A friend supervises a workplace and had been playing nice music over the speaker system in the hallways and waiting rooms. But they’ve been told that they can no longer play copyrighted music of any kind, so I’m looking for alternatives that are free of cost and royalty free.

What I’ve come across so far isn’t great. On the lower end you have music that sounds like what you’d hear on an elevator, on hold on the phone or a corporate promo video. On the slightly higher end it’s still generic music that gets tedious after a half hour.

I know it’s a big ask, but does anyone have really good free music that can be played in the work place and around customers? Some customers are there for orientation appointments in the college and some are there for counselling.

My friend has their own CDs, but it’s not allowed. Youtube isn’t an option because of the ads. I assume Spotify isn’t an option for the same reason.

Update: I was having a great time with somafm.com until I realised I can’t use them for public performances / commercially. I’ve found some decent tracks at https://pixabay.com/music/search/instrumental such as this one https://pixabay.com/music/beats-lofi-instrumental-409202/ that are free of charge and allow public and commercial use.

I’ve also found (but yet to explore) Fesliyan Studios, Bensound and uppbeat.io