Copyright free music for podcasts

Copyright free music for podcasts is allowed. The license includes podcast intros, outros, and stings on any platform, including a monetized show. You do not owe a royalty, and credit is optional.

Where a vocal rap belongs

Use the track to open the episode, to close it, or between segments when nobody is talking. Do not lay it under the interview. The vocal fights the host, and ducking it low enough to save the talk leaves a muddy chorus. If the episode is mostly speech, an instrumental bed is the right tool, and this catalog is not that tool. See vocal or instrumental.

A podcast that is the song, front to back, with no show, is a music re-upload. That is not covered.

Show notes

If you credit, paste the credit line in the show notes and name the episode. One line is enough. Link the song from the songs page so a listener can find the recording.

Clipping a chorus for a 15-second open is allowed. Rewriting the lyrics or adding a host vocal on top of the beat is not.

Copyright free music for podcasts, open and close only

Copyright free music for podcasts belongs in the open, the close, and a sting between segments when nobody is talking. Do not lay it under the interview. The vocal fights the host. Ducking it low enough to save the talk leaves a muddy chorus your listeners will notice on earbuds more than you noticed on studio monitors.

A practical length: eight to fifteen seconds to open, the same to close, and silence under the conversation. Record the episode without the song, then drop the track into the gaps in the edit. Do not record the guest while the song plays in the room. You cannot remove it cleanly later.

A show that is the song from start to finish is a music upload. The license does not cover a podcast whose only content is the track. A trailer for your own show is fine. A commercial for someone else, with the track under the pitch, is an ad and needs a written yes.

Show notes get the credit if you want one: song title and link, on the episode that used it. The same sting all season is allowed. Spotify and Apple Podcasts do not need a second license. The Copyright Office fair use FAQ is not the basis of this use. The license is.

Leave the song out of the session recording. Add it only when you assemble the episode, at the top and the tail, under fifteen seconds unless the sting is truly between silent segments. Listen on earbuds in the export. If you can name the lyric during a guest’s answer, the sting is too long or it leaked. Trim it. Put the optional credit in that episode’s show notes, not only in the show’s permanent description, so a listener of episode forty knows what episode forty used. A trailer for the show can use the same sting. An ad for a sponsor inside the trailer cannot, not without a written yes.

Questions

Can the trailer be a paid ad?

A trailer for your own show is fine. A commercial for someone else is an ad and needs written permission. See ads.

Do Spotify and Apple Podcasts need a different license?

No. The license follows your episode onto the platforms that host it.