Legal music for Social Media Videos & Ads

Where to get background music for your Facebook, Snapchat or YouTube videos?

Choosing music for promotional purposes on web, is not as simple as it may seem.
The key problem you will be facing will be the sanction from the social media platform that you use; but also the waste of precious time.

When you upload a video that contains some type of music protected by Copyright, any social media platform can, without prior notice:

Delete automatically the content that we have uploaded.
Disable your account if this situation is repeated over time.

What options do we have, to save time and money in the process?

1. Licensed Music

Choosing royalty-free licensed music and paying the corresponding subscriptions or single licenses is the ideal option. Using this type of music you make sure that:

• You are saving a lot of time, in finding the right music for your project.
• You have access to top quality music.
• You are not facing any future copyright problem when publishing your video on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or any other platform, because you have a legal license.

On Music Macaron Platform you can find all kind of license solutions that fit your budget.

Like Music Macaron Catalog, where you can find all kinds of musical genres under a single license (that will serve you for all kinds of uses on Web), for just 169€ per year. This subscription provides you:

• Access to all tracks
• New tracks added every week
• Unlimited downloads
• Unlimited use in all your owned and operated channels on Web
• No copyright claims or royalty fees – Fully monetize your videos

See all options here

2. Free Music

Another option is to use free music that is distributed under Creative Commons licenses. However, the main problems that you will have are:

• You must mention the artist who created that piece. That means you have towrite a sentence below the video indicating the composer. This is called ‘attribution’.
• You will not be able to use it in any form of advertising or to monetize a channel since most Creative Commons licenses only allow for personal use.
• You cannot be sure that this specific piece of music will not be copyrighted in the future and may change the terms of their license. In other words, you do not have any legal documents (as we would if we acquired a license) and therefore on a rights dispute on Facebook, there would be nothing that you could do about it.

If we are a company or a serious brand you will be facing more significant problems.

3. Free Music from Social Media Platforms

For example, Facebook itself has added its own sound collection, thanks to which you can put music and sound effects to your videos without fear of copyright infringement.

The use of audio content available in that kind of sound collection is free. However, the license granted is subject to the platform’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (DDR) and usually covers only uploading and distribution on the platform/provider like Facebook and Instagram itself.

The main difference between the tree options ?

The essential difference in choosing royalty-free music to use on your Facebook or Instagram videos or even YouTube, is basically the peace of mind that provides the purchase of a legal license.

If the video is created by a company or brand it is essential to choose a subscription or a single license from a platform like Music Macaron.

If, instead, the video is going to be published in a personal account, then you can be a bit more condescending and use free music … but beware! As long as it is royalty-free or Creative Commons, never a famous song or from an artist who has not explicitly said that his music is not under copyright and can be used without problem.

Can the Artists & Record Companies know if you are using their music without license ?

Artists, composers; publishers and record companies use technology like “Facebook Rights Manager”, by which they can control at any time thanks to a comparison algorithm videos with their music that is uploaded to the platform, so there is no way to skip that limitation.

Conclusion

“Prevention is better than cure” & “Time is money”

To follow the rules imposed by social platforms – by acquiring the corresponding music licenses – you will end up saving a lot of time, both in finding the right music and subsequently avoiding undesired actions, such as the automatic elimination of your videos or the closure of your account.