How To Use CREATIVE COMMONS MUSIC on YouTube (without copyright strike)

Have you ever wanted to add a music clip to YouTube video, but were afraid that you’d get a copyright strike?

In the video below, you’ll discover how to use Creative Commons and Royalty – Free music on YouTube videos so you won’t have to worry about getting a copyright claim.


Adding some background music to YouTube videos helps viewers to more easily consume your content. The music can even alter the mood of your viewers by uplifting and inspiring them.

What is Creative Commons music?
Creative Commons is a system that allows you to legally use the music, images, and movies all for free. Creative Commons offers free copyright licenses that anyone can use to mark their creative work with the freedoms they wish to carry.

Many musicians choose to release their songs on the Creative Commons license. This gives you the legal right to use their music in your YouTube videos.

But I want to give you a word of warning. I once received a copyright strike on a video that contained two seconds of music that was copyrighted. The video was 4 years old and had 40,000 views. I appealed the strike from YouTube, but it failed. As a result, I couldn’t live stream for three months.

Here are 4 places to find free Creative Commons music to use in your YouTube videos.

  1. YouTube Audio Library.
    Log in to YouTube channel and go to your Audio Library at YouTube.com/audiolibrary/music. You’ll be able to get free music and sound effects. Under free music, you’ve got the tracks, you can sort by genre, mood, instrument, duration, attribution, whether attribution is not required or required, or you can search for any particular type of music.

    Okay, let’s search for country & folk. Mood, bright. Instrument, acoustic guitar. Duration, two minutes. Attribution, not required. Let’s try Picnic on the Roof.

    After you’ve selected your song, just click on the download button. Then you just add the audio to the timeline in your video editing software.

  2. SoundCloud.
    SoundCloud has an awesome selection of background music for YouTube videos. Most of the music on SoundCloud is licensed under Creative Commons, which means that you’re free to use the tracks as long as you follow the guidelines established by the artist.
  3. BenSound.
    BenSound is home to hundreds of fantastic tracks created and uploaded by the artist Benjamin Tissot. BenSound’s music is freely available under the Creative Commons license as long as you credit BenSound.com.

    What I like about BenSound is it’s super easy to use the search function.

  4. Free Music Archive.
    If you use the free-play music for personal use only on YouTube, you’ll be able to access nearly all the tracks for free. Just keep in mind, it’s for the use of one track in one video that appears strictly in a non-revenue generating personal video. The video can’t be used to promote a business. If it’s for business use, then you’ve got to pay to use the music in your video.

    Royalty-Free Music
    Another alternative for using Creative Commons videos is Royalty Free Music. This gives users the right to use copyrighted music without paying royalties for recurring content. In other words, the buyer only has to pay once to use Royalty Free Music and you can use it for as long as you like.

    Here are 7 places where you can get Royalty Free Music.
    1. Epidemic Sound.
    You can find high-quality background music for your videos, and it has an easy search functionality. If you have a paid subscription to TubeBuddy, you can get 25% off. You can also get 250,000 free premium royalty-free music tracks and sound effects from AudioHero.

    2. AudioJungle.
    AudioJungle offers royalty-free music and audio tracks starting from $1 and has over 869,000 tracks.

    3. AudioBlocks.
    With an AudioBlocks subscription, you get access to unlimited downloads or hundreds of thousands of tracks, loops, sound effects, and collections. It has a great search bar and you can download previews of the music.

    4. Jamendo.
    Jamendo has an awesome music collection that allows marketers to pick and choose the music based on what they might be using it for.

    5. Incompetech.
    Incompetech is an artist-run website with free music in just about every genre you can think of. If you give proper attribution, users can download and use the music completely free.

    6. Amazon Music.
    Did you know that Amazon has more than 56,000 free tunes and sound effects that you can easily add in your video backgrounds? You can get free or premium tracks that start at 99ยข. Just make sure that you only use the music for personal and non-commercial purposes.

    7. Pond5.
    Pond5 gives you video footage, music, after effects, and more. You’ll find royalty-free stock and production music tracks for any creative project. The search bar makes it very easy to find the music that you want for your projects.

Here are some important things to keep in mind when using Creative Commons music in your videos.

  1. Check the license.
    Just make sure that the music clip that you’re using comes under Creative Commons.
  2. Give attribution.
    Give attribution to the original author in the description of your video. If you want to use copyrighted music in your videos, then make sure you get permission from the original owner. Sometimes the original owner just wants to share the revenue with you, which means you can’t monetize your video.
  3. Warning
    A word of warning about using copyrighted protected music is that sometimes the original author or artist can change their policies. This means the original music which you originally got permission to use can no longer be used. As a result, you might get a copyright strike.

Let me ask you a question…have you ever used Creative Commons or copyrighted music in your videos? Post your answer in the comments below. I’d love to read them and I’m sure others would too.

Another related question you might have on your mind is how can I use Creative Commons videos in my own videos? No worries, just watch the next video on how to find and use Creative Commons videos in your own videos without getting a copyright strike.

Do you want a grow your YouTube Channel this year so you can attract more views and subscribers? If so, pick up a copy of my 100+ page YouTube Marketing Guide at TubeBootCamp.com

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