Music licensing for video is the permission to use a piece of music in your video. For a business video, that licence needs to cover commercial use, every place the video will run (including paid ads), and how long it'll run. Most business videos use tracks from a music library like Artlist, Musicbed, or PremiumBeat, where you pay a subscription or a one-time fee. "Royalty-free" means there are no per-play fees. You still pay for the track, and you still have to follow the licence terms. A song you'd hear on the radio is a much bigger job: you need permission from both the songwriter's publisher and the record label, which takes time and a much bigger budget.
What music licensing for video covers
A music licence is permission from whoever owns a track to use it in your video, on specific terms. Those terms usually spell out:
Where the video can run (website, social, YouTube, events, internal channels)
Whether paid ads or broadcast are included
How long you can use it, and whether that changes if a subscription ends
How many projects the track can be used in
Who's covered: you, your agency, your company, or all three
Every recorded song has two owners: whoever controls the composition (usually a publisher) and whoever controls the recording (usually a label). Music libraries have the rights to both sides of every track in their catalogue, which is why licensing from one takes minutes. With a commercially released song, you'd negotiate each side separately.
The terms are the part nobody reads, right up until a video gets flagged three days before launch.
Royalty-free vs. free vs. Creative Commons music
Royalty-free describes how you pay for music: once, or through a subscription, with no extra fees each time your video plays. It says nothing about the price. Free music and Creative Commons music are separate things with their own rules, but they often get filed under "royalty-free" too, because nobody charges per play for them either. That's why the term ends up working like an umbrella.
The mix-up is easy to fall into. Search "royalty-free music" and a lot of the results are free libraries, and we had to sort out the difference ourselves when we started licensing music. Here's how the terms break down.
Term | What it means | Cost | Right for a business video? |
|---|---|---|---|
Royalty-free | You buy a licence once or by subscription, then pay nothing per play. Libraries like Artlist, Musicbed, and PremiumBeat work this way. | Paid | Yes, if your plan covers commercial and client use |
Free music | Music a library lets you use at no cost, under its own terms (like YouTube's Audio Library). Some tracks need a credit. | Free | Personally, we don't use it for client videos |
Creative Commons | A set of licences an artist can attach to their own music. Some allow commercial use; others require a credit, rule out commercial use, or don't allow edits. | Usually free | Only after reading each track's licence |
Public domain | Music that's no longer under copyright. Many older compositions are, but a specific recording of one usually still has an owner. | Free | Rarely practical |
Commercially released song | A song from a label's catalogue. Needs separate permission from the publisher and the label. | Paid, often a lot | Possible, but slow and expensive |
The question that matters for a business video is what the licence lets you do. "Free" or "royalty-free" on a website tells you how you'll pay, if at all. The licence terms tell you whether you can put the track in a paid LinkedIn ad.
For almost every business video, a paid royalty-free library is the right call. The catalogue is big enough to find something that fits, the licence is clear, and you're not waiting on a label to call you back. There are plenty of other royalty-free sites out there, but most of them are built for individual creators.
We don't use free libraries like YouTube's for client videos. The tracks are free for anyone, so the same songs show up in a lot of other videos, and you don't want your brand film sounding like someone's vacation vlog. We also like that paying for a licence supports the musicians who made the track.
What your licence needs to cover
Before a track goes in your video, check that the licence matches how you'll actually use it. Library plans vary a lot, so these are the questions to answer:
Commercial use. Personal or creator plans often don't cover business or client work.
Every channel. Your website, social, YouTube, events, and internal comms.
Paid ads and broadcast. These are often a higher tier or a separate licence.
How long. Whether published videos stay covered if the subscription ends.
Who's covered. Whose name the licence is in, and whether it covers your company's use.
If your videos go through legal, these are the questions they'll ask. In our experience, though, legal is rarely where music gets stuck. We've never had legal or compliance push back on a track. The filtering usually happens earlier, with the marketing team, because they know their brand well enough to know what'll make it through review.
How to choose music for a corporate video
Choosing music for a corporate video comes down to two things: the track should match the energy of the video and support what it's trying to say. A few things help:
Match the energy. An event recap can carry a track with real drive. A thoughtful interview gets buried under one.
Match the message. If a client story is about a hard moment, an upbeat track works against it, however catchy it is.
Leave room for the voice. Interview-led videos need music that sits under the speaker without fighting them. Our editors' rule of thumb for a corporate interview video: voice sits between -12 and -3 dB, and music sits around -20 dB (usually -19 to -22).
Try it against the footage. Play the track over a rough cut before you commit. If the cuts and the music want to land in different places, keep looking.
Music does more to set the tone and feel of a video than almost anything else on the timeline. Sound design works alongside it, adding the small audio details (a room's background hum, a door closing, a keyboard clicking) that you'd miss if they weren't there. Together, they're a big part of why a video feels finished.
Music is easier to pick when the tone is already agreed. If you built a mood board for your video, it's the first place to look for the feel you're after. Once a track is chosen, our editors use Adobe's AI tools to adjust its timing so it lands with the edit.
Where we find music for business video
We use a few libraries, depending on the project:
Artlist. What we use for the majority of our videos. It's a subscription library with a big catalogue, so there's almost always something that fits.
Musicbed. Our pick for higher-end projects. The catalogue feels more cinematic and more original, and it costs more to match.
PremiumBeat. Useful when you need one specific track. As of October 2026, it still offers one-off licences per song as well as subscriptions, so you can license a single track without signing up for anything.
Whichever library you use, read the plan details. The same library can have plans that cover personal use, client work, and paid ads very differently.
How music works on an O+R project
Music from a royalty-free library like Artlist, Musicbed, or PremiumBeat is included in the price of every video we make. There's no separate line item for the track and no licence for your team to buy. We find the music, run options past you, and handle the licence. Your team has the final say, since you know your brand and your review process better than anyone.
A commercially released song is the exception. If you want one in your video, we'd look into the rights and scope it separately, since the cost depends entirely on the song and how you plan to use it. The question we hear more often is about popular songs in internal videos, like a town hall opener or an awards night recap. Those need a licence too, so unless the rights are cleared, we have to say no, even when the track would be perfect. The good news is that a library track can get you the same energy without the paperwork.
If you're budgeting for a project, our breakdown of what B2B video production actually costs shows where the money goes, and our video production process shows where music fits in the edit.
Frequently asked questions
Can we use a popular song in our company video?
You can, but you need permission from both the publisher and the record label, and the fee depends on the song, how you'll use it, and for how long. For most business videos, a licensed library track gets you a similar feel for a fraction of the cost and time.
Do internal videos need a music licence?
Yes. Copyright applies whether a video plays at a company town hall or on YouTube, so internal videos need properly licensed music too.
What happens if YouTube flags licensed music in our video?
A copyright claim on licensed music is common and usually easy to fix. Most music libraries can clear the claim once you share your licence details.
Who holds the music licence when an agency makes the video?
It depends on the library and the plan. Ask your agency whose name the licence is in, and confirm it covers your company's use, including paid ads, for as long as you plan to run the video.
Music is one of a hundred small decisions in a video. If you want a quick read on how your team's video program compares overall, the benchmark takes three minutes.
