Don’t miss the fun by not having royalty-free music
Much of the fun on YouTube Shorts is based on the music. There are the dancing videos – pop-lock, swing, jazz, headbanging – and all the lip syncing that you can handle. Then there’s just finding the right track to set the mood for your rant or your landscape setting or slideshow.
But YouTube has had a long and complicated relationship with record labels and royalties. Now that they’ve come along to become the leaders in copyright preservation, users like us need to start paying attention to royalties and only using royalty-free music, or music that has permission to be used.
Read our blog on YouTube Shorts if you’re wondering what it is.
This leaves us with two or three options. We can use the legal YouTube Shorts music library, we can add music from a third-party royalty-free stock music provider like Smartsound Cloud, or we can make and add our own music to our Short.
Adding music using the YouTube Shorts music library
If you are just on YouTube Shorts for some easy entertainment, then their music library is probably more than enough.
- Create a Short. Select the time that you want to film for, 15 seconds or 60 seconds. Keep in mind that most music in the YouTube Shorts content library will only allow for 15 seconds. If you have plans to do something for longer than that, it’s better to get your own music through the other options below. If your work is shorter, that’s no problem, as it will publish at whatever length you’ve cropped it.
- Tap “Add Sound” and you’ll come to the list of everything available. Selecting “Top sounds” will show you all of the day’s most popular selections on Shorts. You can also browse for specific songs and save songs into your “SAVED” list by checking the flag on the right.
- Select the part of the song you want. Click on the song icon at the top (where the “Add Sound” icon used to be). You’ll then see a timeline at the bottom. You can drag it to start at the exact point you’d like. You cannot adjust the length of the track at this point.
- Now when you record, it will start from the selected point. Each time you hit record, it will always keep track of where in the song you are, so you can ensure perfect syncing.
- Set a timer. You can also click on the timer option on the right so that it will stop recording at a specific spot in the song. The timer will also allow delayed start, so you have enough time to prepare yourself.
The problem with using the YouTube Shorts music library
There’s an often unconsidered issue using the music that YouTube Shorts lets you use. The music was issued for productions ON YouTube Shorts. That means you can’t post your Short onto other platforms, unless it’s been licensed for other platforms. So before you go posting the Short to TikTok or Facebook, check on those platforms if you can find that track.
If you don’t want to worry about this, then you should be using a third-party music source, or music you’ve created and uploaded yourself (see below for both).
How to Add Royalty-Free Music from Smartsound Cloud
Adding music from Smartsound Cloud is easy and fun. First, browse the massive catalog of over 10,000 tracks and variations. When you find the track you like, select the “Desired Track Length”. Then click on the pink circle with the white “+” to the right of the track.
The track will automatically be added to the timeline.
When it’s on the timeline, you’re free to edit the length again, and the music will automatically adjust for you, so that the intro, outro, and structure seem like they were written for your desired track length.
When you’re done, select “Checkout Project” at the top right.
Now you can use this royalty free music on any of your projects. Just open your preferred video editor and drag it on. Now you’re set to go!
How to Add Music to YouTube Shorts’ Music Catalog
If you’re a musician, it’s definitely a good idea to put your music onto the catalog and post Shorts using your music. The algorithm can then play in your favor. The more your music is used, the higher it’ll feature on searches. Even if you’re the main user of the music.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to do this yourself. You’ll have to use a third-party service like CDBaby, Ditto, or UnitedMasters. The good news is that these guys all take care of TikTok and Instagram too, so you’ll be covered on all the top platforms and be able to get your music shared and lipsynced.
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