To use music in videos legally, you need permission for every copyrighted track you include, and that permission can come from a royalty-free subscription, a platform’s built-in audio library, a Creative Commons or public domain source, a direct license from the publisher and record label, or a contract with a composer you hired. Skip that step and your video can be muted, blocked, demonetized, or removed, and the copyright owner can pursue statutory damages of up to $150,000 per song if the use is found willful.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 504 – Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits
One thing to understand before you pick a path: a recorded song carries two separate copyrights. The composition (melody and lyrics) is usually controlled by a music publisher. The sound recording (that specific recorded performance) is usually controlled by a record label. To use a commercial track, you need permission for both. Clearing one side and not the other still counts as infringement.2U.S. Copyright Office. Musical Works, Sound Recordings
Public performance rights are a third layer, but for most video creators they’re already handled. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch hold blanket performance licenses from organizations like ASCAP and BMI, so you don’t need a separate one for uploads to those platforms.3ASCAP. ASCAP Music Licensing FAQs
The Easy Paths: Free and Pre-Cleared Music
Platform Audio Libraries
If you upload to YouTube, the fastest legal option is already inside YouTube Studio. The Audio Library contains royalty-free tracks and sound effects that won’t trigger Content ID claims. Standard-license tracks require no attribution; tracks tagged Creative Commons require a credit in your video description. You can monetize videos that use Audio Library music if you’re in the Partner Program.4YouTube Help. Use Music and Sound Effects From the Audio Library
Meta offers a comparable Sound Collection for Facebook and Instagram. These libraries won’t get you chart hits, but they cover most background-music needs. Note that a YouTube Audio Library license covers use on YouTube. If you repurpose the same video for TikTok or your own site, the license terms may not carry over.
Royalty-Free Subscriptions
Royalty-free doesn’t mean free. You pay a per-track fee or a subscription, and in return you owe no additional royalties every time your video plays. Services like Epidemic Sound, Artlist, and Musicbed operate this way, and a single payment typically clears both the composition and the recording. Read the terms carefully: some services restrict which platforms you can publish on, some limit commercial use to higher tiers, and some revoke your rights to already-downloaded tracks if you cancel.
Creative Commons
Many musicians release tracks under Creative Commons licenses. CC BY lets you use the music for any purpose with credit. CC BY-NC restricts use to non-commercial projects, which is a problem if your video is monetized. CC BY-ND lets you use the track but forbids editing or remixing it.5Creative Commons. About CC Licenses Read each track’s specific license before you use it. The Free Music Archive is a good place to start and lets you filter by license type.
Public Domain
Copyright eventually expires, and expired works are free to use. Compositions created after 1977 stay under copyright for the life of the last surviving author plus 70 years.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 302 – Duration of Copyright: Works Created on or After January 1, 1978 As a rough guide, compositions published before 1930 are generally in the public domain.
Sound recordings run on a different clock. The Music Modernization Act put pre-1972 recordings on a federal schedule: recordings published before 1923 entered the public domain on January 1, 2022, and each subsequent year’s batch enters 100 years after publication. As of January 1, 2026, all recordings published through 1925 are free to use.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 1401 – Federal Protection for Pre-1972 Sound Recordings
Watch the two-copyright rule here. A Beethoven symphony is in the public domain, but a 2015 orchestra recording of it is not. Confirm both the composition and the specific recording are clear before using anything.
Licensing a Commercially Released Song
If you want a recognizable, released song in your video, there is no shortcut. You need two licenses. A synchronization license from the publisher grants permission to pair the composition with your visuals. A master use license from the record label grants permission to use the specific recording.
Neither license has a set price. Costs depend on the song, how you plan to use it, how large your audience is, and how long the license runs. A well-known pop song in a commercial can cost tens of thousands of dollars; an indie track for a YouTube video might run a few hundred. Expect the process to take several weeks at best, often three months or more. If you can’t find who controls the publishing, ASCAP and BMI maintain searchable databases; label information is usually in the recording’s distribution metadata.
