

While some websites will gladly sell you the proper assets and licenses, not all of them have permission to be freely used in YouTube videos. Which means you should be careful when perusing stock music databases as they won’t all be royalty-free. While most royalty-free music is stock music, that doesn’t necessarily mean that all stock music is free or royalty-free. You might now be thinking to yourself, “Is free stock music safe?” The answer is that it depends, but usually it is. It’s a popular option among content creators as royalty-free songs do not limit you to music from the last century. If you’re asking yourself if you can use royalty-free music on YouTube, the answer is yes! This is another simple method of how to add music to a YouTube Video without copyright issues. That makes these songs a great way to use music in YouTube videos legally. They are a great way to use music in YouTube videos without breaking YouTube’s music copyright rules.įortunately, there are a lot of databases available online that can show you which songs qualify as Public Domain. This typically refers to songs that no longer fall under copyright. The easiest way to legally use music in YouTube videos is to use songs that are listed under Public Domain. Let’s take a closer look at your options. Luckily, there are a few rules of thumb you should keep in mind so that you can better understand what music you can use on YouTube.

That means that figuring out how to use music on YouTube without infringing on copyright can be quite tricky. YouTube’s algorithms and content ID matching are so advanced that they can detect copyrighted music easily, even in the background of other sounds. The use of music in YouTube videos is an important part of any YouTube channel, but the fact of the matter is that YouTube music copyright rules are rather strict. Lastly, you can look for music that is royalty-free. While this probably isn’t the answer you want to hear, it’s the truth. However, it should be noted that copyright protects “compositions” and “sound recordings” separately, meaning a 2021 version of Rhapsody in Blue could be under copyright protection even though the composition is in the public domain. Public domain music is that which was written on or before 1925. If it’s not there or under the public domain then most likely it can’t be legally used for free.


The first place you should go to check if a song or sound clip can be used is HERE, at the creative commons. We’ll discuss your options in more detail below, but in short, you have three options for making sure you’re using music legally. How to Check if a Song is Copyrighted on YouTube
