songs | Search Tools | Commercial use | Attribution required | Full Terms | Cost | Signup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AIM | The Association of Independent Music is a non-profit-making trade organisation for independent record companies and distributors in the UK. AIM have recently launched a podcasting trial, to enable podcasters to use selected independent tracks in their broadcasts. |  |
21,000 songs | Search Excel spreadsheet by song, artist, album, and label | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Trial Contract |
| Archive.org Netlabels | The Netlabels collection at the Internet Archive hosts complete, freely downloadable/streamable, often Creative Commons-licensed catalogs of 'virtual record labels'. These 'netlabels' are non-profit, community-built entities dedicated to providing high quality, non-commercial, freely distributable MP3/OGG-format music for online download in a multitude of mostly electronic genres. |  |
8,000 albums | Search by author/artist, keyword, release date, rating, license, etc. | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| ccMixter | A community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons. |  |
4,000 uploads, 2,000 remixes | Search by author/artist, date, tag (genre, mood, bpm, etc), rating, license, sample source. | Some | Some | ? | Free | None |
| Creative Commons Audio | Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that offers flexible copyright licenses for creative works. Includes list of featured audio sites. |  |
? | ? | Some | Some | ? | Free | None |
| GarageBand | Since 1999, GarageBand has allowed ordinary listeners to pick the best emerging music, resulting in commercial success for deserving artists worldwide. Their vision is to redefine how music is discovered and promoted: by the people, for the people. Podcasters who join GarageBand's radio network get a custom recommendation list of songs to fit your podcast's style and CARP-free broadcast rights to their entire catalog. |  |
276,000 songs | Seach by artist, album, song, location, genere, 'sounds like', and 'influenced by'. | Yes | ? | GB's Podcasting FAQ | Free | Required for full access |
| IODA Promonet | IODA is the leading distributor of independent music, helping over 2500 labels of all genres distribute their music all over the world. Promonet was designed to help podcasters and bloggers quickly find free, pre-cleared MP3s. |  |
12,000 songs | Search by songs, album, artist, and label | Yes | Yes | FAQ, Terms of Use | No | Yes, Beta testers only |
| Jamendo | Jamendo is a new model for artists to promote, publish, and be paid for their music. On Jamendo, the artists distribute their music under Creative Commons licenses. In a nutshell, they allow you to download, remix and share their music freely. It's a "Some rights reserved" agreement, perfectly suited for the new century. |  |
11,000 songs | Search by song, artist, album, tag, country, full/partial album | Some | Some | No | None | |
| Magnatune | A label that helps artists get exposure, make at least as much money they would make with traditional labels, and help them get fans and concerts. The label is run a record label in the Internet Reality: file trading, Internet Radio, musicians' rights, etc. They specifically grant podcasts a waiver to use our music without paying any fee to a royalty collection agency. |  |
6,000 songs | Search by artist, song, description, and genre. | Poor commercial only | Yes | Podcasting Policy | No | None |
| Opsound | Opsound is a gift economy in action, an experiment in applying the model of free software to music. Musicians and sound artists are invited to add their work to the Opsound pool using a copyleft license developed by Creative Commons. Listeners are invited to download, share, remix, and reimagine. Drop by the Opshop for copyleft releases on the Opsound record label (selling free music since 2004). |  |
350 artists | Search by tag, genre, and artist | Yes | Yes | License | Free | No |
| Podshow Podsafe Music Network | The Podsafe Music Network is an independent online community that connects artists, podcasters and listeners owned by Podshow. |  |
18,000 songs | Search by Artist, song, date submitted, genre | Yes | Yes | Producer Terms | Free | Registration Required |
| Radio Direct X | RadioDirectx delivers new music to 3,100 member radio stations, music reviewers and club DJs. From XM and DMX Satellite Radio USA, commercial radio (all formats), mix shows, 100s of college stations (the bleeding edge in shaping tastes in music), 1300+ club DJs, record pools, national radio networks and others in need of the newest best. |  |
? | Search by artist, album, genre. | Yes | Yes | Terms of Use | Free | Registration Required |
| Rumblefish Music Licensing Store | We handpick music from all over the world, across all genres, to create the Rumblefish Catalog. We are not a label or a library, but our artist-members? songs are pre-cleared and ready to license for your music project?film, TV, Internet, corporate, even samples and beats. Visit our online Music Licensing StoreSM. Search and playlist; price and license; then download. It?s easy. Authentic music, great indie artists. |  |
250 artists | Search by artist, keyword, theme, genre, tempo, explicit lyrics, tempo, instumental, date added | Yes | Yes | Podcast License | $5 per song (50% goes to artist) | Signup Required |
| Tables Turned | Legally cleared music, hosting, and creation tools. For college radio, magazines, and obsessives. Like yourself. Coming soon. |  |
30,000 songs | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| The Freesound Project | The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Freesound focusses only on sound, not songs. |  |
1,650 sounds | Search by tag | Yes | Yes | Legal | Free | Registration Required |
| The Weed Files | Weed is a digital music download service that respects artists' rights and encourages legal file sharing. You can play a Weed file up to three times for free. After the three free plays, you're invited to purchase the file. The artists receive 50% of every sale, and a portion of each purchase is paid to file sharers as an incentive to support artists and respect their rights. The Weed Files, by the means of its Artist Area, gives artists the possibility of marking some of their Weed files as podsafe. |  |
23,000 songs | Search by songs, artist, composer, duration, genre, instrumentation, lyricist, podsafe, recently added, tag, rating | Yes | Yes | Podsafe Files Agreement | Free / Cost | None |
| TowerPod | TowerPod is a free service and a unique way to discover and experience a wide variety of music via premier podcasts that stream and download full-length songs of cutting edge and established artists. In addition, TowerPod podcasters will receive a share of revenues generated by advertising inserted into the podcasts. The revenue share provides strong incentive for the podcasters to create a long-lasting relationship between TowerPod and its community, which in turn is great news for the site's advertisers. |  |
6,000 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
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