The ultimate guide to find out where to get and how to legally use the best music for your yoga classes (online or presential)
Just as it has happened with activities such as running or calisthenics, yoga has also become one of the most practiced activities worldwide.
This is partly due to the search for a solution to overcome the stress and frenetic pace in which we are involved day after day.
And the fact is that yoga offers anyone who practices it precisely that: relaxation, calm, balance between body and mind.
In fact, when it appeared more than 5,000 years ago in what is now India, yoga was classified as a science of life to preserve physical health and achieve mental and emotional equity.
All this through the combination of postures (asanas), meditation, breathing (pranayama), mantras, and silence, among other factors.
However, this last element -the silent- is something that is currently being overlooked, especially when it comes to yoga classes.
One of the reasons is that people who are initiated in yoga are not usually trained to maintain attention and concentration.
Therefore, the classic silence of yoga has gradually been replaced by another element.
An element that helps people to concentrate, as well as to perceive yoga classes as something fun and entertaining.
And that element is none other than music.
Throughout the article you will discover:
As a professional in yoga instruction, you will know that this practice can be done in silence or with music.
However, if you take the side of your participants, the vast majority are people who are looking to get started or go deeper into yoga and its benefits.
And the truth is that not everyone will have developed the concentration and thought control needed to perform yoga in silence.
This is something that will impede them from fully enjoying yoga, stretching, and relaxing their body and mind.
To make this easier, the use of background music is essential.
Music is the perfect way to amplify the feeling of relaxation, improve concentration, and help your students in their yoga practice.
In addition, using music in your classes provides the following benefits to your pupils:
As you can see, these are some of the reasons why using background music in your yoga classes is the best idea possible.
However, you cannot use any music genre or music from any format or platform.
We’ll talk about music genres later.
But now, what you need to be clear about is the copyright of the music.
Whether out of ignorance or mischief, it has been very common to use as background music in yoga classes:
The reality is that if you use any of these formats in your yoga classes, you will be committing an illegal act.
You may be wondering why.
In that case, we will answer your question:
Because most of the music used for yoga classes is copyrighted.
Copyrights are the exclusive rights that the authors of a music track have over their work, which are protected by law.
Therefore, if you want to legally use copyrighted music in your yoga classes, you must obtain the appropriate licenses.
Otherwise, if you use the formats mentioned above and break the law, you may get into serious trouble, such as large financial fines or legal penalties.
Beyond the authors of the songs or the record companies where they were recorded, copyrights are usually protected by the so-called Copyright Societies, also known by PROs.
These PROs are in charge of watching over the artists’ intellectual property rights, protecting, defending, and managing them.
Depending on the country where you are going to give your yoga classes, you will need to go to a specific organization. The best-known ones are the following:
To get the copyright of a music track, you must go to one of these societies, contact them and negotiate the terms of use of the song, as well as the cost of doing so.
These are not usually very economical amounts, so many yoga teachers try to find other alternatives to add background music to their classes.
However, to find the best alternative, you must be clear about the type of yoga class for which you are looking for background music.
Whether you teach yoga classes in person or online, the legal aspect of the music does not change.
You will need the licenses to use copyrighted music, or you can use legal music without copyright.
However, the platforms that offer this type of background music will not be the same for both cases.
Next, we will show you the best platforms on the whole Internet for both cases.
There is a wide range of websites that offer royalty-free music.
And the truth is that all of them are quite similar to each other, offering a good service and a great number of music tracks.
At Legis Music, we have tried most of them, and as a result of our experience, we have chosen the 3 best ones for your online yoga classes.
Epidemic Sound is a Swedish company that since 2009 has been providing one of the most complete services with royalty-free music for freelancers and agencies.
With more than 30.000 music tracks and 60.000 sound effects, it has a complete music library.
But not only does it stand out for the quantity and variety of music tracks, but also for features that make it special.
One of them is ‘Find Similar’, through which you can find songs of the same style to anyone you have liked.
This option will be very useful when establishing a musical style in your online yoga classes.
