10 Freebies For Musicians In 2018

Breaking into the music industry is no easy feat. Luckily, there are resources available for free for those people who want to pursue a music career and do it on a budget. Here are some of the BEST free resources for up-and-coming artists, producers & DJs in 2018.

1. Free Downloadable Audio Software

TechSupportAlert / Via audacityteam.org

Audacity is a free, open source, cross-platform audio software, according to its website. The software allows for multi-track recording and editing.

Those using Audacity can import audio files, add in recordings of voice or other audio files, recording using USB devices like a USB turntable, edit sounds and more. The files can then be exported as MP3s or other audio files or burned to a CD to be shared with others.

Users can not only download the software for free, they can use it across several different computers. Audacity is available across many platforms, including both Windows and Mac. The program works with uncompressed audio, meaning it requires more computing power than currently available on most mobile devices, so it is recommended for use only on computers and laptops.

2. Free Web Audio Software

TechTalkTeach / Via soundation.com

Soundation allows musicians to record, mix and share music with millions of other users online.

The website is easy to use and combines the experience of an online sound studio with an online listening library, according to the company.

The site offers virtual instruments, like piano, drums and violin, as well as sound effects with synthesizers, filters and equalizers aimed to help musicians create unique and professional music.

Once the music has been created, it can be shared with millions of other musicians all on the same site, creating a community of artists who can work together and collaborate.

Accounts on the site are completely free, which allow users to create music and use all the tools including the virtual instruments, synthesizers and samples.

3. Free Beats

freebeats.io / Via freebeats.io

When creating a project, hip-hop artists and R&B singers can come across the need for a back-beat or instrumental to sing/rap over. That's where sites like FreeBeats.io come in.

FreeBeats.io is a resource for up-and-coming rappers, singers and musicians who don't want to spend money on leasing or purchasing instrumentals, according to the website. The site offers royalty-free beats for you to use instead. Creating and promoting music is expensive, so the site hopes to allow users to create turns that don't have a ton of producer licensing fees.

Beats available fall into music categories like rap beats, R&B beats, hip-hop beats and club beats. All beats are available as 320kbps MP3s and high-quality WAV files; they all sounds great and can be used for all kinds of songs.

4. Free Music Education

edx.org / Via edx.org

Even the most talented of musicians can't do it all right away. Online courses help the musically minded broaden their scope, learn new skills or to hear more about music history.

edX.org offers free online courses on a variety of courses. Some classes go at the learners own pace and can be started at any time. Others are more like a traditional class setting and start on a certain, specific times of the year. Classes come from professors at top universities, such as Harvard University and the Berklee College of Music.

Some classes include “Introduction to Music Theory,” “Inspiring and Motivating Arts and Culture Teams,” “Creativity and Entrepreneurship” and “Sharpen Your Piano Artistry.” Courses are available for all levels and in multiple languages.

Everyone is welcome at edX with no application necessary. Courses can be taken anywhere and are completely free to take.

5. Free Image Editor

GIMP / Via gimp.org

To manipulate and edit images for online content or album art, there are many programs available online. While some can be exceptionally expensive (eg. Photoshop), thankfully there are free alternatives.

GIMP is a free and open source image editor available for download and use on several operating systems.

“Whether you are a graphic designer, photographer, illustrator, or scientist, GIMP provides you with sophisticated tools to get your job done. You can further enhance your productivity with GIMP thanks to many customization options and third party plugins,” according to the website.

The software allows for high-quality photo manipulation like retouching and restoring creative composites and original artwork creation like the power to transform images into truly unique creations, as well as the ability to work with graphic design elements.

By combining GIMP with the images and textures downloaded from other sites, artists can create a truly unique look for their marketing and albums, helping them stand out from the crowd.

The BEST part about GIMP is there are tonnes of free tutorials on YouTube to help you use the program. I can highly recommend Nick Saporito but there are dozens that put out good, easy-to-follow content like his.

6. Free Soundcloud Plays

scsuperfans.com / Via scsuperfans.com

One free-to-use site geared toward musicians is SoundCloud, which is an online community aimed to help musicians and artists upload tunes to be listened to by users and to spark conversation and collaboration between the artists. The site has helped launch some of today's biggest stars but to get to that level, artists need to have people listen to their songs.

Artists looking for free soundcloud plays should check out SC SuperFans, where musicians can register to get 500 real people to come and listen to the songs, driving up play numbers and helping up-and-coming artists get noticed.

