Free music you can't use on YouTube

The rule behind all of these

A music library inside an app is licensed for that app. TikTok's terms describe its library as music "we've licensed for use on the Platform", and the licence stops at the app's edge. Downloading the clip, or saving your finished video and uploading it somewhere else, takes the music outside the deal.

Each case below is in the platform's own terms, read on 15 November 2026.

TikTok sounds

TikTok's Music Terms split its library in two:

Library	What TikTok's terms allow
Sounds (the ordinary library)	Videos "only for personal entertainment and non-commercial purposes". No brand promotion
Commercial Sounds (the business library)	Commercial use, but "You may only post or share videos that include Commercial Sounds within TikTok"

The Commercial Music Library terms add that "Commercial Uses outside of TikTok are not permitted and no rights are granted by TikTok for such uses." For a YouTube Short, neither library helps. If you repost a TikTok to YouTube, the music comes with it and the licence does not.

TikTok also says that if it loses the rights to a Commercial Sound, it may mute or take down videos that use it.

Meta's Sound Collection

Meta's Sound Collection, the free audio library for Facebook and Instagram, is royalty-free for commercial or non-commercial use, but on "the Meta Company Products ... only". The terms continue, "You may not perform, distribute, make available or otherwise use the SC Audio Content separately from the Meta Company Products." A Reel's soundtrack cannot follow the video to YouTube.

SoundCloud

SoundCloud lets you listen, and sometimes download, when the uploader turns downloads on. A download button is not a licence. SoundCloud's terms say you must not "adapt, copy, republish ... or otherwise use or exploit any Content on or from the Platform" unless it is yours or allowed "within the parameters set by the Uploader (for example, under the terms of Creative Commons licenses selected by the Uploader)."

So a SoundCloud track is usable only if its page carries a licence that allows it, such as CC BY, and you follow that licence.

"No copyright music" channels

YouTube Help draws a hard line. "Only music and sound effects from the Audio Library are known to YouTube to be copyright-safe." And "YouTube is not responsible for issues that arise from 'royalty-free' music and sound effects from YouTube channels or other music libraries." A channel calling its uploads free does not make them free. The licence has to come from whoever owns the music.

NonCommercial Creative Commons

Some genuinely free music carries a NonCommercial (NC) licence. ccMixter's FAQ sets out what that means. A project is non-commercial only if it is given away free, "does not have advertising" and is not an ad. A monetised Short has ads, so NC music is out once your channel earns. Free Music Archive and ccMixter both host NC tracks next to ones you can use.

It works the other way too

YouTube's own Shorts sound picker is licensed for Shorts made inside YouTube. The same song edited into a video in another app is treated as music you brought yourself. See the Shorts sound picker.

What to use instead

Music licensed for any platform, with the licence on paper. The free music for YouTube Shorts list ranks sixteen sources by how likely a claim is, and music licences for Instagram and TikTok covers the subscriptions that name all three platforms.