Another feature that makes Epidemic Sound worthwhile is the ‘Stems’ option.
This feature will allow you to remove any sound element from a song.
For example, imagine you find a song that is ideal for your yoga class, but that song has a voice, and you are looking for an instrumental piece.
With ‘Stems’, you can remove the voice of that song, leaving the music track as you would like it to be.
In addition to these two features, with Epidemic Sound you can enjoy the following advantages:
Epidemic Sound offers its clients three different subscription plans.
| Plan | Designed for: | Properties | Price | Visit |
| Personal | Podcasters and personal content creators |
| $15 per month or $144 per year | |
| Commercial | Freelancers and commercial content agencies |
| $49 per month or $299 € per year | |
| Enterprise | Mass media companies |
| Quote requested |
In your particular case, if you are an independent yoga professional looking to monetize your online yoga classes, the plan you should subscribe to is the Commercial plan.
But so that you can find out if it is the plan you need, Epidemic Sound has decided to offer new clients like you a 100% free one-month trial period.
To get access to it, all you have to do is click on the following button.
Envato Elements is another major reference among royalty-free music services.
This platform owned by Envato Market, the marketplace for creative solutions, has one of the largest music libraries on the Internet.
By accessing their services, you will have at your disposal more than 90,000 audio tracks between songs and sound effects.
And you won’t have any trouble finding hundreds of songs for your online yoga classes.
Because Envato Elements has an effective search engine in which, by selecting the filter “Music” and typing the word “yoga”, you will have available up to 30 pages full of music tracks for yoga.
All of them can be filtered according to:
As you can see, there are many options and filters available so that, in a few minutes, you have the perfect songs for your yoga classes.
Unlike Epidemic Sound, Envato Elements offers its customers only one type of subscription.
This subscription costs $15 per month, and with it, you will have the following advantages:
You can take a look at the platform for free and without any commitment.
In fact, you will be able to search, listen, and download all their songs at zero cost. However, with a watermark on the track.
Now, if after knowing all the benefits that Envato Elements can bring to your online yoga classes you think it is the solution you were looking for, click on the following button.
Artlist is the revelation music solution of the last years for all audiovisual content creators.
Despite being a young Israeli company founded in 2016, it has managed to establish itself as one of the leaders in the sector.
It has a music library with over 12,000 music tracks, all created by the best independent artists in the world.
In addition, Artlist proposes a totally new, minimalist, and revolutionary way of navigating its platform.
With drop-down menus always visible, you can search and filter their songs without having to jump from page to page. These menus are classified as follows:
This platform not only proves to be special in the way it chooses its music or in the user experience it proposes to its users but also in the way it licenses all its music.
Unlike other platforms, Artlist offers its customers the so-called Universal License, which covers virtually any use case, including online yoga classes.
This Universal License costs $199 per year (one-time payment), and offers the following advantages:
Like the other two platforms, you can also take a look at all the Artlist content for free, listen to their songs, and enjoy the platform.
However, if you want to download the content, you need to purchase its Universal License.
But if you like the platform and think it’s the best one to add music to your online yoga classes, you’ll love to know the following.
Artlist is adding two months for free to all its new customers who purchase its Universal License.
This way, you will pay for 12 months, but enjoy all its benefits for up to 14 months.
If you always perform your yoga classes in a gym, hotel, or definitely in one single place, you will not be able to use the music from the above-mentioned platforms.
The reason is that these subscription services only allow the legal use of your music on:
For this reason, you will need another type of service whose focus is to provide background music for physical businesses.
As with non-copyrighted music platforms, there are many services on the Internet that provide streaming music for business.
However, we have chosen the best of all to make your search as easy as possible.
When it comes to adding background music for physical business, there is no better solution than Soundtrack Your Brand.
This company created by two former Spotify employees has managed to become one of the top players in the streaming music business.
It has more than 400 radio stations and more than 51 million individual songs that you can use at your convenience in your yoga classes.
