Podcast music: choosing intros, beds and the right licence

A podcast runs on Spotify, Apple, YouTube and your own website at once. Your music — intro, transitions, background bed — must be clean on all of them. Registered music otherwise leads to claims or takedowns.

Which licence you need

For most podcasts the creator licence is enough: unlimited use, monetisation (ads, sponsorship) allowed, no credit required. Only if you embed music in an ad spot or edit it do you need the commercial licence.

Intro, bed and transitions

• Intro: short, recognisable, matched to your voice level (our tracks are mastered to −14 LUFS).
• Bed: unobtrusive music under speech — ambient, lo-fi or piano work best.
• Transitions: 3–5 seconds are plenty; a track can be cut as often as you like.

Music for podcasts →