How to Use Copyrighted Music on Snapchat: A Full Guide Plus 5 Top Royalty Free Tracks for Your Snaps

While TikTok might still remain supreme with the short-form content creation crowd, and YouTube might still be the biggest platform for video in general, despite the success of other apps, Snapchat still remains one of the best—and most popular—social video platforms for person-to-person connections.

Plus, on top of Snapchat’s rich history of peer-based communities and communication, the app has actually become quite advanced with its own short-form video content. However, even if you’ve used Snapchat for years, many elements of social video content can still be confusing or a bit tricky to understand.

One of the most important aspects of any short-form social video these days is music. And despite the music and audio-based sharing and creations built into apps like Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, and the like, using copyrighted music in your videos is rarely a good idea.

And, more specifically, if you’re a brand or creator looking to share your videos across multiple platforms, understanding Snapchat copyright music rules is essential for promotional and commercial content.

To help you on this journey, let’s go over how to use specifically copyrighted music on Snapchat.

The basics of adding music to Snapchat

As mentioned above, there are a lot of misconceptions about how music works on social video platforms like Snapchat. If you’re exploring how to use copyrighted music on TikTok, or how to use copyrighted music on YouTube, or how to use copyrighted music on Instagram, you’ll quickly learn that despite the ease of use on these apps, properly licensing copyrighted music for your videos often actually requires several more steps.

Still, with that being said, in general, adding music to Snapchat videos is quite simple itself. As Snapchat has grown as a company and a social platform, the app has integrated more sophisticated content formats and now allows creators many of the same features found on other popular social platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

To fully get up to speed on how music on Snapchat works, here’s a full guide on how to add music to a Snapchat video.

Understanding the types of music copyrights

The biggest misconception about using copyrighted music on apps like Snapchat is the idea that all music is free. In fact, not all music is free, and strict copyright laws surround using music you haven’t properly licensed.

Why do things work this way? It’s because all music has copyrights associated with it. These copyrights extend to the artist who recorded the song and the artist who wrote the song. 

If you want to use any copyrighted music in your videos or content, you’ll need to negotiate with the copyright holders for the songs. This protects the artists and is how we can ensure that musicians and songwriters are compensated for their hard and awesome work.

At Soundstripe, we also own every single song in our library, so you won’t find our music anywhere else. And you’ll have two options on how to license a song. You can pay for a single song license in our royalty free music library and use that song for as many projects as you want. You can also sign up for one of our Soundstripe subscription plans, which gives you unlimited access to our entire library.

How to use copyrighted music on Snapchat

Now that we’ve reviewed some scary info about how music licensing and copyrights work, let’s go over some easy and helpful solutions. Your best bet for using properly licensed copyrighted music in your Snapchats—or in all other types of social video and content—is to use royalty free music offered by Soundstripe.

To help you on your journey, we have a complete list of some hand-picked selections for high quality royalty free music for Snapchat videos specifically. These tracks run a gamut of genres and styles, but all are great options for Snapchat.

1. Glow Pop by Matt Wigton

• Description: A medium-energy, electronic song best described as fun. Synth and guitar are the primary instruments in this track.
• BPM: 159
• Key: Db/C# Major
• Listen and license here

2. Melancholy by Lunareh

• Description: A low-energy electronic song best described as chill. Guitar and acoustic guitar are the primary instruments in this track.
• BPM: 115
• Key: A Minor
• Listen and license here

3. Never Enough by PALA

• Description: A medium-energy, electronic song best described as hopeful and happy. Synth and drums are the primary instruments in this track.
• BPM: 108
• Key: G Major
• Listen and license here

4. Dreaming Of You by Joachim

• Description: A low-energy pop song best described as inspiring and hopeful. The guitar and electric guitar are the primary instruments on this track.
• BPM: 80
• Key: D Major
• Listen and license here

5. Lift Off by GEMM

• Description: A low-energy electronic song best described as chill and inspiring. Synth and bass are the primary instruments in this track.
• BPM: 85
• Key: C Major
• Listen and license here

Of course, these are just a handful of top tracks that Soundstripe curators have picked out. You can further explore more of the best royalty free music for Snapchat here, or dive even further into the musical pool by checking out our complete catalog of royalty free music on our Soundstripe app.

Using copyrighted music on Snapchat

Now that we’ve gone over some of our top selections for the best royalty free music for Snapchat, plus explored how copyrighted music works and what methods you can take to keep you and your content safe and protected, let’s get back to how to use said music in your Snapchat videos and projects. Whether you're creating content for fun or for your brand, understanding how to use copyrighted music on Snapchat is crucial to staying compliant and creative.

To add music to your Snapchat videos, follow these basic steps below.

To add a track to your Snap:

1. Tap the Sounds icon
2. Choose a track from the list of Featured Sounds
3. Choose where you want the song to start using the scrubber 
4. Click the checkmark to preview the sound and sticker on your Snap
   
   

To create a sound to add to your Snap:

1. Tap the Sounds icon
2. Tap 'Create Sound'
3. Tap the microphone button to record for up to 60 seconds, then tap it again to stop the recording
4. Enter a name for the sound
5. You can choose to make the sound public and trim the audio to the length you want
6. Tap 'Save Sound'
   
   

To use a Sound from a Snap:

1. Tap on the Sound pill in the Snap
2. Take a Snap using the Sound
   
   

To use a Sound from a Spotlight Snap…

1. Tap on the Sound at the bottom of the Spotlight Snap 
2. Tap 'Use Sound' on the Sound Topic page and create your own Snap
   
   

These steps cover the four different ways in which music and audio can be added to a Snapchat video, so make sure you’re following the steps for the approach that is right for you. Still have questions about “How do you add music to Snapchat”? 

Find more info on music and audio features on Snapchat’s website here.