How to Find the Best Royalty-Free Beats for Your Videos

Whether for a TikTok video, a Twitch stream, a YouTube vlog or a documentary soundtrack, choosing the right beats can make or break your project. And no matter if they’re instrumental beats, freestyle beats, or hip hop beats, you’ll find the right royalty-free beats on Artlist.

These grooves all help dictate things such as the tempo, the energy, and the video’s overall atmosphere. They heighten emotions and convey key messages to your audience, or, in the case of TikTok songs, they’re just super catchy!

Below, we’ve laid out the best ways to find royalty-free beats for your videos, including:

• TikTok videos
• Twitch streams
• YouTube vlogs
• Documentary work

Royalty-free vs. free beats

Before we get into choosing the right song for your video, you need to know where to look for it. There are several options available if you want free beats, but their quality is inconsistent. On the other hand, subscription-based royalty-free music platforms offer far superior quality grooves and a license that allows you to use them in your video projects.

Have a vision

One of the best ways to find the right royalty-free tracks is to know what you’re shooting beforehand. If you can define your vision during pre-production, it will help immensely. Address the following questions for each project:

• What type of video is this going to be?
• What is the video about?
• What is the style of the video?
• On which platform will this video be shared?
• How will your music help in achieving this?

For example, if you’re shooting a TikTok video and you want it to go viral, the style is already dictated quite heavily by the platform. You’ll want the video to be snappy and slick – something that’s going to draw viewers in immediately as they scroll. Therefore, you’ll be looking for songs with a fast beat to match the edit’s fast-paced nature. Perhaps there needs to be a drop where the video delivers its punchline? Do you need to be able to dance to it? Above all else, it needs to be really catchy and popular.

Alternatively, if you’re shooting a documentary that covers gang culture in the urban areas of a city, you may be looking specifically for royalty-free rap beats that reflect the type of music produced and listened to in these cities – something that feels true and authentic to the streets.

Know what your video is before you shoot. That way, when it comes to the edit, you’ll already have a great idea about what type of music you want to use. You may even find your tracks beforehand.

TikTok videos

The key thing you’re looking for when it comes to royalty-free beats for TikTok videos is a catchy hook. You want something that’s going to get stuck in people’s heads and have them watching again and again.

Have a scroll through TikTok’s free beats and make notes of what’s proving popular at the moment. Try to identify certain genres – what is it people are listening to in the charts? And what’s popping on TikTok? Using the Artlist search engine, you can then begin to hone in on your options by selecting certain moods such as ‘Happy,’ ‘Exciting,’ ‘Groovy’ and ‘Playful.’ Then, in genres, you can select ‘Hip Hop’ and ‘Pop.’

Here at Artlist, we’ve made things even easier for you by compiling our own ‘Perfect for TikToks Collection.’ This is a specially curated collection of hook-filled, royalty-free music beats. You’ll notice the common genres of Electronic, Pop and Hip Hop all heavily featured.

Twitch streams

If you’re streaming on Twitch, chances are you’ve run into 1 or 2 issues when it comes to music choice. Their copyright rules are a little confusing, and copyright strikes are common. The Amazon-owned company has released a list of free beats and songs available to use on the platform, but it lacks variety, and using them will not help your video stand out. That’s why using royalty-free beats, rather than looking for free beats online, is the best practice when it comes to Twitch music.

To make things easier, check out this curated ‘Gaming Collection‘ that features all the very best music for your Twitch streams.

YouTube vlogs

When it comes to YouTube, we’ve written a whole article on how to find the best vlog music. Essentially, it all depends on the type of vlog you’re editing.

With the Artlist search engine, you can choose different moods and genres or hide them with the exclude feature. This helps you to really hone in on exactly what you’re looking for. You can even go as far as excluding songs that feature certain instruments, as well as choosing the tempo and duration.

Alternatively, you can search by ‘video theme’ and filter your results by the Vlog category. Meanwhile, if you’re making an upbeat travel vlog, you may want to check out a few of our collections, such as the catchy ‘Summer Pop Anthems,’ where you can find club bangers and Pop gems. Or how about the ‘Tropical Collection’ with all its fun travel themes.

Documentary work

Shooting a documentary? You’ve got plenty of download options.

As mentioned in the introduction’s example, if you’re shooting a gritty documentary about gang culture in the city, you may be on the hunt for royalty-free Hip Hop beats and similar genres that reflect the type of music produced and listened to in these cities – something that really adds to the tone and atmosphere of your film. Using free beats, in this case, will make your video sound less authentic and more generic.

For this particular example, it’d be worth checking out our ‘Trap Collection‘ with its hard, ominous, deep kicks (particularly useful for editing). If there’s an interview in the documentary reflecting on a point where the lead characters face a challenge or tough decision, you’d want to search by mood for something reflective or somber. If the documentary is reaching its conclusion and offering inspiration, try searching for something Hopeful or Uplifting.

Still stuck? Use the video theme search option to find our Documentary Library.

The best way to find royalty-free beats

In conclusion, While free beats are available all around you, it’s not hard to see why using Artlist is the best way to find the right music tracks for your videos. Check out our hand-picked collections to find your royalty-free beats to download quickly and efficiently, or use the video theme search filter.

Meanwhile, if you want to go deep and really take your time, you have all the tools available for you to do just that. Searching by mood and genre is a great place to begin, and you can further hone in on the right track by excluding certain instruments and picking the tempo and duration.

If you’d like to learn more, check out another blog where we’re covering how to add music to a video.