Many streamers have questions about the music you can play on gaming videos or stream. For years, streamers played whatever music they wanted on their channels without consequence. In fact, the worst consequence was that VODs were muted. This, however, has always been illegal.
The music industry, like the film industry, has seen its fair share of broken copyright laws, and for a long time, YouTube (and other platforms) turned a blind eye towards streamers breaking DMCA terms, searching for a gray area. While YouTube was ahead of the rest in muting or striking videos with copyrighted music, they didn’t always check streams.
In 2020, this all changed when big-music started slapping down copyright strikes on channel after channel. YouTube Gaming had to start taking things seriously, and so do you.
Can You Use Spotify Music On YouTube Gaming?
The broad answer to this question is no, you cannot use Spotify music on YouTube Gaming. Spotify music is only licensed for personal use and streaming it out to a community not only breaks the law, it breaks their terms and conditions.
There is a loophole, however, when it comes to royalty-free playlists (of which there are a few). It is still your responsibility to ensure that the music is truly royalty-free. You must also take a slight risk that the owner of the music may change their mind in the future.
The DMCA bots are becoming more intelligent and soon they will be able to find music while it is currently being played. Under YouTube Gaming’s new guidelines, you will be banned from the platform if you receive too many strikes for playing copyrighted music.
Best YouTube Gaming Music Practices
In order to ensure that you stay within the law and the platforms’ terms of service, you should only play Royalty-Free Music for YouTube Gaming. This music is typically held by a company and leased out to viewers for a small monthly fee, allowing them to use it for content creation and other purposes.
One of the best platforms for YouTube Gaming music is Epidemic Sound. They offer over 30k tracks in several popular genres so that you can create your own playlists that your viewers will love. Not only can you use their music on youtube gaming, but you can also use it when creating other YouTube content to support your stream, your Instagram stories, and more!
You will never have to worry about Epidemic Sound coming after you and giving you a DMCA strike. In fact, even if you cancel your subscription in the future, they won’t make claims on content that you created while you were one of their members.
The platform continually adds new music to their collection on a weekly basis, meaning you will be able to experience new tracks frequently. The best part is, they offer you a 30-day free trial so you can see what the hype is about before you commit to anything.
Royalty-Free Spotify Playlists for YouTube Gaming
You will occasionally find Spotify playlists that offer royalty-free tunes. Pay attention to the descriptions, ensure for yourself that the music is safe, and look to see what conditions the creator has for you. If they are subbed to a royalty-free membership program (like Epidemic Sound), they cannot offer that music to other content creators to use.
That all said, here are two royalty-free Spotify accounts we found that should work:
- OWN3D – you can find their Spotify playlist through their site. There are over 200 LoFi and Synthwave royalty-free songs you can use at no cost to you or your fans.
- Gamecaster – the dedicated developers at Gamecaster have recently released three Spotify playlists that are royalty-free and available to streamers. They come in the following genres: Hip Hop, Lo-Fi, and EDM.
- Bass Rebels Streaming Playlist – this account provides a link to the licenses for all the songs on their playlist.
- StreamBeats – run by stream doctor, Harris Heller, this playlist adheres to Twitch’s ToS.
Conclusion
Just because you rent music or even purchase it on a program like iTunes, you don’t have the rights to play the music on your content. You would need to go through legal steps in order to secure those copyrights in order to legally use copyrighted songs on your stream.
Luci
Luci is a novelist, freelance writer, and active blogger. A journalist at heart, she loves nothing more than interviewing the outliers of the gaming community who are blazing a trail with entertaining original content. When she’s not penning an article, coffee in hand, she can be found gearing her shieldmaiden or playing with her son at the beach.