Royalty Free Sad / Nostalgic Music

Melancholy strings with an underlying glimmer of hope - just enough to give us a welcome dose of optimism even if the times are dark. Atmospheric and cinematic in style, it's a gentle and pensive track with accenting piano and angelic airs to help breathe life into the soul-searching somberness, with lilting cello and violin taking the lead. Effective, moving and honest - so have the tissues ready.

A beautiful alt-rock love ballad with soft male vocals, bright acoustic guitars and electric guitar riffs in the background

Soothing but mysterious orchestral track. Arpeggiated piano and strings start classically, but a theremin lead takes things to an unexpected level of mystical contrast. Elegance and majesty is constant due to the warm orchestration throughout, with a deliberate unease and suspense created by the unusual instrumentation and melodies.  

Acoustic session featuring a male and female duet for a happy feeling

Brahms inspired lullaby. Gentle and magical thanks to the music box, it delicately grows into an orchestral string arrangement, enhanced by woodwinds and glockenspiel before returning to the solo music box as it slows to its finish. Enchanting and innocent.

A dreamy lo-fi chillhop track with a nostalgic vibe. Smooth, soulful piano lines mix with tasteful electronica and sexy sax leads to give an uncluttered and fresh feeling track of lazy mellowness, underpinned by a simple beat and occasional vocal samples for a breezy touch of class.

639 Hz - a frequency filled with love, radiance, and positive energy. It's the frequency of the heart, but don't expect James Blunt style whinings. This is a meditation soundscape designed to go much deeper, whistling straight into your inner core with haunting tones and evolving sound design. As useful for cinematic ambience as it is for spiritual energising, it's said to help you build harmonious relationships with others. Might work better than a mix tape of 80's love ballads.

A touching and contemplative soundscape with an ambient and blissful atmosphere. Dreamy piano and sound design textures float on a cloud of soft pads, while calming strings enhance the reflective nature of the music.

If you like your lo-fi chill hop tracks sat right back in the box, this one is for you. Pure simplicity with an arpeggiated keyboard motif, minimalist deep bass line and rock steady beat. Absolute moods without the fancy intricacies.

Hollow and desperate piano instrumental, epitomising loneliness and helplessness. Slow, methodical piano meanders throughout, searching for a theme, enhanced by electro sound design elements that reinforce the sound of empty space. Not a piece that's going to brighten your day, unless you've been searching for the perfect accompaniment to your solitude and loss of hope.

Beautiful and elegant cinematic track. With a light and uplifting feeling, it uses string harmonics and soft piano 'question/answer' phrasing to develop the foundation as it builds to a livelier theme featuring pizzicato and legato strings, bright piano and an expressive cello lead. Positive and full of optimism with a delicate sensitivity.

A short track telling of a sudden change of sorrow with piano, strings and percussion

Wistfully floating into the ether, this short cinematic track beautifully glides between soft angelic voices and shimmering strings for a soothingly uplifting and pensive feel that has a deeply tragic undertone. Melancholic yet optimistic at the same time, it makes great use of the natural qualities of the cellos and ethnic woodwinds to paint its heavenly picture of light and dark.

'Epic' isn't always reserved for heroic battle music. To prove the point, here is an atmospheric piano based track that manages to build it's 'epicness' through inspirational chord progressions and dramatic instrumentation. And plenty of reverb. With an airy background shimmer, bright piano leads us to clean electric guitar to transport us to a bold, dreamlike state of uplifting calm, blooming into a full, rich wave of invigorating sensation with prominent lush strings. No booming percussion, no fast ostinato, just a beautifully cinematic flight into the clouds.

A soft, mid paced orchestral track with a sombre side. A gentle, pulsating string and harp intro featuring solo viola, cello and oboe flourishes into life with string shorts, harp glissandi and orchestral runs before dying down again for the ending. Good use of the vibraphone creates a dreamlike quality to help set an intense, melancholic and nostalgic mood, tinged with a sense of reflection and regret.    

Hybrid orchestral track with a dark and melancholic feeling. The texture evolves, becoming more dense at the end.

Gentle piece for piano and strings. A solo piano theme sets the mood, soon joined by cello, and gradually building on the meandering ideas with full string accompaniment. Mid tempo, flowing but never hurried, it's a delicate track with hints of drama, but mostly sweet, reflective and carefree in it's tone.

Uplifting and powerful instrumental track with a long dynamic build-up

Contemplative fingerstyle acoustic guitar track with a soft, rolling lilt. Certainly creating a mood of longing, love and nostalgia, it keeps moving on, through its continuous background split chords and phrasal solo melodies. Ambient and deep, it leaves an emotional trace behind while keeping a light and airy passion.

A modern electro pop track, featuring a simple clean electic guitar theme. Slightly hypnotic in feel, with an ethnic world lounge vibe surfacing from time to time, the use of synth in rich backing, textures and prominent lead creates another dimension reminiscent of deep house. An animated percussive beat with a constant kick lends itself well to both genres, making a stylish and sopisticated track that has a strong groove and chilled vibe with a slightly mysterious, curious edge.