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Music is a very important element in videos.
That was just a bit over the top.
Music sets the mood, whether you want action,
romance,
comedy,
or horror.
But the greatest horrors await those who receive
a Matched Third-Party Content notification, or worse...
...a DMCA takedown.
To reduce the risk of this happening to you,
you need to use music that you have permission to use.
Getting permission to use commercial music can be very, very expensive;
but luckily, there is some music you can use free.
Kevin MacLeod is a composer who has hundreds and hundreds of tracks
released under a Creative Commons Attribution licence.
This means you can use it for anything you like, completely free.
The only thing that you must do is to credit him, like this.
If you want to monetize your video and YouTube asks for more information,
you need to give the title
and a URL for the piece you used,
and point out that it is available under a Creative Commons Attribution licence.
Sometimes, for complicated reasons,
Kevin MacLeod’s music may get hit by a third-party content match,
but you can always dispute it.
He’s written a very useful and helpful article about this, which you should read,
and you’ll find a link to it in the description below this video.
Other people offering music under a Creative Commons Attribution licence include
Jason Shaw and Dan O’Connor. The same rules apply.
You can also use music from YouTube’s Audio Library:
this contains pieces of music that you can use for anything you want,
completely free.
The only thing you’re not allowed to do with it
is to sell it to other people;
but you can use it in projects that you do want to charge money for.
If you are monetizing your video and YouTube asks for more information,
simply give the title of the music
and state that you got it from the YouTube Audio Library.
Finally, just in case, I keep a spreadsheet
of all the videos I have ever made,
along with all the resources I used when I made them.
That way, if I do get an erroneous copyright claim —
and these things do happen —
I can easily find the information I need to dispute it.