Good background music makes a video feel finished. Bad background music (wrong mood, cut off mid-note, louder than your voice) makes viewers click away. This guide is for anyone making their first YouTube videos, vlogs, tutorials or social clips who wants music that sounds intentional, not pasted on.
By the end you’ll have a track that matches your video, trimmed to the right length on a clean beat, sitting at the right volume under your voice, and credited correctly so your monetized videos stay trouble-free.
What you’ll need
- Your edited video (or at least a rough cut, so you know the length)
- Any free video editor (the one already on your phone or computer is fine), or NiftyCut, which runs in your browser and has the NiftyShelf library built in
- The NiftyShelf music library: free for personal and commercial use, including monetized YouTube
- Our free in-browser audio tools: nothing gets uploaded, your files stay on your device
1. Match the music to the type of video
Before you scroll through tracks, decide what job the music has. Background music should support the content, not compete with it. Here is a practical starting point:
| Video type | Mood | Typical genres | Tempo (BPM) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vlog / day in the life | happy, warm | acoustic, pop, lo-fi | 90–110 |
| Tutorial / screen recording | chill, relaxed | lo-fi, jazz, boom bap | 70–95 |
| Gaming / highlights | energetic, hype | electronic, EDM, chiptune | 120–150 |
| Travel | uplifting, warm | folk, world, bossa nova | 95–120 |
| Product / promo | cool, elegant | electronic, funk | 100–120 |
| Cinematic / storytelling | epic, emotional | orchestral, cinematic | 70–95 |
Two rules matter more than genre:
- Talking over it? Pick an instrumental with no busy melody in the middle register, because that’s where your voice lives. Piano trios and soft beats work better than lead guitar or vocals.
- Tempo sets the pace of your edit. Fast cuts feel natural on fast music; slow, lingering shots need slower music.
2. Use the filters to shortlist three tracks
On the music page, click tags to narrow the list. Tags combine, so selecting two shows only tracks that have both. Useful starting points:
- Vlog music, e.g. “Polaroid Afternoon” (100 BPM, nostalgic and sunny)
- Study / tutorial music, e.g. “Brick and Vinyl” (92 BPM, laid-back boom bap)
- Gaming music, e.g. “Pick Your Fighter” (100 BPM, punchy funk/hip-hop)
- Travel music, e.g. “Green Road Reel” (108 BPM, bright folk)
- Corporate / product music, e.g. “Editorial Pulse” (102 BPM)
- Cinematic music, e.g. “Endless Horizon” (80 BPM, big orchestral build)
Then drag the Tempo slider (or tap Slow, Medium or Fast) to keep only the BPM range from the table. Press play on a few cards and shortlist three tracks.
Test them against your video, not on their own. Play your video muted and the track at the same time. The right one usually becomes obvious within 20 seconds.
3. Preview the waveform to find the good part
Open a track’s page and look at the waveform. Tall, dense sections are the loud, full parts; thin sections are intros, breakdowns or endings. Click anywhere on the waveform to jump there.
You rarely need the whole track. A three-minute song might have a quiet 15-second intro that’s perfect under a spoken opening, and a fuller section at 1:10 that suits your montage. Write down the timestamps you like.
Then download it. MP3 is fine for most videos. Many tracks also offer a WAV (lossless) download, which is the better choice if you’ll cut and re-export the audio several times.
4. Cut on bar lines so the music doesn’t stumble
Music is built from bars (measures). Cutting in the middle of a bar sounds like a skip. Cutting exactly on a bar line sounds deliberate.
The math is simple. For music in 4/4 time (most pop, lo-fi, hip-hop and electronic music):
seconds per bar = 60 ÷ BPM × 4
- 120 BPM → 2 seconds per bar, so 8 bars = 16 s
- 100 BPM → 2.4 s per bar, so 8 bars = 19.2 s
- 80 BPM → 3 s per bar, so 8 bars = 24 s
The BPM is listed on every track page. Music phrases usually come in groups of 4 or 8 bars, so aim for lengths like 4, 8 or 16 bars.
To make the cut:
- Open Trim Audio (MP3 Cutter) and drop in the track.
