Getting your video demonetized is soul-crushing.
We want to avoid that at all costs.
The best way to not get a copyright strike on YouTube is to use copyright-free music in your videos.
But how do you find it?
In this guide, I’ll cover the best ways to find copyright-free music for YouTube.
To find copyright-free music for YouTube use YouTube’s free audio library or license music through a third-party website.
The best third-party websites to find Copyright music for YouTube are:
Find Copyright-free music through youTube audio library
YouTube audio library is the best place to find free copyright-free music.
For 2 reasons:
No cost and no risk.
This library is made by YouTube so there’s no chance to get your video flagged and demonetized.
Here’s how to find it.
1. Go to YouTube Studio dashboard
To get to your YouTube Studio either type studio.youtube.com into the search bar or from your YouTube homepage click on your channel icon in the top right and choose YouTube Studio.
2. Select audio library
Once you see your YouTube Studio dashboard select the Audio Library at the bottom left and you’re in!
You will now be able to download any song within the library and use it in your own videos copyright-free.
Some songs in the YouTube audio library require attribution in the description of your video.
Make sure to include it if you see a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license in the “License type” column.
If you want to only use music that doesn’t require an attribution in your video’s description you can filter the music by “attribution not required”.
3. Filter songs by track title, genre, mood, artist name & duration
Once you’re in the YouTube audio library you can filter music tracks by track title, genre, mood, artist name, duration, and other attributes such as the attribution requirement.
Once you find a music track that you like hover over the track date and you’ll be able to download it.
You can also switch to the SFX tab and download sound effects.
Licence copyright free music through a third party website
Another way of getting copyright-free music for YouTube is to license it.
The best platform for that is Epidemic Sound.
I recommend reading my full Epidemic Sound review to make sure that this platform is right for you.
Here’s how to get music through Epidemic Sound.
1. Sign up to Epideimic Sound
Go to Epidemic Sound, click start a free trial, and create an account.
2. Browse music track by genre, mood, and theme
Searching for the right music can take hours.
Luckily Epidemic Sound makes this process as easy as possible.
At the top of your homepage you will see the ability to filter music tracks by genre, mood and theme.
Each of these filters have many categories inside of them.
For example if you choose mood then you’ll be able to narrow down your search by happy, epic, dreamy, euphoric, laid back, quirky, and more.
This makes it easy to find just the right track for your video in a lot less time.
3. Find similar songs
This is the best feature.
If you already have a music track that you like you can find more like it.
Once you hover over a music track you can click the “two rings” icon and Epidemic Sound will show you tracks that are most similar to your current one.
4. Download only specific instruments of a track
Epidemic Sound separates music tracks into their instruments.
And you can download them individually.
If you like some elements of the audio track you can exclude everything else and download only the parts that you like.
Click on the download arrow, and under stems choose from a full mix, all stems (which downloads all parts of the song separately in a .zip file), melody, instruments, bass, and drums.
This feature is incredible.
Epidemic Sound alternative
If you’re looking for stock footage as well as audio tracks for YouTube a great alternative to Epidemic Sound is Envato Elements.
It also has stock video footage and thousands of other assets apart from stock music that you can use in YouTube videos.
Here’s my full review about it.
Best music in YouTube audio library
Here are some of the best artists and music that I love to use for my YouTube videos from YouTube’s audio library.
How do you check if a song is copyright free?
If you’re not sure – don’t use it.
All the songs in the YouTube audio library are copyright-free but some require the necessary attribution in the description. You can find the text for the attribution by hovering over the license type column in the YouTube audio library and clicking view details.
Then paste the text you copied to your video’s description where you used the song.
You can also check if your video has a copyrighted music track by uploading it to YouTube and setting its visibility to unlisted.
Once YouTube checks your video for copyright issues it will tell you if it found anything that shouldn’t be there.
Was this guide on how to find copyright-free music for YouTube useful?
In summary, the best way to find copyright-free music for YouTube is to use YouTube’s built-in free audio library. For a larger selection of high-quality music tracks and sound effects, you can use a third-party website and license music to use it for YouTube videos.
I’ll leave you with a few resources that will help you grow your YouTube channel:
9 best AI tools for YouTubers (make videos 67.1% faster with AI)
Best stock video sites for YouTubers
How to explode your channel growth with Shorts
Thanks for reading 👋.