Free Music Archive

What Free Music Archive does

Free Music Archive (FMA) is an online music library and distribution platform that connects independent musicians with content creators who need legally cleared, royalty-free music for projects such as YouTube videos, podcasts, films, and websites. Founded in 2008 as a project of Auricle Communications and acquired in 2019 by the Dutch music-licensing company Tribe of Noise BV, the platform hosts a catalog of 10,273 artists spanning 16 genres, organized through curator pages, charts, and netlabel directories with music available under various Creative Commons licenses, Public Domain, or custom terms.

The core product is a web-based streaming and download platform built around Creative Commons licensing infrastructure, complemented by a paid premium tier called Tribe of Noise PRO that provides enhanced search for professional content creators working on commercial media projects. Additional components include the Music Insiders podcast, artist Spotlight Interviews on the FMA blog, and a Coil-based web-monetization integration currently enabled on 103 artist pages. The platform is operated by a small team of 1-10 employees, with technology dependencies on Freestar (advertising), Google Analytics, PayPal, and Wise.

FMA operates a hybrid monetization model: free access for personal listening, downloading, and sharing; PRO subscription revenue from professional users; advertising via Freestar; and donations through Donorbox. Ownership resides entirely with Tribe of Noise BV, a Dutch private limited company, with no institutional investors, venture funding rounds, or public listing identified. The platform maintains GDPR compliance for EEA users and operates a DMCA takedown framework under U.S. copyright law.

Name

Free Music Archive

Legal name

Tribe of Noise BV

Website

https://freemusicarchive.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Free Music Archive is an online music library of 10,273 independent artists across 16 genres, offering Creative Commons-licensed music for content creators such as YouTubers, podcasters, and filmmakers, with a paid Tribe of Noise PRO subscription tier for commercial use.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Royalty-Free Music Platform

akta.pro primary industry

Creator Music/SFX Asset Libraries & Licensing Platforms (MPACABAM)

akta.pro secondary industry

Sync Marketplaces & Licensing Platforms (MPAIALAG)

Keywords

• Royalty-free music
• Creative commons licensing
• Music licensing platform
• Independent music distribution
• Background music library

Headquarters

HQ city

Jersey City

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Tribe Of Noise PRO Subscriptions: Premium subscription service providing enhanced royalty-free music search for professional content creators (YouTubers, podcasters, filmmakers). The PRO tier offers advanced search capabilities for finding music for commercial media projects.
2. Advertising Revenue: The site displays advertising through Freestar, an advertising partner that collects and uses certain data for advertising purposes. Display ads are shown to site visitors.
3. Payment Processing Services: For any paid products or services, FMA uses third-party payment processors PayPal and Wise for payment collection.
4. Donations: Platform accepts donations through Donorbox to support the Free Music Archive's operations and mission of distributing free music.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Free Music Archive operates an online library of royalty-free audio and video content distributed under Creative Commons and other open licenses, primarily serving individual content creators (YouTubers, podcasters, filmmakers, social media users) who need legal background music for their projects. The platform also offers a premium search subscription called Tribe of Noise PRO for professional and commercial users, alongside curated genre playlists, radio shows, and a podcast.

Product overview

Free Music Archive (FMA) is a music licensing and distribution platform that operates as a single unified offering centered on free, royalty-free music for content creators. The platform was acquired by Tribe of Noise BV (a Dutch international music licensing company) in 2019. The core product provides instant access to independent artists and original music that is free to play, download, and share, with licensing options including Creative Commons and Public Domain. A premium tier called Tribe Of Noise PRO offers enhanced search capabilities for professional users. The platform also features a podcast series called Music Insiders, which spotlights FMA artists. FMA serves content creators including videographers, YouTubers, podcasters, and filmmakers who need royalty-free music for social media, video, podcasts, and film projects.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Free Music Archive (FMA) An online library offering free, legally licensed audio and video content under Creative Commons and other open licenses, used by content creators for podcasts, videos, films, and social media projects.
• Tribe of Noise PRO A premium search subscription service for professional content creators and businesses that need commercial-use licensed music without attribution requirements.
• Music Insiders Podcast A podcast covering music industry topics, indie artist interviews, and trends in the music licensing space, available via the FMA website and external podcast directories.
• FMA Genre Radio Shows Curated streaming radio shows spanning multiple genres including Ambient, Blues, Classical, Country, Electronic, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Pop, R&B, Reggae, Rock, and World.
• FMA Mobile Applications Native iOS and Android applications providing mobile access to the Free Music Archive catalog, including search, streaming, and download functionality.

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Tribe of Noise BVcoreOthersTribe of Noise BV acquired the Free Music Archive in 2019. Tribe of Noise is an international music licensing company based in The Netherlands. FMA operates as part of the Tribe of Noise family, sharing the mission of connecting independent artists with content creators. The acquisition combined two platforms dedicated to free music distribution and licensing.
• PayPalminorOthersPayPal is used as a third-party payment processor for any paid products or services on the FMA platform.
• WiseminorOthersWise is used as a third-party payment processor for any paid products or services on the FMA platform.
• FreestarminorOthersFreestar is the advertising partner for placing advertisements on the Free Music Archive website. Freestar collects and uses certain data for advertising purposes.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Epidemic Sound: Epidemic Sound is a leading subscription-based royalty-free music licensing platform for content creators, with a large catalog and direct creator-tool integrations. It is a direct competitor to FMA in the royalty-free / creator-music space.
• Jamendo Music: Jamendo is an independent music platform offering Creative Commons-licensed music and royalty-free licensing for commercial use. It overlaps with FMA's CC-licensing approach and serves similar independent-artist and creator audiences.
• Artlist: Artlist is a subscription-based royalty-free music and stock media platform serving YouTubers, filmmakers, and content creators. It directly competes with FMA and Tribe Of Noise PRO in the same customer segment with fully-cleared commercial licensing.
• AudioJungle: AudioJungle is Envato's royalty-free music and audio marketplace, offering per-track licensing for content creators and filmmakers. It is a direct competitor in the online marketplace model for licensed music downloads.
• Tribe of Noise: Tribe of Noise is the parent company of FMA and operates a professional music licensing platform targeting content creators. It shares mission, audience, and licensing model with FMA, and is the closest operating peer including the sister PRO product.
• ccMixter: ccMixter is a Creative Commons-licensed music remix and discovery community featuring independent artists. It shares FMA's CC-licensing framework and indie-artist community orientation, though smaller in scale.
• YouTube Audio Library: YouTube's free Audio Library provides royalty-free music for video creators within the YouTube ecosystem. It competes directly with FMA's free tier for the YouTuber customer segment, with the advantage of native platform integration.

Emerging players

• Musicbed: Musicbed is a curated music licensing platform focused on independent artists and filmmakers, with subscription and per-track licensing for film/video creators. It overlaps with FMA's independent-artist and creator focus but skews toward premium/cinematic use cases.

Broad incumbents

• Pond5: Pond5 is a large stock media marketplace including royalty-free music, sound effects, video footage, and images, serving professional content creators and filmmakers. It is a broad incumbent in the stock/royalty-free media space with overlapping music licensing.
• Envato Elements: Envato Elements is a subscription platform providing unlimited downloads of stock music, audio, video, graphics, and templates for creators. It competes with FMA's paid tier and offers a much broader creator-asset catalog.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/freemusicarchiv
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/TribeofNoise
• Facebookfacebook.com/freemusicarchive
• Instagraminstagram.com/tribeofnoise

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments1 record

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Free Music Archive