Why You Should Add Music to Your YouTube Videos
If you are a serious YouTube creator, you have to incorporate background music into your videos.
Music is one of the most underrated and subtle storytelling components that greatly enhance the production quality of almost every YouTube video.
Check out your favorite YouTube creator, and notice how they use music from different genres in order to make their videos stand out.
Music instantly sets the mood for your video. Whether upbeat, playful, mysterious, or vibrant, it always subconsciously enhances your viewers' experience.
But did you know that it also helps you to grow your YouTube channel faster?
Adding music to your YouTube video can dramatically increase your watch time per video, helping you get to 4000 watch time hours faster.
What Happens if You Use Copyrighted Music on YouTube
The most common problem of using music in YouTube videos is copyright infringement.
New content creators often download songs from popular artists and then add them to their videos.
You should NEVER EVER do that!
At best, the copyright owner will claim your videos that use their music via Content ID, which removes your ability to ever monetize your video.
At worst, your video will receive a copyright strike. Three of those and your YouTube channel will be terminated, along with any associated channels.
All of the videos uploaded to your account will be removed. And you will not be allowed to create a new channel.
The solution?
Investing in affordable, royalty-free music for your videos.
Royalty-Free Music Subscription Services
To understand the meaning of royalty-free music, let's talk about royalties first.
Royalties are a common form of how artists are compensated for their work.
Royalty music usually involves a fixed fee that has to be paid every time a song is being used.
Imagine you had to pay $0.10 for a song every time someone watched your YouTube videos.
Then, one day your video goes viral and gets a million views. All of a sudden you owe the record label $100,000. And they don't care if you received a penny in ad revenue, they'll just send their lawyers.
You don't want that!
You want Royalty-Free Music.
That means that the copyright owner grants you unlimited usage rights by paying for a song once, or by paying for an inexpensive royalty-free YouTube music subscription.
Below are my top picks for the best music and best value:
Artlist
Artlist believes that high-quality music licensing doesn't have to be expensive. Nor does it have to be complicated.
It was founded in 2015 and pioneered the music licensing industry's shift to the subscription-based model.
Artlist works with top musicians from around the globe who put their heart and soul into their music and hand-picks each song to give YouTubers ultimate creative freedom by incorporating inspiring music in their videos.
Their impressive music catalog has a selection of more than 18,000 royalty-free music songs for your YouTube channel, with new songs being added to their catalog every day.
Artlist believes that when artists succeed, we all succeed. That's why they pay their artists well for the incredible and inspiring work that they do.
Artlist offers two subscription plans, Personal and Unlimited that I explain in detail below. You can also check out their sister companies for video stock footage Artgrid, and post-production effect Motion Array.
Artlist's Personal Plan
Their Personal plan is $9.99 per month, paid as a lump sum of $119.88 once per year, or $14.99 if you prefer to pay month by month.
The Personal license is limited to one channel per platform on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, Podcasts, and TikTok.
It's perfect for solo creators who are just getting started.
Artlist's Unlimited Plan
Let's say you wanted to use Artlist's songs for two YouTube channels, your main channel and your vlogging channel. In this case, you would have to upgrade to their Unlimited plan.
The Unlimited plan covers an infinite number of channels on all social platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, podcasts, TikTok, Twitter, Vimeo, and any future platform.
You are also not limited to social media and video platforms. Everything from personal to commercial projects including Paid ads, Client work, Commercial work, Podcasts, Websites & all online platforms, and Broadcast & TV is also included.
The price is only slightly higher at $16.60 per month, paid as one lump sum of $199 once per year.
Artlist license
Artlist removed all limitations from music licenses, allowing unlimited downloads and unlimited use for a fixed price.
Plus, every song you download with an active subscription is yours to use forever.
To quote Artlist:
Will my license ever expire?
The Unlimited license never expires! You’re covered forever on any platform worldwide, and can continue using the assets you downloaded during your subscription in future projects.
With the Personal license, every project you create and publish to your channel during your subscription is covered forever! However, once your subscription expires, you cannot use any of the assets you downloaded in new projects.
Artlist
Get two months of Artlist for free
If you sign up for a one-year Artlist plan with my special Artlist link below, you get an additional 2 extra months for free.
So what are you waiting for?
Sign up for Artlist today!
Epidemic Sound
Epidemic Sound has an even larger collection of songs compared to Artlist.
With more than 35,000 tracks and 90,000 sound effects, Epidemic Sound offers unlimited downloads & usage rights covered for all of your YouTube videos.
Epidemic Sound offers two plans: Personal and Commercial.
Personal Plan
This plan offers unlimited downloads. The Epidemic Sound Personal license covers monetization of one channel per platform for YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitch, and podcasts.
The price is equivalent to $12 per month if paid as an annual subscription of $96. If you prefer month-by-month payments, the price is slightly higher at $15 per month.
Commercial Plan
Epidemic Sounds' Commercial Plan offers everything in Personal plus once-off client projects.
You can also use this license for your business including websites and digital ads.
Different from Artlist's Unlimited plan, Epidemic Sound's Commercial plan is limited to one channel per platform.
That means, if you have two YouTube channels, you would have to purchase two plans, or manually whitelist each individual video on your second channel.
Unless you are a videographer who works on a lot of client projects, most YouTubers will get the most benefit from the Personal Plan.
Epidemic Sound License
To prevent your YouTube videos from being claimed by Content ID you have to make sure that you always have an active Epidemic Sound subscription at the time you upload a video that contains one of their songs.
If you love to create your videos in bulk ahead of time, always remember not to include any songs that will be published after your Epidemic Sound subscription has ended:
What happens after I cancel my subscription?
All videos, podcast episodes and/or any other types of content that have been published during an active subscription will stay cleared from receiving copyright claims forever!
However, if you use Epidemic Sound music in videos published after you've ended your subscription, Epidemic Sound will monetize them. You can reactivate your subscription at any time to continue using our music claim free.
Epidemic Sound
Get a 30-day free trial for Epidemic Sound
Want to test Epidemic Sound risk-free?
Then sign up via my link below for a free 30-days trial
Filmstro
Filmstro is the latest contender to the game. Their song collection contains a few thousand songs and new songs are added every week.
For $14.99 per month or $99 per year, Filmstro offers unlimited downloads from their vast music library.
You also get additional software and plugins that allow you to customize each song in terms of momentum, depth, and power, for example for Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere.
This makes it super easy to import songs directly into your favorite video editing app.
Next Steps
Music can really add personality and mood to the video. It can also make a video more engaging, creating an immersive experience when you fade in the music in certain sections and fade back to narration.
And of course, YouTube would help promote your engaging videos to new viewers, speeding up your channel growth to 1000 subscribers.
If you are keen to get your channel monetized under the YouTube Partner Program, I recommend checking out each of the recommended royalty-free music services above to find one which music really resonates with you and your creative vision for your YouTube channel.
