In this article, we’ll take a look at a number of resources you can use to find free music for your YouTube videos. We’ll also explain how to make sure the music you use doesn’t give you copyright infringement complaints, and what happens if you receive it.
Hopefully by the time you read this article, you will have a clear understanding of how music copyright works on YouTube and how to stay in good standing so that your videos can be monetized.
How to find royalty free music
First, let’s take a look at how to find free music for YouTube videos. There are many sources on the Internet, so it will be pretty easy to find music that suits your video and your tastes.
Here’s a quick overview of what we’ll cover in this section.
- No copyright music via YouTube search.
- YouTube provides royalty-free music.
- How to find music that’s safe to use on your YouTube channel.
- How To Find Check if the music will demonetize your videos.
- What happens if you do receive a copyright infringement complaint, and why you have nothing to worry about.
We’ll start with the safest option – use royalty-free music offered directly by YouTube. Just go to YouTube.com/audiolibrary/music and you can browse thousands of free music tracks and sound effects.
Not only are these tracks free, but you can also use them in your video without worrying about being copyrighted by mistake. YouTube specifically provides audio on this page to contributors to avoid copyright infringement complaints.
While you may not be able to find exactly what you are looking for, you can use this page to filter music by genre, instrument, duration, and even mood, making it a powerful tool for finding music that suits your needs. The sound effects tab is also a welcome addition. You can sort them by sound category, and all of these sounds are free to use as well.
Next, we have free copyright provided by various channels on YouTube itself. Performing a simple search for “non-copyrighted music†can often yield useful results.
You can even include specific terms such as “no copyright piano music” or “no copyright comedy music” to find more specific tunes. Keep in mind that just because there is no copyright in the title of a video does not mean that it is free to use on YouTube.
Read the video description carefully and see what rules apply. In many cases it will be stated that you are allowed to use the song for free if you have specified an artist. In some cases, the video may state that you must pay on their website first to use their song – avoid these.
In some rare cases, the use of these songs, even if marked as copyright free, may cause problems with the copyright infringement claim. At any time, artists can subscribe or copyright their content, and this can invalidate an outdated video in which it was advertised. In the next section, we’ll talk more about how to avoid this.
How to make sure your music doesn’t make you frustrated
If you don’t want to risk it, you should always use the music and sounds provided by YouTube in the music library we linked earlier in this article. However, if you want to go further and get some nicer music, you can prevent your videos from demonetizing by following the steps that I describe below.
Step 1. Make sure you read the description of any video you want to use music from. Make sure the description states that you can use their song without demonetizing.
Step 2 – Make sure you followed the correct routes to get the music that was provided for free. This can usually be a third-party link or hosted on a music website like Soundcloud. Don’t just rip music from videos.
Step 3 – Add music to your video, be sure to save the project file in case you need to remove music in the future. Then upload the video to YouTube, let it process, but don’t upload it.
Step 4. Fill in all the details that you usually do, such as video description, tags, title and thumbnail. Don’t click on the post. Instead, set the video as private and click Finish. Don’t worry, you can still switch it from private to public and your subscribers will still receive notifications.
Next, you need to wait a while. It’s best to wait about 2 hours. If Content ID detects copyrighted material in your song, you will be notified by email. You can then delete the downloaded unlisted video, go back to the original project file, and select a new song.
However, if you followed the first steps, it is unlikely that your video will be claimed to be in copyright infringement. But this will ensure that you don’t fall into the trap of the rare times it actually happens.
For example, I once used a song that was on a non-copyright channel, but the artist signed a deal with the label after it was published on that channel, which meant that the information they provided that it could be used for free is deprecated.
After following the steps above, you will make sure to test your system first to avoid falling victim to something like this. This will allow you to publish your video in the knowledge that it is safe to monetize and there is no risk that you might have to re-upload and lose views.
What happens if you get a copyright claim for your video?
If you’ve received a complaint about copyright infringement on your video due to music use, don’t worry. It will not affect your channel. In most cases, any income you could earn will go to the original performer instead. In some cases, the publication of the video will be blocked.
These copyright infringement complaints are completely different from channel infringement warnings, which can result in your channel being blocked. Channel alerts are often only applied if you are rudely stealing content without doing anything in good faith, such as downloading an entire movie and the company manually sending a DMCA notification. This rarely happens when using sound, especially if you follow all the steps in this article.
Summary
Thank you for reading this far. If you’ve read this far, you’ve learned the following:
Hope this article was helpful. Do you have questions about YouTube’s copyright or content identification system? If so, leave your question below and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
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