Creating your own gaming videos of your best gameplay can be fun and fulfilling, especially when you can share them with others. Whether you want to upload them to YouTube, a Discord channel, or share them on your favorite social site, you need to ensure that you are using music that won’t get you into hot water legally. If you also stream be sure to check out our article with a full list of Twitch Safe music.
Fortunately, tehre are several popular royalty free platforms on the market. These include Epidemic Sound, Jingle Punks Music, Pretzel Rocks, and MonsterCat.
Can You Use Music on a Gaming Video?
You can definitely use background music on a gaming video as long as it is copyright and royalty-free. There are plenty of services that offer free music and whole playlists that are legal. With YouTube videos being removed or losing monetization it is important that you keep your channel protected by following YouTube’s TOS.
Free Gaming Music
There are several places you can get safe copyright free songs and build gaming music playlists, allowing you to create freely without having to worry about video removals or DMCA takedowns. Here are 5 of the best options:
1. Epidemic Sound
Epidemic Sound offers over 30,000 tracks of royalty-free music in several genres. Using their program, you will have the ability to download each part of a track separately if you wish, making it easy for you to create your own unique playlists or use a portion of a song for a YouTube compilation.
Their affordable personal plan covers music for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch and the company offers a free 30 day trial that will allow you to see first hand what the platform has to offer.
Epidemic Sound owns all of their music and adds new tracks on a weekly basis. The platform works directly with each artist and composer on a long-term basis (though they don’t require the artist to remain exclusive). As Epidemic owns the music, you won’t have to worry about copyright strikes or takedowns.
They will make claims on accounts that upload videos without an active subscription, but won’t make past claims on accounts that previously uploaded content while having a subscription. You can easily link your channel to Epidemic to make it that much easier for no claims to be made.
2. Pretzel Rocks
Pretzel Rocks is another popular platform that provides DMCA-safe music for your broadcasts. It is free to use but requires mandatory chat attribution unless you get the premium plan. The plan costs $4.99 per month and gives you a Discord role and access to support. 70% of the fees go to the musicians who recorded the songs.
3. Incompetech
Incompetech provides a large variety of music that you can download and arrange to play on your video’s background. You can use the songs for free with attribution. To avoid attribution, you must pay $20 per track. Paid licenses allow you to use the song in any project you like for life.
4. Monstercat
You can broadcast Monstercat’s music on your video for $5 per month. If you don’t plan to monetize your channel, you can use it for free. The service is available for Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook Gaming streamers. To listen to their music, visit their own Twitch channel.
5. SoundStripe
SoundStripe has two premium plans to let you access their weekly-updated music library. The first is $11.25 per month and includes unlimited music licenses and playlists. The second is $21 per month. It gives you the same features as the first, plus over 30,000 sound effects that you can use on your video. Additionally, it offers pre-released music and over a thousand songs with stems.
Royalty-Free YouTube Channels You Can Uaw on Videos
In addition to these platforms and apps, there are a few channels on YouTube that offer royalty-free music. Some ask for attribution. You can also create your own playlists from songs on these channels to use during your broadcast. Consider reaching out to other YouTubers who compose original music. Ask them if they are willing to work with you and let them know how you can help support their channel.
Here are seven channels that you can currently use for music:
Royalty Free Music – No Copyright Music
The name explains it all. This channel has hundreds of songs in several genres. You can use one of their playlists or create your own for your video.
Adrian von Ziegler
Adrian von Ziegler is a composer from Switzerland who creates fantasy and celtic-styled music. He kindly allows anyone to use his music with proper attribution. He does ask for you to purchase the music first, but you can use it in your projects. He clearly states his terms in the top comments of his music. Please read them if you choose to work with him.
Audio Library Plus
Audio Library Plus is another YouTube channel similar to Royalty-Free Music. They are continually adding songs in several genres for you use.
NCS 24/7 Live Stream
This stream began November 22, 2017. It plays Dubstep, Trap, EDM, Electro House on a channel dedicated to “Gaming Music.”
Kevin MacLeod
Kevin MacLeod has composed over 2,000 songs and has made most of them available for common use.
Johnny Easton
Johnny Easton is an amazing pianist who has composed several songs. He is happy to share his music with attribution. Read his About section on YouTube for more information.
Josh Woodard
Josh Woodard is a song-writer, musician, and vocalist. He allows you to download and use his music with attribution.
Copyrighted Music Limits What You Can Do With Your Content
It is illegal to use copyrighted music without permission from the owner of the track. If you are interested in uploading your videos as YouTube collaborations, you must make sure to use royalty-free music. YouTube is very strict with their music policy and non-compliance could get you a strike on your account.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can You Use Royalty Free Music on a YouTube Video?
Royalty-free music is the only kind of music you can play on YouTube without risking a DMCA takedown. There are several copyright-free music providers online that you can use for any genre of music.
How Do I Get Permission to Use Copyrighted Music?
In order to get permission to use copyrighted music, you must identify the owner of the music then contact them. You will often need to negotiate a price to use their music on your YouTube video.
Do I Need Permission to Use a Song in a Video?
If the song is not royalty-free, you will need to get permission from the holder of the copyright to use the song in the video. If you don’t, your video could be taken down or be given a copyright strike.
Can I Use 10 Seconds of a Copyrighted Song?
There is a myth that under the “Fair Use” act, you can use a section of a song that is between 10-30 seconds long, so long as the song is longer than that. This is untrue and you could receive a DMCA strike on your account if you play any portion of a song.
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.