Create Background Music for Video

1 Create Background Music for Video

• Create Background Music for Video - Different music licenses accommodate varying budgets and use cases. Besides avoiding any legal problems, it’s important to understand licenses so you can quickly (and confidently) decide which one makes the most sense for a project. For example, if you needed a specific top 10 hit, you could most likely get it through a Creative Commons license but not for free under public domain.

2 Public Domain

• Because they aren’t protected by copyright, public domain content is available as free downloads for both personal and commercial purposes. These are the “no strings attached” downloads — you can remix them, share them, and use them repeatedly without worrying about legal or financial problems. Yay!

3 Royalty-Free

• A royalty is a payment made every time you use a piece of content. So, royalty-free background music means you don’t have to make recurring payments on songs (that’s usually taken care of by the organization hosting the music). However, you do have to pay upfront — but you can then use the song for as long as you want. Royalty-free music can be used for personal and commercial purposes.

4 Creative Commons

• Creative Commons is a nonprofit that offers content creators access to free, standardized copyright licenses. In turn, creators get credit for their work, and it can then be shared and used for free. It’s a win-win!Here’s where things get a little tricky, though. While you can use Creative Commons content for free, you can only do so if you follow specific requirements. These vary across six different license categories: three for commercial use and three for non-commercial (non-business).

Non-Commercial Use

• Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC): You can use the song for non-business purposes as long as you credit the creator, link to the CC license, and note if changes were made to the original content.Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA): You can use the song for non-business purposes as long as you credit the creator, link to the CC license, note if changes were made to the original content, and license the new work with the same CC license or a compatible one.Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND): You can use the song for non-business purposes as long as you credit the creator, link to the CC license, and note if changes were made to the original content. If you do alter the original content, you can’t publicly share the new work.Pay close attention when using Creative Commons-licensed work to make sure you don’t mix them up and cause a legal and financial headache.Now that you know your licenses, it’s time to find some background music for video!