Playing music in the background of your Twitch stream can be risky business these days. With DMCA strikes becoming more frequent, and Twitch handing out bans for users violating copyright laws on a regular basis, one might want to consider playing it safe when it comes to copyrighted content on the platform.
The good news is that there is plenty of royalty-free music out there to help you create quality content without the fear of violating any copyrights. While you probably won’t be able to jam along with your favorite hits or classics, there’s a wide range of tunes available for you and your viewers to enjoy.
Best DMCA free music for Twitch
Pretzel
Pretzel is one of the largest collections of royalty-free songs out there. It provides both free and subscription-based plans for content creators, with a total of 300,000+ tracks included in the premium plan.
The free plan is a great option for low-budget streamers, as it gives access to hours of stream-safe music, 5,000 YouTube safe tracks, and 10 music stations to choose from. A mandatory chatbot gives attribution to the artists by posting currently played songs in the streamer’s chat.
Premium membership grants access to all available tracks, more music stations, the ability to create playlists and choose which song to play at any given time.
Pretzel Web Player / Pretzel Desktop App
Epidemic Sound
Epidemic Sound offers a massive music library of over 35,000 songs, with new songs being added every week. With an affordable subscription, you gain access to use its music in your content completely copyright-free. This includes live streams, VODs, YouTube videos, and many more.
Epidemic Sound owns all rights to its music, so you never have to worry about being targeted with a DMCA strike. It also offers a free 30-day trial period, during which you can listen and download as many songs as you’d like.
You can listen to Epidemic Sound music for free on Spotify or Youtube, but using it in your content without a license is not allowed.
Epidemic Sound Web Player / Spotify / Youtube
Soundtrack by Twitch (beta)
Soundtrack by Twitch is a new tool designed for Twitch streamers, so they can feature licensed music in their live streams. Soundtrack is meant for live streaming, meaning the license doesn’t cover other use of Soundtrack music in VODs or content outside of Twitch. To use Soundtrack, you’ll either have to disable VODs from your channel or set up multi-track audio so the music won’t be recorded in your replays.
The Soundtrack library currently has 14 stations and 56 playlists with a range of artists and genres to stream with, and there’s more to come.
Soundtrack Web Player / Soundtrack App
Sessions
Last year Riot Games partnered up with a bunch of musicians to create a collection of music that is completely free for streamers and content creators to use. So far, two collections have been released, with a promise that more is on the way. Sessions: Vi, and Sessions: Diana include 79 eerily beautiful copyright-free songs for creators to enjoy. All you need to do is credit Riot Games where applicable, and you’re good to go.
Sessions can be from all major music streaming services, and can also be downloaded from Riot’s website or SoundCloud. Check out Riot’s creator-safe playlist on Spotify, too.
Spotify / Apple Music / Youtube / Amazon Music / Deezer / Soundcloud
Lofi Records
Better known as Lofi Girl (formerly ChilledCow), Lofi Records is by far one of the most well-known lo-fi hip hop music brands out there, with over one billion views on YouTube and millions of followers across its socials.
Lofi Girl provides a massive library of lofi music for creators to freely use in their content on Twitch, Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok. Download links for each song can be found on its website.
Spotify / Apple Music / Youtube / Amazon Music / Deezer
Streambeats
Streambeats was created by content creator Harris Heller with the goal to provide license-free playlists for streamers and content creators around the world.
Creators can choose from a range of genres such as lofi, hip hop, rock, or EDM. Heller has also created original music under the name Streambeats Originals, which is also free for creators to utilize as they wish. Download links for each song can be found on the Streambeats website.
Spotify / Apple Music / Amazon Music