Cover Songs Are Not a Loophole
This trips up more creators than almost anything else. Recording yourself performing someone else’s song and uploading the video is not automatically fine, even though you made your own recording.
Federal law does provide a compulsory mechanical license for cover versions, but it only applies to “phonorecords” — audio-only distribution like streaming or downloads.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 115 – Scope of Exclusive Rights in Nondramatic Musical Works: Compulsory License for Making and Distributing Phonorecords The moment you pair your cover with any kind of video, even a static image, you’ve made an audiovisual work, and that requires a sync license. Sync licenses are not compulsory. The publisher can refuse or charge whatever they want.
Plenty of cover videos survive on YouTube because publishers use Content ID to monetize the videos rather than take them down. That’s tolerance, not permission. The publisher can change position at any time and issue a takedown.
Fair Use Rarely Covers Music
Fair use is a legal defense, not a permission slip. Courts weigh four factors when deciding whether an unlicensed use is fair:9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 107 – Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use
- The purpose and character of the use, including whether it’s commercial and whether it transforms the original by adding new meaning or expression
- The nature of the copyrighted work, with creative works like music getting stronger protection than factual content
- The amount used relative to the whole, including whether you took the “heart” of the work
- The effect of the use on the market for the original
There is no “10-second rule.” That’s a myth. A short clip of a distinctive hook can weigh against you precisely because it’s the most recognizable part of the song. Music is creative, so factor two almost always favors the rights holder, and if your video could substitute for buying or streaming the song, factor four does too.
Uses that transform the original — commentary, criticism, parody — have the strongest fair use case. Playing a song as background while you talk about something unrelated is not transformative and is unlikely to qualify.
What Happens If You Use Music Without Permission
Content ID Claims
YouTube’s Content ID system scans uploads against a database of copyrighted audio and video. When it finds a match, the rights holder can block the video, run ads on it and keep the revenue, or track its viewership. These outcomes can vary by country.10YouTube Help. Learn About Content ID Claims
A Content ID claim is not a copyright strike. It’s automated and doesn’t threaten your channel’s standing. You can leave the claim in place, mute or trim the audio, replace the song with an Audio Library track, or dispute the claim. Disputing without a valid basis is risky, because the copyright owner can escalate to a formal takedown.
Copyright Strikes
A copyright strike means the rights holder submitted a formal DMCA takedown and the platform removed your content. Three strikes within 90 days terminates the channel and deletes every video on it.11YouTube Help. Understand Copyright Strikes If a takedown was a genuine mistake, you can file a DMCA counter-notification, which is a formal legal document submitted under penalty of perjury and consents to federal court jurisdiction.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 U.S. Code 512 – Limitations on Liability Relating to Material Online A false counter-notification carries its own legal consequences.
Damages
A copyright holder can elect statutory damages instead of proving actual losses. The range is $750 to $30,000 per work infringed, at the court’s discretion. If the infringement was willful, the ceiling rises to $150,000 per work.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 504 – Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits Three unlicensed songs in one video can mean six-figure exposure.
Smaller disputes now have a cheaper venue. The Copyright Claims Board at the U.S. Copyright Office handles claims up to $30,000 without a full federal lawsuit, which makes it easier for rights holders to pursue individual creators for uses that were previously not worth the trouble of suing over.13U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright Small Claims and the Copyright Claims Board
Commissioning Original Music
Hiring someone to compose original music removes the copyright question at the source, because no one else has rights to what they created for you. The catch is the paperwork. If you hire a freelance composer, they own the copyright by default. A transfer of ownership is only valid if it’s in writing and signed by the person giving up the rights.14U.S. Copyright Office. Chapter 2 – Copyright Ownership and Transfer A handshake won’t hold up.
Your contract should say whether you’re buying full ownership (often structured as a work-made-for-hire agreement) or a license to use the track in defined ways. Full ownership costs more but gives you the most flexibility. Many composers on freelance platforms will produce short pieces for a few hundred dollars, less than what it costs to clear a single commercial release, and the result is music no one else can use against you later.