How to license music for a brand video

Licensing music sounds administrative. In practice it is a short series of decisions, and most of them are about the project rather than the music. If you know the answers before you start looking, the whole thing takes minutes.

Start with the four facts

Almost every licence in the world is defined by the same four things.

Where the film runs. Online only, or also broadcast, cinema, out-of-home, in-store? This is the single biggest driver of price, because it decides how many people will hear the track.

How long it runs. A campaign with a defined flight is different from a brand film that stays on a website for years.

Who it is for. An internal training video, a founder-led company reel and a national product campaign are three different levels of exposure, even when the edit looks identical.

How much media money sits behind it. Paid spend is the honest measure of reach. A film with no media budget behind it is simply a smaller use than one with six figures pushing it.

Write those four things down. That is your brief for the legal side, and it is what our licence tiers are built around — you can read them on the licensing page.

Then pick the music, properly

Only now go looking. Describe the film the way you would describe it to a colleague: what happens on screen, what the viewer should feel, where the cut lands. Our Music Supervisor is built for that kind of language, and it will also tell you when a different direction would serve the film better than what you asked for.

Shortlist three tracks, not one. Music that works in isolation often fights the dialogue, the voiceover or the pace of the edit. Having alternatives ready saves a day later.

What you receive

When you licence a track with us you get the audio in WAV and MP3, and a licence certificate that names the licensee, the track, the usage scope and the date. That certificate is the document you hand to a broadcaster, a platform reviewer or your own legal team. It is the proof that the music in your film is cleared.

You also get versions where they exist — shorter cuts, instrumental or minus-mix variants — because a 60-second film and a 15-second social cut rarely want the same arrangement. Stems are available on many tracks when your editor needs to duck an element under dialogue.

The parts people get wrong

Buying too small and hoping. If the campaign might go to TV, licence for TV. Upgrading later is possible; explaining an unlicensed broadcast is not.

Assuming a subscription covers everything. Most subscription models cover the content you make while you pay. Stop paying, and the position of older work gets complicated. Our licences are one-time and project-based: you pay once, the film stays cleared. We wrote about the difference in royalty-free, subscription, sync.

Forgetting Content ID. Music that is registered with Content ID can trigger claims on your own upload. Tell us the channel and we will make sure the release is whitelisted rather than leaving you to argue with an automated system.

Leaving music to the last day. Music chosen after picture lock is music forced to fit. Bring a shortlist into the rough cut and the edit will thank you.

A workable sequence

1. Answer the four facts above.
2. Brief the music in plain language while the edit is still moving.
3. Shortlist three tracks and cut them against the picture.
4. Licence the one that survived the edit, at the scope you actually need.
5. File the certificate with the project.

That is the whole process. Start on Discover when you are ready, or tell us about the project and we will shortlist for you.

Hear it in practice

Two of our curated playlists that show this in the music itself:

• Corporate Inspiration — for corporate films, explainers and brand content that need measured optimism, progress and clear forward motion.
• Contemporary Male Pop — male pop vocals, polished hooks, midtempo to upbeat; fits ads, promos, lifestyle pieces, reality, dating, and modern drama.