In fact, you can delete songs from the preconfigured playlists or create your own playlists from scratch, adding the songs you want to play.
All this through a drag & drop system that is very easy and intuitive.
In addition to this, you can import your own Spotify playlists to be able to play them with Soundtrack Your Brand in a 100% legal way.
However, the most complete and recommended plan for yoga teachers is the Soundtrack Unlimited ($39,99 per month and location), which is the one that allows you:
If you think that the Soundtrack Unlimited plan is the one you are most interested in and you want to subscribe for a whole year, you can save 10% of the total price, reducing the monthly price to $34.99.
But before subscribing for a whole year, you may want to see the platform inside and try it out.
In that case, we have good news.
Soundtrack Your Brand is giving away for a limited time to all its new customers up to 30 days free trial.
This way, if you purchase any of their plans, it’s because you’ve proven that their services are what your yoga classes need.
If you want to enjoy this free trial month, just click on the button below.
Soundtrack Your Brand is the perfect music service when you are teaching your yoga classes in just one single place (gym, hotel, specialized centers or your own yoga studio).
However, if your intention is to be a freelance yoga trainer and offer your classes in a park, in an office, or in different locations, Soundtrack Your Brand will not cover the legal aspect of music 100%.
When you subscribe to the service, you must provide the business details as well as the location of the business where you will be using the streaming service.
Therefore, if you use the music outside that location, you will not be meeting the requirements, and you will be using their service incorrectly (and illegally).
It will be assumed that you are conducting a “public performance”, that is, a performance in a public place or any place where people gather.
It is also considered a public performance if it is done with radio, television, or Internet broadcasts.
Therefore, to avoid the illegal use of Soundtrack Your Brand’s music, you will need to purchase a so-called Public Performance License.
In short, this license is the one that allows the use of a certain music track for public broadcasting.
Copyright societies are usually entities that issue this type of license.
You already know the most representative PROs.
However, if you are in any other country and do not know who issues this type of license in your territory, Soundtrack Your Brand provides a long list of countries with their respective Copyright Societies, which you can find here.
In yoga, as in many other sectors, traditional techniques are in permanent evolution and change.
In its origins, yoga was practiced in silence, with no sound other than that of one’s own breath.
Later on, nature sounds were introduced, such as sea waves, dolphin chants or rain dripping, as well as mantras, repeated chants in which to place the attention and get an optimum level of concentration.
Tibetan music has also been used, composed in soft rhythms by flutes, bowls and gongs, ethnic music, formed by drums and percussion elements, or even classical music, with instruments such as violin, piano, or bagpipes.
However, at present, there are yoga schools and professionals who have decided to go further with the musical aspect, breaking with the traditions and proposing the practice of yoga under pop rhythms, folk, indie, reggae, bossa nova, relaxed electronic music, and even hip hop.
All of this with the purpose of proposing different rhythms, entertaining and surprising the participants, while at the same time allowing them to enjoy yoga and obtain all its physical and mental benefits.
Therefore, we cannot venture to choose a particular type of music that is better for a yoga class.
In the end, the objective of music in yoga is to complement the exercises and positions.
Therefore, as long as you achieve that main goal, you can unleash your creativity when choosing the ideal music for your class.
However, if you need help with that, here are 5 tips that will make your job much easier.
The fact that there is no ideal music for any yoga class does not make it good to use any music genre.
If you make that mistake it is very likely that, far from creating a favorable mood in your students, you will cause your class and your reputation as a yoga professional to be questioned.
To avoid the above mistake, it is best to establish the targets of the class, and therefore, the music you will use.
For example, if you are looking to work on stress, perhaps the background music you should use is soft, relaxing music. Or if the goal is to eliminate sadness, a good soundtrack will have a happy and dynamic rhythm.
You know that music has a direct impact on the emotions and mental states of any person.
Therefore, the music you use in your yoga class should evoke pleasant feelings.
This way, students will associate your class with something positive and will come back more motivated the following times.
In the practice of yoga, music is important, but it is not the most important thing.
