Ever search the net for music to use in a production environment? Be it podsafe, CC attribution, public domain, royalty free or other free and semi-free stuff.

Have trouble finding anything? No problem. LostAudio just found at least 20GB of sound/music that is legal to use. The below is an incomplete but useful list of the best accessible audio download sites, that are actually updated and worth a visit.

• Freesound
  A collaborative sound collection featuring thousands upon thousands of user generated audio for soundscaping. It’s a great site for media makers, and good for post-production in relation to music production.
• ccMixter
  All about the music, the mashup and the community. ccMixter features some really large and great high quality sample packs through the contests, as well as user uploads. Loads of finished (or revisited) music as well.
• SoundSnap
  Another of those collaborative audio sites. Focus is broad, including sound fx, loops, shots. Soundsnap has a nice user interface to search the thousands of items. Some good, some great, some sucks - but it is all licensed in a very PD-like way.
• iBeat
  One of the new guys on the block, featuring moderated original music production samples. Besides shots and loops iBeat carries small ‘complete’ instrumentals usable as karaoke like ready-to-perform-on material.
• SampleSwap
  The archive at SampleSwap boasts 5GB+ of production audio. It’s completely add free and features a nice multi download feature. Browse the site, fill your bag and get everything zipped via a mail link. High quality and progressive licensing.
• Looperman
  A community of audio enthusiasts uploading and sharing all about music. The quality is good, considering that it is based on collaborative sharing.
• Free-Loops
  We recently published a review of Free-Loops (remember the dash!) and things have quickly changed for the better in regards to user experience. This is a no-hassle database of loops and beats, which we recommend just as much for listening too it’s users as well as serving up nice audio with progressive licensing.
• OLPC
  Loops, grooves, licks, sound-effects, city and country soundscapes can be found in the One Laptop Per Child audio project. You’ll find over 8GB of uncompressed samples. This really is massive and quite confusing - but it’s there, highs and lows included. The easiest way to get these would be via p2p… just follow the link to find out more.
• BBC Studio Samples
  The BBC has over a thousands archived samples by instrument type. Quite a few of the national broadcasters are opening up with stuff like this, so there might be another quality service just a click away in your country.

If your favourite site isn’t included post it in the comments, and we’ll add it when we revisit this subject. This was just a one shot, at some of the quality material that is available at the very least for non-commercial projects.