Media Resources for Students & Faculty
Below are resources we have found to be useful for students who are looking to use stock assets in their student work. Some are free resources and some require licensing to use. BYU does not endorse any particular vendor but provides this list as a helpful resource for our students.
All members of the BYU community—faculty, staff, students, volunteers, and patrons—are expected to respect the rights of copyright owners. When copyrighted content is needed, it should either be a) obtained from an authorized source, b) analyzed for fair use, or c) covered by the teaching exemption when only used in class. Please refer to BYU’s Copyright office for guidance on specific situations.
PARTNER VENDORS
Megatrax – BYU Theatre and Media Arts has a subscription to the sound library at MegaTrax. Media Arts students are allowed to use this sound library in their student work. To create a student account, visit megatrax.com, and click the register button at the top. Fill out your information on the next page using your byu.edu email to register. When you get to “Company” field, enter “BYU Theatre & Media Arts.” After you’ve registered you will need to wait until they grant you access to the student account.
SoundSnap – Soundsnap is a professional online sound and stock music library, featuring high-quality sound effects, loops, and stock music from professional sound designers and cutting-edge music producers. Soundsnap has graciously provided the Department of Theatre and Media Arts with a limited number of free student accounts. Contact Kyle Stapley to request access to a Soundsnap education account.
Beatopia - Beatopia is a disruptive new platform that leases curated Beats that you won’t find anywhere else. Beatopia’s beats have unlimited rights and are available with a monthly or annual subscription. Beatopia has graciously provided the Department of Theatre and Media Arts with a limited number of free student accounts. Contact Kyle Stapley to request access to a Beatopia education account.
Pond5– Pond5 is the go-to video marketplace for filmmakers, media organizations, and marketers worldwide. They offer royalty-free stock footage, music, sound effects, images, After Effects templates, and more. Pond5 has partnered with the Department of Theatre and Media Arts to offer students 50% off all downloads. To sign up for a student account, click here. You must sign up with your byu.edu email and renew with Pond5 every semester you are a student. You can also check out their collection of over 3,000 free assets here: www.pond5.com/free
IMAGE AND VIDEO RESOURCES
· BYU Library image Databases – The HBLL has purchased subscriptions for the use of hundreds of thousands of images in various galleries in classrooms and for scholarly purposes. To see the specific terms for each database, click here.
· BYU Photo – Active members of the BYU campus community have access to BYU photos specifically for campus use.
· Pexels – Hand-picked, hi-res, FREE photos | NO Attribution Required (CCO License)
· Pixabay – 1Million+ stock photos, vectors, and art illustrations | NO Attribution Required (CCO license)
· Unsplash – Professional photographers giving photos away for free! | Credit Appreciated, though not required
· Wikimedia Commons – Thousands of images available under free creative commons licenses, or in the public domain.
· Canva – Millions of high-quality stock photos as well as a comprehensive list of the 73 top free stock image websites.
· WikiGallery – These images cannot be used for commercial purposes.
· The Met Museum Art Collection – Nearly 400,000 high-quality images of The Met’s holdings have been made available for free!
· New York Public Library Public Domain Collections – More than 180,000 high-quality images from the library’s holdings are public domain and free to use.
MUSIC AND SOUND RESOURCES
· Fatty’s Music – Music licensing service for multimedia projects. Includes music by many BYU graduates.
· Friendly Music – Music licensing platform; YouTube Partner.
· Jamendo – Royalty-free music by independent artists.
· The Music Bed – Licensing source for popular indie music.
· Music Dealers –Music licensing platform providing pre-cleared music and custom song creation for content creators.
· Musicscreen.org – Royalty-free music for non-profit and non-commercial uses for students and faculty at educational institutions.
· Song Freedom – Music licensing platform for photographers and cinematographers.
· Triple Scoop Music – Indie music licensing platform.
· Audio Jungle – Library of professional background-style tracks. Licensing begins at $20.
· Amper Music – Cutting edge company that allows you to create customized soundtracks via artificial intelligence.