The music tracks you choose should play as a background throughout the practice.
To achieve this, you must emphasize the volume so that it is neither so loud that it can disturb your participants nor so low that it causes some discomfort.
Likewise, the changes between the different music tracks must be done in a smooth way, without sudden changes of rhythm or volume.
At some points in the class, you may need to have absolute silence.
For example, there are some parts of the class, such as the beginning or end, that it may be best to stop the music.
Don’t hesitate to do so if you feel it is necessary. This will remove any distractions from your participants and keep them focused.
If you’ve reached this point, you probably don’t have any doubts about it.
Using music in your yoga classes is a great idea to connect with your students and help them achieve the best results.
However, to use music correctly in your classes, you should follow the 5 tips we just gave you.
But not only that, you will also have to:
If your goal is to perform on-site yoga classes in one place, Soundtrack Your Brand will be the perfect service to establish the soundtrack for your class.
However, if you plan to carry out your classes in different locations, you must acquire a Public Communication License (as long as you use copyrighted music).
All of them offer you huge music libraries where you can find the perfect yogi music.
| Service | Type | Prices | Visit |
| EPIDEMIC SOUND | Subscription | From $15 / month | |
| ENVATO ELEMENTS | Subscription | From $15 / month | |
| ARTLIST.IO | Subscription | $199 / year | |
| SOUNDTRACK YOUR BRAND | Subscription | From $34,99 / month and location |
You will be able to make unlimited downloads during the time that the subscription lasts, all this without limits of use and without having to worry about the copyright of the songs.
However, each one has different features, and although all three are the best platforms in the industry, only one of them will be your best option.
Choose yours and start creating yoga classes that your users will love.
If you think there are some questions that have been left unanswered throughout the article, they may be in this section
Below you can see the frequently asked questions that our users have asked us about this subject.
Do I need permission to play music in my yoga class?
Playing music during a yoga class, no matter where is recognized as a public performance.
This means that you must obtain the copyrights that are under the so-called “Public Communication License”.
You can acquire this license by paying a fee to the Copyright Society of your country where you currently reside.
Here you will find the list of countries and their respective Copyright Societies.
What happens if I don’t pay to use music in my yoga classes?
You will be making an illegal act and, in case you are found to be breaking the law, you may be fined or even held legally responsible.
Copyright Societies usually have inspectors who investigate places that use background music, making sporadic inspections.
Many freelance teachers and other professionals have been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for this type of infringement.
Therefore, we do not recommend not paying for the use of background music in your classes. Not only because it’s illegal, but because you can never be safe about it.
If I use music in my yoga classes from Spotify, YouTube or other services, is it legal?
No, it is not legal.
Even if you’re paying for a service like Spotify, that doesn’t give you the right to use the music for commercial purposes, like performing your yoga classes.
A subscription to Spotify only entitles you to personal and private use of the music.
I am a teacher, and I know that my gym or studio has a music license. Can I have peace of mind?
In case you only offer your yoga classes at that center, you can be sure.
On the other hand, if you also hold your yoga classes in other centers or locations, you will need a service like Soundtrack Your Brand, as well as to acquire the Public Communication License from a Copyright Society.
Do I also need a license if I only use CDs, disks, tapes, radio or TV?
Yes, you will need a license to play CDs, discs and/or tapes.
Although it is advisable to make sure of this by contacting your local Copyright Society first.
What is a "Sync" license and when do I need it?
In case you want to release online yoga classes synchronized to music, you must purchase a Sync License from your local Author’s Society.
However, if you subscribe to the services mentioned above (Epidemic Sound, Envato Elements, or Artlist), you will not need to purchase any additional license.
This is something that will considerably reduce the cost of acquiring the music for your classes.
If you want to know more about the different types of music licenses, take a look at our beginner’s guide by clicking on the link.
Pablo Olóndriz founded Legis Music in 2016 and, since then, has been working non-stop on the online Royalty-Free industry, managing to build a great source of information for people who need amazing background music for their projects and videos.
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