Finding the right music for an elevator scene in a film, commercial, or other project might seem like a straightforward task at first. You may decide early on to steer clear of Christmas jingles and heavy metal songs, but the truth is there are no hard and fast rules when choosing elevator music.
Like royalty free music for Instagram and royalty free action music, there isn’t one specific genre that you’re required to source music from when scoring an elevator scene. Your search is moreso guided by personal preference and a desired tone and feel.
To help out in your search and give you plenty of music options, we’ve put together this blog with some of the best score-worthy playlists and songs from Soundstripe’s library.
The top Soundstripe playlists for elevator music
Aside from the practical purpose of moving actors from place to place, there are a number of reasons why filmmakers choose to shoot elevator scenes. For one, since elevators are enclosed spaces shared by strangers, filmmakers can strategically add more tension and anticipation to a scene.
Director Jay Roach took this exact approach when shooting the elevator scene in Bombshell. He breaks down the process for making this scene — i.e., one of the most complex and telling moments in the entire film — in the video below:
As you can see, elevator scenes carry a lot of impact on-screen. To make these scenes even more captivating, filmmakers need to add music that matches and strengthens the moment.
Whether you’re looking for music that is more subdued or lively, these five playlists from Soundstripe might have exactly what you need.
Simple & Gentle
Listen and license here.
Coffee Shop
Listen and license here.
Jazz
Listen and license here.
Playful
Listen and license here.
Minimal
Listen and license here.
Pro Tip: When you come across a song that you love in any of these playlists, you can select the “Similar Songs” icon and generate a dropdown list of five more song recommendations. This makes it easy to find the most relevant options that match the tone and feel of the music you already know you like.
Our Top 10 royalty free elevator tracks
These five playlists are great resources to jumpstart your search, but there’s plenty more where that came from. If you want to check out all the different music playlists in our library, you can do that here.
In the meantime, here are 10 top tracks are featured in the playlists mentioned above:
1. “New Beginning” by EVOE
Genre: Uplifting Ambient
Instruments: Guitar and ambient tones
Listen and license here.
2. “Gatsby's Saloon” by Dresden, The Flamingo
Genre: Jazz
Instruments: Horns and piano
Listen and license here.
3. “Disillusions” by Reveille
Genre: Reflective Acoustic
Instruments: Synth and organ
Listen and license here.
4. “Words For A Good Man” by Lost Ghosts
Genre: Calm Ambient
Instruments: Ambient tones and piano
Listen and license here.
5. “And So It Goes” by Moments
Genre: Reflective Ambient
Instruments: Ambient tones and piano
Listen and license here.
6. “Feels Like Home” by Avocado Junkie
Genre: Jingle
Instruments: Acoustic guitar and claps / snaps / stomps
Listen and license here.
7. “First Snow” by Shimmer
Genre: Calm Ambient
Instruments: Piano and ambient tones
Listen and license here.
8. “Last Train To New Orleans” by AFTERNOONZ
Genre: Jazz
Instruments: Piano and drums
Listen and license here.
9. “Bloom” by Sounds Like Sander
Genre: Uplifting Acoustic
Instruments: Ukulele and bells
Listen and license here.
10. “Fading Light” by Holiday On The Moon
Genre: Calm Ambient
Instruments: Ambient tones and piano
Listen and license here.
New royalty free music for 2022
Because music quality and variety are so important, our team works with award-winning artists and musicians to release new music on a weekly basis. There’s always a new supply of tracks to check out — spanning across dozens of genres.
To point you in the direction of the newest songs in the catalog (as of 2022), we’ve put together this list of recent additions:
1. “Pace” by EVOE
Genre: Calm Ambient
Instruments: Ambient tones and cello
Listen and license here.
2. “Rain On The Leaves” by In This World
Genre: Calm Ambient
Instruments: Percussion and synth
Listen and license here.
3. “Inner Peace” by Moments
Genre: Reflective Ambient
Instruments: Cello and violin
Listen and license here.
4. “The Voyage Home” by Enoch Yang
Genre: Classical
Instruments: Piano
Listen and license here.
5. “Trampoline Summer” by Funday
Genre: Rock
Instruments: Electric guitar and piano
Listen and license here.
6. “A Short Story” by Andrea Colella
Genre: Jazz
Instruments: Bass and upright bass
Listen and license here.
7. “Low Lit Blues” by Renderings
Genre: Jazz
Instruments: Percussion and claps / snaps / stomps
Listen and license here.
8. “Day Mood” by Dario Benedetti
Genre: Reflective Acoustic
Instruments: Guitar and acoustic guitar
Listen and license here.
9. “5 Stars” by Syncro
Genre: Jazz
Instruments: Bass and drums
Listen and license here.
Need more royalty free elevator music?
Whether you’re shooting a scene in an elevator, coffee shop, or other location, every moment captured on-screen deserves good sound quality and music. That’s why finding the right song is always a top priority for creators.
If you’ve been searching for royalty free elevator music, the search and filter functions in Soundstripe’s library can help you quickly isolate the songs you do want and exclude the ones you don’t.
By signing up for one of our music plans, you can license an unlimited number of songs by simply pressing the download button. (The licensing process is really as simple as that.) If this piques your interest, you can learn more about all of your plan options here.
Check out more royalty free music and SFX
If you’re not ready to go all in with a plan yet, take some time to get more familiar with our library. These blogs from the Soundstripe blog will give you a glimpse into the different genres and SFX in our library:
