By Mark Ollig
Music can definitely determine the mood while watching
a YouTube video.
For video content creators, it is sometimes challenging
to find the right background music to add.
We also need to make sure the musical soundtrack we’ve
selected is legal for us to use.
Many of us may have come across a YouTube video with
the sound track removed, or discovered the video was taken down for musical
copyright violations.
Don’t let this happen to your YouTube video content.
Fortunately, YouTube has a brand new music resource library
available for us video content creators to use at no cost.
YouTube recently publicized on its YouTube Partners
& Creators Blog, the availability of a royalty-free music audio library.
YouTube members editing their video are now able to
choose from the many selections contained inside this audio library for their
video’s background music.
“Download background music for your videos. For free.” This
is the title underneath YouTube’s Audio Library.
I noted the word “Free” was in bold type font; this quickly
captured my attention.
All of us YouTube video creators now have access to the
more than 150 freely available musical soundtracks at no cost, and without any
time limits for using them.
We also no longer need to worry about a music copyright
when applying music from this audio library to our videos.
YouTube’s music selection continues to grow as more independent
or “Indie” musical artists submit music for others to use in the YouTube Audio
Library.
It is hoped the people who like a certain musical track
will contact the Indie artist who created it to have them compose an original
or uniquely-tailored musical track for them.
These royalty-free music soundtracks can be
individually downloaded and used for any artistic reason; meaning, you can use
their music for your other videos not on YouTube.
The musical selections can also be downloaded from
YouTube’s Audio Library as 320 Kbps and MP3 files.
To access this free music collection, just go to your
Video Manager on the YouTube front page, and click Creation Tools. You will see
the new Audio Library appear underneath.
From there you can browse musical soundtracks by:
·
Featured
·
Genre
·
Mood
·
Instrument
·
Duration
·
Favorites
Musical genre selections
include:
·
Alternative & Punk,
·
Ambient
·
Classical
·
Country & Folk
·
Dance & Electronic
·
Hip
Hop & Rap
·
Jazz
& Blues
·
Pop
·
R&B
·
Reggae
·
Rock
Instrumental soundtracks
include:
·
Acoustic Guitar
·
Bass
·
Drums
·
Electric Guitar
·
Organ
·
Piano
·
Strings
·
Synth
·
Trumpet
Mood soundtracks include:
·
Angry
·
Bright
·
Calm
·
Dark
·
Dramatic
·
Funky
·
Happy
·
Inspirational
·
Romantic
·
Sad
The duration of a musical soundtrack
ranges from 1 to 25 minutes.
“When you’re uploading a
video to YouTube, knowing where to search for the perfect song can be tricky.
We do our best to provide creators with tools to enhance their content and to
simplify this process,” the YouTube creator blog says.
More music is also available
under the Audio Library’s featured selections.
While in downtown San Francisco this past June, I took
a short video of a couple passing streetcars.
“San Francisco Street Cars” is a (very) short video I
created using a new YouTube royalty-free music soundtrack in the background.
The song I chose was “Once It Starts” by Supergarage.
While editing my video, I found it uncomplicated when inserting
a musical track from YouTube’s Audio Library.
Here’s a screen capture of my YouTube Video Manager page
showing the Audio Library nested under the Creation Tools: http://tinyurl.com/bytes-vidchannel.
Another screen capture shows my uploaded video being
edited using the YouTube Audio Library for adding a royalty-free song: http://tinyurl.com/bytes-videdit.
These music tracks can be trimmed and edited to the length
desired for your video by using the Position Audio button below the audio preview
player.
Granted, many of us know of royalty-free music
libraries out there on the Internet such as the FMA (Free Music Archive): http://tinyurl.com/bytes-freemusic.
However, by having access to royalty-free musical
selections conveniently available right inside your YouTube Video Manager, it
makes adding music to your video content much easier.
YouTube states the music from their library is intended
only for individual users with the videos and other original content they
create.
Also, the music files must not be used in an illegal
manner, or in connection with any illegal content.
For more information about how you can make better
YouTube videos, check out the YouTube Partners & Creators Blog at: http://youtubecreator.blogspot.com.
