Sitar, flute and tabla background music, no copyright
Sitar, bansuri and tabla background music you can use without a copyright claim: original instrumentals, one of them free to download with a free account. Nothing says India faster than the first note of a sitar or the breath of a bansuri. These albums are built around the instruments of Indian classical music — sitar, bansuri, tabla, sarangi, santoor and tanpura — sometimes on their own, sometimes inside a modern cinematic mix. Use them for heritage and culture videos, yoga and meditation, food, travel, or anywhere a video needs to sound rooted.
Choosing by instrument
Sitar is the most recognisable and the most assertive. It is a lead instrument, so give it room and keep narration away from its phrases. RAGA NOIR puts sitar alongside sarangi, bansuri, tabla and tanpura, with cinematic production around them.
Bansuri, the bamboo flute, is softer and breathier, and sits under a voice far more easily. It features on MONSOON’s rain-soaked tracks and in BACKWATERS’ first-light pieces; from the Singles collection, Flute Of Blue Peacocks is an elegant standalone Indian classical piece. Tabla is rhythm without melody: TAAL is percussion only, built on tabla, for transitions and cuts, and it will sit under any voice.
Sarangi is often called the instrument closest to the human voice. It carries MONSOON’s emotion and, with kamayacha, ravanhatha and algoza, the desert melodies of Rajasthan — Echoes of the Desert. Santoor’s bright, hammered sound turns up in RASA’s short food grooves.
Meditative or cinematic
Indian classical music does two very different jobs in a video. The meditative side — a slow melody over tanpura, a raga taking its time — suits yoga, meditation, spiritual and slow-living content. RAGA NOIR’s Bhairav Dawn Drift and Monsoon Raag, and Rajasthan’s Thar Ki Sargam, are the calm ones.
The cinematic side adds strings, pads and modern production to the same instruments, for travel films, brand videos and heritage stories that need to build — MONSOON and the rest of RAGA NOIR live there. Alaap is the voice itself: wordless classical vocals, for when an instrument is not enough.
Raga, time of day and season
In the Hindustani tradition, ragas are tied to times of day and to seasons. Bhairav is a morning raga; Megh and Miyan ki Malhar belong to the monsoon. Several titles here nod to that — Bhairav Dawn Drift for sunrise, Monsoon Raag for the rains. Matching the music’s time of day to the footage is a detail few viewers will name, but many will feel.
The albums
RAGA NOIR
Indian Classical · 7 tracks · Creator Pro — Commercial · $19.99
Sitar, sarangi, bansuri, tabla and tanpura with cinematic production — warm, atmospheric and expressive.
- Echoes Of The Tanpura3:59
- Bhairav Dawn Drift5:26
- Monsoon Raag4:52
MONSOON — After the Rain
Ambient · 6 tracks · Creator Pro — Commercial · $19.99
Bansuri and sarangi over warm strings, rain and distant thunder — the most emotional album here.
- Window Seat2:26Free download
- First Monsoon Rain3:49
- When The Rain Stops3:44
TAAL — Rhythms for cuts, transitions and dance
World · 5 tracks · Creator Pro — Commercial · $19.99
Percussion only, built on tabla — from a slow, spacious solo to dhol drops over 808s.
- Kathak1:32
- Dha3:15
- Chakra2:57
Rajasthan — Echoes of the Desert
World · 7 tracks · Creator Pro — Commercial · $19.99
Sarangi, kamayacha, ravanhatha and algoza — the folk sound of the Thar with film-score production.
- Thar Ki Sargam5:17
- Maru Ki Hawa3:55
Alaap — Echoes Within
Indian Classical · 5 tracks · Creator Pro — Commercial · $19.99
Wordless Indian classical vocals, built around breath, resonance and silence.
- Ananta4:43
- Aakash3:28
RASA — Indian Rhythms for Food
World · 6 tracks · Creator Pro — Commercial · $19.99
Tabla, dholak, sitar and santoor in short, contemporary grooves — the everyday side of these instruments.
- Chai2:26
- Thali1:11
Singles
Electronic · 10 tracks · Creator Pro — Commercial · $19.99
A standalone single, Indian classical in genre and elegant in mood.
- Flute Of Blue Peacocks3:05
What the licence lets you do
An album’s licence tier is fixed and shown against it above. These are the terms printed on the certificate you receive, for the tiers the albums on this page are sold with.
Creator Pro — Commercial
- Allowed: Commercial and monetized content on all platforms.
- Allowed: Client work, freelance projects, podcasts, and online courses.
- Allowed: Unlimited projects; no credit or attribution required.
- Allowed: Trimming and editing the track.
- Not allowed: Full remix of the track.
- Not allowed: Broadcast, TV, and film use under this tier.
Never allowed, under any tier
- Redistribution or resale of the raw audio files.
- Claiming ownership or authorship of the composition.
- Use of tracks in AI or machine-learning training datasets.
- Registering tracks with Content ID or uploading to music distribution platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.).
Common questions
Which tracks suit yoga and meditation videos?+
The calm ones: RAGA NOIR’s Bhairav Dawn Drift and Monsoon Raag, and Rajasthan’s Thar Ki Sargam. Maru Ki Hawa is relaxed rather than meditative. For a guided session, keep the music low under your voice and let one track carry the whole practice rather than cutting between several.
Will sitar or tabla work under an English voiceover?+
Yes, as long as the instrument is not playing a busy line while you talk. Tabla and tanpura sit under speech in any language. A sitar or bansuri melody works better in the gaps between sentences, or under a slower, sparser passage of the track.
Can I use TAAL’s Kathak for a dance video?+
You can use any track as the music for your own dance video, within the album’s tier. Whether Kathak suits a particular choreography depends on the taal your piece is set in, so play the watermarked preview against your steps before you buy.
Is any of this music free to download?+
Yes — Window Seat is free with a free iReelz account: the full track without the preview watermark, and a licence certificate in your name. The free licence covers one personal, non-monetized project per download on YouTube, Instagram or TikTok, with “Music by iReelz” in the description. For monetized videos, client work or using a track again and again, buy the album — its licence covers every track on it in unlimited projects.
Will I get a YouTube copyright claim for using these tracks?+
iReelz does not register its music with YouTube’s Content ID, and every licence forbids the buyer from registering it too — so the automatic matching that claims borrowed film songs has nothing of ours on file to match. If a claim appears anyway, dispute it in YouTube Studio and quote the certificate number on the licence PDF that comes with the album; anyone can check a certificate at ireelz.com/verify. A claim is also not a strike: strikes come from legal takedown requests, and iReelz is the rights holder that licensed you.
Can I use these tracks in monetized videos?+
Yes. Every album on this page is sold with Creator Pro, which covers monetized and commercial content on every platform, and client work.
Do I have to credit iReelz?+
No. Every album on this page is sold with Creator Pro, which needs no credit.
Can I use them on TV, in cinema or in ads?+
Not under the licences these albums are sold with. Broadcast, TV, film and ads need a Studio licence, and none of the albums on this page is sold at Studio — contact us if a project needs broadcast rights.
Is it a subscription? What does an album cost?+
No subscription. Each album is a one-time purchase with a perpetual licence, so videos you publish with it stay covered for good. Albums are priced by licence tier — Lite $9.99, Creator Pro $19.99 and Studio $34.99 — and buyers in India pay in rupees: ₹499, ₹999 and ₹1,999. Each album below shows its own price.