
How to Find Background Music and Sound Effects for Videos
1302986496, Prostock-Studio | 1215556006, Maksym Belchenko
With a Premium + Video plan, subscribers have access to every asset on iStock—including instant access to some of the best royalty-free audio and sound effects in the industry, all at no additional cost. So, whether you’re creating a sizzle reel that needs an electric, exciting track or producing a video that requires melancholic melodies iStock has everything you need to produce groundbreaking creative.
We’ve already discussed search terms for finding authentic imagery on iStock and how iStock’s search helps you get the perfect image faster—and now, we’re going to show you how easy it is to find the audio and soundtracks you’re looking for on iStock Music powered by Epidemic Sound.
1. Listen to Our Trending Categories and Picks From the Experts
The beauty of music is that it can set the tone and mood for a project in an instant—it can add an air of creepiness through a slow and steady build-up or it can get your viewers pumped up and excited from the first note. Either way, if you’re not musically inclined, it can be tough to figure out what can work for your needs—but don’t worry, iStock Music has you covered, with over 35,000 tracks to choose from and counting.
When you log in and visit iStock Music, you’ll see our top featured categories, which surface the most popular categories of music we have on our site. Tap into these featured categories, like Corporate, Podcasts, and Travel to find music and tracks that are on-trend and in demand.
Below this, you’ll find our Staff Picks, featuring tracks and music that are hand-selected by our team of audio experts. Updated each week, this is the perfect destination to explore unique, high-quality tracks that can breathe new life into your project—backed by the expertise of our curators.
2. Find the Music You Need With Our Intuitive Search
Sometimes, you have music needs that are a little more unique. Whether you need 80s pop music or mysterious jazz, rest assured that you’ll find everything you’re looking for by describing what you need in the search bar. Start exploring now and unlock a wealth of musical options that will resonate with your customers.
3. Bring the Right Tone to Your Projects With Genres and Moods
Click on Genres to see our incredible selection of available genres from A-Z. Plus, take a look at featured genres to see our top picks for seasonal music and popular categories.
You can also click on Moods to get a variety of audio, ranging from epic to mysterious, quirky to sentimental, and everything in between.
Finally, click on Themes to see a collection of thematic music and tracks, curated by our audio experts. From the best holiday music to haunting soundscapes, you’ll find exactly what you need.
4. Perfect Your Videos With Immersive Sound Effects
Just like with our collection of tracks, you also have access to our entire library of over 90,000 high-quality sound effects, which are the perfect finishing touches for professional content.
Searching for sound effects is easy—just click on the Sound Effects tab on the top-right corner of the home page to see featured categories and a list of all our sound effects, or simply search icon and toggle click on Sound Effects above the search bar.
5. Search Like a Pro With These Additional Expert Tips
Find similar tracks
Discovered something you like that’s close but not perfect? Click on the two rings to the right of the track to easily find similar music.
Organize your results
Sort your results by alphabetical order, recent additions to the site, the music’s tempo, and more to find what you need faster.
Discover our newest tracks
Scroll down to the new releases section on the iStock Music homepage to see the latest audio and soundtracks.
Complete your projects with iStock
476433482, GoodLifeStudio | 1296457530, Deagreez
Armed with these tips, you’ll easily and quickly find the engaging tracks and sound effects that you need for any given project or video. With iStock’s Premium + Video subscription, it’s never been easier to download everything you need—videos, images, and music—all in one place.
Ready to get started? Explore music now.