- Find the first strong beat: look for the first clear spike in the waveform, set the start handle there, and use Play selection to check it lands on a hit. That’s your start point.
- Type the end time as start + (bars × seconds per bar). The start and end boxes accept tenths of a second.
- Play the selection again. If it ends on a beat, you’re done.
5. Add fades so the music starts and ends gracefully
Trim Audio has Fade in and Fade out sliders (0 to 10 seconds, in half-second steps).
- Fade in: 0–1 s if the music starts on a beat with your first shot; 2–3 s if it should creep in under talking.
- Fade out: 2–4 s is natural for most endings. For a hard ending (a logo hit or the last frame), cut on a bar line with a 0.5 s fade instead.
Save as WAV if you’ll edit further, or MP3 at 192 or 320 kbps if this is the final file.
6. Keep the music under your voice
The most common beginner mistake is music that’s too loud. Viewers will forgive slightly quiet music; they won’t sit through a voice they can’t understand.
You can set the level in your editor, or pre-lower the file with Change Audio Volume, which shows the change in both percent and dB:
- Under talking: about 15–25% (roughly −16 to −12 dB). Start at 20% and adjust.
- Music-only moments (intros, montages): 60–100%.
- Quiet voice recording? Run it through the same tool and press Normalize (peak −1 dB) so it’s as loud as it can be without distortion. If parts of the waveform turn red, they would clip, so lower the volume a little.
A quick check: listen on phone speakers, the worst-case device. If you have to strain to hear any word, the music is too loud. Many editors also let you automatically “duck” (lower) the music while someone talks, which is worth trying.
In NiftyCut, add a track from the Music tab and it’s trimmed to your video’s length with a two-second fade-out. Then select the music clip and set its Volume and fades in the right-hand panel. See the NiftyCut guide for details.
7. Convert formats only when you need to
- Your editor won’t accept a WAV, or the file is too big? Use the WAV to MP3 Converter at 320 kbps.
- Need an uncompressed file for repeated editing? The MP3 to WAV Converter creates a 16-bit WAV. (It won’t restore quality lost in the MP3, but it stops further loss from re-encoding.)
- Want to reuse the music or voice from an existing video? The MP4 to MP3 Converter pulls the audio out of MP4, MOV or WebM files.
8. Credit the track and follow the license
Every NiftyShelf track is free for personal and commercial use, including monetized YouTube and social videos, podcasts and live streams. In return, please add a one-line credit to your description or end credits. Each track page has a Copy button for the exact line:
Music: “Polaroid Afternoon” by NiftyShelf (niftyshelf.com/music/polaroid-afternoon)
What you can’t do, per the license:
- Resell or redistribute the files as they are or nearly as they are (for example, uploading them to a stock music site)
- Register the music in YouTube Content ID or any similar system
- Claim the music as your own original work
Common mistakes to avoid
- Picking music first and forcing the edit to it. Finish a rough cut, then choose music that fits its pace.
- Using one track at the same level for 10 minutes. Switch tracks or drop the music out for key moments. Silence makes the next music cue hit harder.
- Cutting at a random second. Use the bar math, and your cuts will sound professional.
- Forgetting the credit. Paste it into the description template you reuse for every upload.
FAQ
Can I use NiftyShelf music in monetized YouTube videos?
Yes. All tracks are free for commercial use, including monetized YouTube, Shorts, TikTok, Instagram and podcasts. Please add the credit line from the track page.
What should I do if my video gets a copyright claim?
We don’t register our music with Content ID, so claims shouldn’t happen. If one does, contact us with the video link and the track title and we’ll help sort it out. You can also dispute the claim on YouTube and point to our license page.
Can I edit, loop or shorten the tracks?
Yes. Trimming, looping, fading and mixing them into your video is exactly what they’re for. Only redistributing the audio files themselves is not allowed.
Should I download MP3 or WAV?
MP3 is fine for most videos. Choose WAV when it’s offered and you plan to cut and re-export the audio several times, since every MP3 save loses a little quality.
Next step: if you’re putting together your very first upload, see Make your first YouTube video with free tools, or the Shorts, Reels and TikTok kit for vertical videos.
