How to Add Music to YouTube Videos

Enhancing your video with music can take it from good to great. Here’s how to add music to your YouTube videos, step by step.

How to Add Music to YouTube Videos

Enhancing your video with music can take it from good to great. Here’s how to add music to your YouTube videos, step by step.

Knowing how to add music to your YouTube videos can be a significant boost for your content. Most videos that people upload to YouTube have never gone through any significant editing. That’s partially due to lack of experience, but also, lack of awareness. Adding music to your videos can be a simple way to increase production, attract more viewers and keep them longer. It’s also effortless to do directly within YouTube, although that’s not the best option overall. So, here are the various ways you can add music to YouTube videos.

How to add music to YouTube videos

The best time to add music to a YouTube video is during the editing phase. This means before you’ve even considered uploading to YouTube. Creators wanting to make a career out of YouTube tend to use Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro – two standard editing software. New creators may use less feature-rich (and expensive) tools, instead opting for things like Vegas Pro, Windows Movie Maker, or Corel VideoStudio. Others still opt for online tools like Kapwing or Clideo to easily add music to their videos. Doing this during the edit of a video allows you better control of the volume options.

How to add music to videos

That said, the second-best way to add music to a YouTube video is directly on YouTube. Once you’ve uploaded the video to YouTube, you can use the built-in editor. To find it, follow these simple steps.

  1. Go to YouTube Studio and then click on “CONTENT.”
  2. Find the video you want to add music to, hover over it and click on the Pencil icon to edit it.
  3. On the left side, locate “EDITOR” and click on it. This will bring up the YouTube video editor.
  4. You will see the video, along with Four Tracks beneath it. One is the video track, one is the current audio track, one allows you to add a blur, and the last is the element adder. In this case, you are going to want to click the + to add an audio track.
  5. You will now see a new menu appear that offers “Free Music.” You can listen to them by clicking the play icon before adding them to your video. When you’re happy, click on “Add,” and this will add the song to the video in the timeline.
  6. You can turn down the song’s volume in the mix by locating the “Mix Level” icon on the far right of the new music track. You can also remove it that way as well.
  7. If you’re happy, click on “SAVE” and wait for the video to process with the music bed now within the video!

How can I add copyrighted music to my YouTube videos?

By using a platform like Epidemic Sound to get access to music, your videos will always be safe from copyright strikes and takedowns. How is that possible? We own the rights to every single track in our catalog. Check out our subscriptions, start a free trial, connect your channels and begin soundtracking your YouTube videos, safely and securely.

How to replace music in YouTube videos

Using content that you do not have the right to can cause problems for your channel. A copyright claim can sometimes prevent your video from being viewable. Fortunately, YouTube has developed a tool to replace offending music. Replacing the music will clear the copyright claim, and make your video visible again.

  1. Start by navigating to the video with the copyright claim.
  2. Hover over “Copyright Claim” and click “See Details.” You will see an itemized list of the offending audio, including timecodes.
  3. Click on “Select Action,” and you’ll see four options. Trim, Replace, Mute or Dispute. If you simply want to add music to your YouTube video rather than mute – select the “Replace Song” option.
  4. This will take you to a Free Music library provided by YouTube, which will allow you to replace the audio.
  5. Click on “Save,” and the video will render the new music in place of the copyright violation.

Where to find music for YouTube

The music library that YouTube provides is relatively limited. The songs make up typical public domain tracks, as well as some bland royalty-free music. If you’re adding (or replacing) music directly from YouTube, your options will be that limited. This is why the best thing you can do for your videos is to edit them ahead of time. That will allow you to add custom music that you have from platforms like Epidemic Sound.

Are you a YouTuber? Whether you’re an editing master or just a beginner, discover what Epidemic Sound has to offer on our Epidemic Sound for YouTube page. And, if you’re looking for some music for YouTube, we got you covered.

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