How to Get Music for Your Podcast
The popularity of podcasting has skyrocketed. Statistics from Edison Research and Triton Digital showed that 55% of Americans age 12 and older listened to podcasts in 2020. According to 2021 Global Podcast Statistics, there are currently 1,750,000 active podcasts worldwide. It seems like everyone and their cousin started a podcast during quarantine, and why not? You take a couple of friends and a few microphones, come up with an interesting topic, and you’re done.
But there are key elements that can stop your podcast even before it even starts. One of them is music: podcast intros, transitions between segments and endings are important components for a pleasant listening experience. But unauthorized use of songs or music on your podcast could be at risk of copyright infringement, which could result in you abandoning the hosting platform or not being able to upload to it in the first place. Here are some things to consider when looking for music for your (future) successful podcast.
Find out what you can and cannot do
There are many misconceptions when it comes to the fair use of music and what you can and cannot do with a song. Sampling options are confusing and non-copyright lists can be confusing. The government defines fair use as “a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyrighted works under certain circumstances.” The key component here is “certain circumstances.” Criticism, commentary, reporting, tuition, fellowships, and research are presented as a few examples of fair use circumstances, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you can play an entire song on your music review podcast. Ultimately, if a copyright infringement lawsuit is filed, the courts will have to decide whether the circumstance is consistent with fair use laws. The Stanford University Library page on Copyright and Fair Use explains that the definition of fair use should be vague, general, and open to interpretation. And if you use music without permission, even in good faith, you could spend thousands of dollars in legal fees and still lose your fair use case.
Entertainment lawyer Shawn Mendes-Kathleen , representing Florida-based music artists, gamers and content creators, handles copyright infringement cases on a daily basis. Kathleen says a common misconception is that a piece of music 10 seconds or less is fair use. However, there is no section in the law stating that this is fair use and this could lead to serious infringement claims. According to Kathleen, you must “assume that any use infringes copyright.”
Original music from existing distributors
You may see that YouTube users are offering music that is “free to use” or is not copyrighted, but this is not a guarantee. For example, a producer might create a beat and download it without copyright, which means he lets anyone use his beat, but the sample included in that song may not be theirs. Your podcast may be flagged for someone else’s fault. The best way to avoid any possibility of violation is to get permission from the owner of the song. Kathleen offers a licensing agreement, use of a free license, or a direct purchase of copyrights. You can also wait for the song to go public, but figuring out if this happened is not always easy. (The general rule of thumb is that a work goes into the public domain 70 years after the death of its creator, so this is not the best option if you want something modern.)
Sites like Premium Beat and Incompetech are recommended by Catlin, offering a music license for each song, or with a monthly membership to continue commercial use. Premium Beat offers a royalty-free music library for licensing, pay per song, or monthly . For $ 12.99 a month, you have access to five new licenses every month. With a valid subscription, music licenses can be used indefinitely. If you only want one or a few tracks, you can pay $ 49 for a song for non-commercial use (on your website or other personal use) indefinitely, or $ 199 for commercial ventures. The latter amount is what you would like for your podcast – a commercial use license allows you to include music in any part of your episodes and release them without fear of copyright infringement. Incompetech offers free and paid licensing, which means that some songs are available for free to use while others require payment.
It’s important to read the fine print. Whether the license is free or purchased, it may contain certain terms and conditions that you must follow. Some may require the site or owner to be properly listed. “If you don’t copy it exactly, you can face legal consequences,” says Kathleen.
Create your own music
Apps like Garageband, Audacity, and Logic include licensed loops that make it relatively easy to create your own music. “If you create a song in GarageBand for use in your podcast, you own the copyright. Any creative work gets basic copyright protection as soon as you put it in the physical world, ”says Kathleen. Keep in mind that this applies to your own original content – just because someone – else wrote a song using Garageband cycle, does not mean that you can use it without any consequences. You still need permission from that creator to include their music in your podcast.