YouTube is the most popular video-sharing platform worldwide. With millions of videos being uploaded every day, creators need to make their content stand out. One of the most effective ways to enhance your videos is by adding audio tracks that suit your content. However, using copyrighted music can lead to copyright infringement claims, and in worst cases, your video might get taken down. Fortunately, YouTube offers a solution to this problem with its audio library. In this article, we will guide you on how to use YouTube Audio Library to enhance your videos with royalty-free music, sound effects, and audio clips.
Youtube audio library is the best way to find any kind of music you want. Even if the song isn’t on youtube, google will search the whole web for it. This tool is very useful for finding background music, place music, radio recording, music for video clips, etc.
You can search by artist or song title, or you can just browse the song section where they are sorted by popularity. The youtube audio library has lots of high-quality music. It’s really easy to find any song; just type in the song you’re looking for, and you’ll find it.
YouTube Audio Library filters
How do you find the free music for YouTube videos you need? Especially with such a vast library of options? As you might have noticed, there are two categories within the YouTube Audio Library: “Free music” and “Sound effects.”
To find a song, you can use one of the five filters. Or, you can set as many of these filters simultaneously to fine-tune your search results. Say you’re looking for a bright dance track that’s more than 30 seconds long, incorporates synths, and doesn’t include third-party attribution.
You can set all these parameters to get YouTube free audio library results that match your needs. Here are the five filters you can use in the Youtube audio library.
GENRE
These are high-level categorizations in the YouTube library. For an explainer video, you might start with something upbeat, like Dance & Electronic.
MOOD
If your needs are broad like if you just need background music for YouTube videos, the Mood filter lets you narrow down the kind of vibe you want. If your explainer video needs to be cheery and quick, you may want to start with the Bright category.
INSTRUMENT
Filtering by the instrument can help narrow things down. For instance, if you want a sleek, modern, “techie” sort of vibe, you might want to start with Synth.
DURATION
If you have an idea of your video’s length, you can use this filter to specify tracks that will accommodate it.
ATTRIBUTION
A Creative Commons Attribution means that the artist who provided the song to the YouTube free audio library requires a mention in your video’s description. If this is something you want to avoid for brand reasons, you can simply filter out the tracks which require it.
Using Creative Commons Attributions doesn’t have to be a deal-breaker for your content, however. In the next section, we’ll go over how Creative Commons Attributions work in the YouTube Audio Library.
How to Access YouTube Audio Library?
Accessing YouTube Audio Library is pretty straightforward. Follow the steps below:
Open YouTube Studio: Log in to your YouTube account, click on the profile icon, and select “YouTube Studio” from the dropdown menu.
Go to “Audio Library”: On the left sidebar, you will find “Audio Library” under “Other features.” Click on it to access the library.
Navigating YouTube Audio Library
YouTube Audio Library offers a wide variety of music, sound effects, and audio clips that you can use in your videos. Let’s explore the library and its features.
Music
Under the “Music” tab, you will find a vast collection of music tracks that you can sort by genre, mood, instrument, duration, and attribution. You can use these tracks in your videos without worrying about copyright claims.
Sound Effects
The “Sound Effects” tab offers a collection of sound effects that you can use to enhance your videos. You can sort them by category, duration, attribution, and quality.
Free Music
The “Free Music” tab includes a collection of music tracks that are free to use. You can filter them by genre, mood, instrument, duration, and attribution.
Paid Music
The “Paid Music” tab includes a collection of music tracks that require payment to use. You can filter them by genre, mood, instrument, duration, and attribution. The price for each track varies based on the duration and type of license you need.
How to use the youtube audio library
In the YouTube Audio Library, you can find royalty-free production music and sound effects to use in your videos.
Open the Audio Library
- Sign in to YouTube Studio.
- From the left-hand menu, select Audio Library.
Search the Audio Library
Find music
In the Free music tab, use the filters and search bar to find tracks for your videos.
To find a certain track, enter a track title, artist or keyword in the search bar. You can also use filters to find music by the track title, genre, mood, artist name, attribution and duration (length in seconds).
Refine your search results by clicking the filter next to the artist, genre or mood of individual tracks. You can sort your search results by track title, artist name, duration or date by clicking their column names.
Save your favourite tracks by clicking the star icon next to the track title. To see a list of your favourite tracks, click the Starred tab.
Find sound effects
In the Sound effects tab, use the filters and search bar to find sound effects for your videos.
To find a certain sound effect, enter a track title or keyword in the search bar. You can also filter sound effects by category and duration (length in seconds).
Play and download audio
To sample a track, click Play. If you like what you hear, hover over the date and click DOWNLOAD to get an MP3 file.
The track will continue to play as you browse the Audio Library. Using the controls on the audio player, you can pause, seek and play the previous or next track.
Give attribution
Some music in the YouTube Audio Library requires that you give attribution (credit) to the artist in exchange for using their music in your video.
If you’re using a track that has an attribution-required icon 
To browse music that has a Creative Commons licence applied, use the Attribution required filter.
To browse music that has a standard YTAL licence, use the Attribution not required filter.
Monetise your video
If you’re in the YouTube Partner Programme, you can monetise videos with music and sound effects from the YouTube Audio Library.
Copyright-safe music and sound effects downloaded from the YouTube Audio Library will not be claimed by a rights holder through the Content ID system.
Bear in mind:
- Only music and sound effects from the official YouTube Audio Library are known to YouTube to be copyright-safe.
- YouTube is not responsible for issues that arise from ‘royalty-free music and sound effects from YouTube channels or other music libraries.
- YouTube can’t give legal guidance, including guidance on issues with music that can occur off the platform.
- If you have questions about your use of music, you may wish to consult a qualified lawyer.
Add an audio track to your video
The YouTube Studio video editor lets you add music to your video from a library of licensed songs. These songs are from our free Audio Library. You can use songs from the Audio Library in monetized videos.
- If your video has over 100,000 views, you may not be able to save changes to your videos. This restriction doesn’t apply to users in the YouTube Partner Program.
- This feature is only available for videos shorter than 6 hours.
Add an audio track to your video
- Sign in to YouTube Studio.
- From the left menu, select Content.
- Click the video you’d like to edit.
- From the left menu, click Editor.
- In the audio row, select Add a track.
- Use the search filters
to find a new audio track. Click Play to preview tracks.
- When you find a song you like, click ADD. The song will appear in the editor in a blue box.
- Drag the box to change when the song should start.
- Drag the edges of the box to change the amount of the song that plays.
- Use the zoom options for more precise adjustments.
- When you’re finished, click SAVE.
Samples from the YouTube Audio Library
Here comes the fun part. Below are a few tracks we’ve favorited in the YouTube Audio Library. We like these, and we’ll tell you why. Then you can use them in your content. After all, that’s why they’re here!
“Venetian” by Density & Time
If you are looking for a retro, mysterious, Stranger Things kind of vibe for a trailer or parody, look no further. Once you get around the one-minute mark, the sci-fi horror vibes start kicking in.
Copyright free music for YouTube videos
“OPERATIC 3” BY VIBE MOUNTAIN
This is a good pick if you’re looking for upbeat background music for YouTube videos. It would be great for a vlog.
An upbeat selection from the YouTube free music library
“Breakfast Alone” by The Whole Other
If you’re looking for something quiet and contemplative, this is a solid downbeat (but not depressing) track.