How to Find CC Music for Your Podcast (Without the Headaches)

What CC can give a podcast

Most podcasts need three types of music:

A signature intro and outro. A distinct, short track that plays at the start and end of every episode.
Transitions and stings. Short pieces between segments.
Sometimes ambient / incidental. Background music for interview segments or to underscore a story.

CC licences cover all three — but only the tracks published under a CC licence that fits your show.

Picking the right CC licence for a podcast

CC BY is the most flexible choice for podcasts. It allows commercial use (podcasts monetise through ads), requires only credit, and does not restrict derivatives.

CC BY-NC is fine for podcasts in the strict sense — podcasts are not typically classified as commercial. But “non-commercial” disputes are usually decided by the platform (Apple Podcasts, Spotify), and some platforms’ monetisation features (ads, Patreon) might count as commercial under strict reading.

CC BY-NC-ND is the safest in the “I want this composition forever, unchanged” sense. Fine for an intro stinger that’s a few seconds long.

Where to find CC music for podcasts

Free Music Archive (freemusicarchive.org) — a long-running CC-curated catalog with good filtering by genre, mood, and length.
ccMixter (ccmixter.org) — focused on remixes and stems; mainly CC BY-NC.
YouTube Audio Library — the free, CC-BY-stamped subset YouTube publishes for creators using their platform.
LicenseTrack — independent composers publishing CC tracks under the BY or BY-NC licences, with the option to license other tracks All-Rights-Reserved for the same show.
Bandcamp Plus — direct composer uploads, where you can sometimes email a composer and request a CC variant if you need a more open licence than what they’ve published.

The “credit” question

CC BY requires credit in the description or somewhere visible to listeners. Every podcast episode that uses the track needs to credit the composer and the CC licence. If your show has a 10-year archive and retroactively edits every episode, that’s a real chore. Many podcasters prefer to credit in a single podcast-wide “music” page — which the CC licence does not strictly satisfy unless every episode links there.

Practical steps

Pick a track that fits your intro vibe.
Note the CC licence in your track catalog.
Credit in every episode — composer name + track title + CC licence URL.
Register the track with a fingerprint monitor so you know if the same track gets used elsewhere.
If your show grows and you want a more bespoke track, license one directly from a composer — CC for the intro can stay, but a custom track under a Royalty-Free / All Rights Reserved licence gives you a signature sound and a direct relationship with the composer.

The trade-off

CC music is faster to source but harder to clear at scale. Royalty-Free licensing is slower but the licence is clearer and you have a relationship with the composer for future episodes.

Internal links

See how LicenseTrack monitors Spotify for the long tail.
Read about royalty-free vs Creative Commons.
Catch every match on Twitch.