The users are sent to a SoundCloud song of the user's choice using something called cost-per-view (CPV) advertising.

7. Free Pictures

Unsplash / Via unsplash.com

Need album art, photos for promotions or anything else? Free photo sites like Unsplash and Pixabay can connect musicians to the photos they need for a variety of projects.

Unsplash advertises “Beautiful, free photos. Gifted by the world's most generous community of photographers.”

The site offers free high-resolution photos of all kinds, including collections with titles like “Through a Rainy Window,” “Human for scale.” and “Clouds of Color.”

All photos on Unsplash can be used for free for commercial or noncommercial purposes. Musicians don't need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer, though it is welcome and appreciated, according to the website. Artists are able to download, copy, modify, distribute and use photos for free for all purposes.

The online photo database of millions of photos can be searched through the website. Millions of community generated tags help users find the photographs they are looking for.

Pixabay offers access to more than 1.4 million royalty-free stock photos and videos, as well as illustrations and graphics.

In addition to the searchable database, there are sections of the site that highlight the Editor's Choice of top photos and videos, as well as ways to search photos based on what camera was used to take them.

All the photos available on Pixabay are released under Creative Commons, meaning they can be used without asking permission or crediting the artist, even for commercial purposes.

Users can copy, modify and use the images as they would like.

The only exceptions are that identifiable people may not appear in a bad light or a way they may find offensive unless they have given consent and those pictured can not be used in a way that looks they have given their endorsement of a product, a song or album.

8. Free Graphics

Canva / Via canva.com

Sometimes, artists don't need a photograph and would instead like a graphic for use in their album art or for promotional materials.

Instead of paying a designer for something they are gong to use, artists can instead turn to sites like Canva and Textures to find or create the perfect graphic.

Canva has more than 100 million designs that have been created and more than 10 million users, according to the website.

The company boasts more than 100 team members from 12 countries at three offices. Canva started in 2007 when founder Melanie Perkins was studying at the University of Western Australia and taught students how to use programs like InDesign and Photoshop.

Canva makes design easy for everyone, according to its website.

“Whether you’re a design newbie or a seasoned professional, Canva makes creating beautiful designs and brilliant documents as easy as possible through our vast collection of professionally-designed layouts that you can customize to perfection,” the website states.

Formats are available to create flyers, presentations, posters, social media posts, logos and more through the site.

The site can be used for marketing tools for any up-and-coming artist and tutorials to help teach anyone to use the products.

Textures is a website that offers digital pictures of all kinds of materials that can be used as background for graphic design or visual effects.

Just a few of the backgrounds include fabric, wood, metal, bricks and plastic.

Users can download up to 15 images for free each day. More or bigger images are available with the purchase or a credit pack or a subscription.

The site currently has more than 124,000 images for download. They are available for free as 2D or 3D computer graphics, movies, printed media, computer games and 3D models. No permission is granted to use the images for a competing product but users do not need to pay royalties or a usage fee.

They are free to use for CD covers and promotional materials, perfect for the up-and-coming artist on a budget. They are also available for websites, for those artists looking to create a web presence for themselves.

9. Free Audio Samples

FreeSound / Via freesound.org

Samples can be used to add in different sounds of all kinds to help create a beautiful and unique piece of music.

If an artist wants a background bass guitar, a siren to play in the back of a song, the ambient noise of a forest or even the sound of waves crashing onto the shore, they can turn to Freesound.

According to its website, Freesound is a huge collaborative database of all kinds of sounds released under Creative Commons licenses that allow their reuse.

Users can search through the thousands of sounds, check out ratings and background information of each one and use the ones they want to use.

Some of the sounds cannot be used commercially and many require attribution to the creator, but as long as musicians following licensing rules listed on the site, all sounds can be used free of charge.

10. Free Social Media Promotion

AddMeFast / Via addmefast.com

Once an artist has used all these tools to create songs worth listening to and the eye-catching graphics to promote them, it comes down to make sure people actually see and listen to the songs he or she worked so hard on.

Promotion on social media can be powerful, but it can also be hard to reach the listeners that artists want to reach.

Sites like AddMeFast help users increase likes and shares across several social media sites, including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and SoundCloud.

According to the website, it is a network to allow users to grow their social media presence. It never requests usernames or passwords for the sites and doesn't sell likes, subscribers, followers and so on.

The site boasts more than 5 million active users from more than 211 countries.