CONTENTS

Although you used to know it as Musical.ly and today you know it as TikTok, this social platform is one of the ones that has grown the most in recent years, and continues to do so at an incredible pace.

According to SensorTower, already at the beginning of 2020 it was the most downloaded app for iOS devices, with 315 million downloads in the first quarter of the year, well above YouTube, Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat.

But it is that, currently, it exceeds 2 billion active users worldwide, based on a study conducted by DataReportal, figures to keep in mind.

If you have come this far, you are probably one of its users or are planning to become one.

However, you should know that, in order to create good content on TikTok, you must be original and provide value to your audience.

And one of the tools that will help you do this is music!

Here are some platforms to get it:

When making videos on this social network, you should know that its users are allowed to choose from a selection of songs authorized for commercial use.

This is because they have the copyright of these songs.

However, more and more tiktokers are breaking away from this trend of copying each other’s music and are no longer interested in using popular TikTok songs that have gone viral.

If that’s the case for you, you may be wondering how and where to find music for TikTok.

But are there any alternatives to your music library, and wouldn’t it be illegal to use music external to the platform?

In this article, we will answer these and other questions, although we can tell you that there are alternatives.

But before discovering them, it is important to know what TikTok’s usage policies say about music and the possible copyright of the songs.

TikTok and music copyright

Tiktok’s Terms and Conditions of Service clearly state the following: Explained in a simpler way, all this means that, in order to use music in your TikTok videos, you must have all the permissions and licenses in order.

All this as long as you use copyrighted music that is not within TikTok (the one that is on their platform you can use it because they have the licenses).

Luckily, there are more options than using copyrighted music.

The best 2 options to add legal music to your TikTok videos

Many people tend to think that there is only one way to add music to their Tik Tok videos: using their own music library.

That’s why practically all Tik Tok videos with music use the same songs.

In the following video you can check, with data, the 50 most-used songs in 2022.

They sound familiar, don’t they?

It’s normal because thousands of users have used them in their videos due to the famous ‘TikTok Trends’.

Although, at the same time, it can also be considered as a lack of personality and originality in the contents.

However, there is an alternative to add music to your TikTok videos: royalty-free music licenses.

But using them or not will depend on how you want to do things on the platform. You have three options:

If you also think that creating special content with different music will give you better results on TikTok than copying music trends, then keep reading, because we are going to introduce you to the best online platforms with royalty-free music.

Royalty-free music for TikTok: The 3 best online platforms

The Internet abounds with copyright-free music services, and there are more and more platforms on the market, so choosing the perfect one for you becomes a difficult task.

At Legis Music, we are aware of this, because we have tested the vast majority of platforms with copyright-free music on the Internet.

But that has allowed us to know firsthand which of them are worth it and which are not.

Below we will introduce you to the 3 best ones on the market.

This way, we will save you the time (and money) that we have spent testing and evaluating them:

Artlist

The first of our top royalty-free music platforms for TikTok is Artlist.

Despite its youth -it was created in 2016-, this Israeli company proposes one of the music services that is giving more to talk about among companies and content creators.

In fact, brands such as Nike, Google, Coca-Cola, Ikea, Netflix, or Mercedes have already hired its services.

It has an exquisite music library created by the best independent professionals from around the world, which has hundreds of sound effects and more than 12,000 music tracks available for TikTok.

All these music tracks are under what they call Universal License, a type of license that covers practically all music use cases.

This makes choosing the best music for TikTok a very simple task, as you no longer have to worry about the legality of the music you use or possible copyright issues.

You can tell that Artlist is well aware of the needs of tiktokers who, like you, are looking to stand out from the crowd with the music in their videos.

In fact, they have an exclusive music collection called Perfect for TikTok, in which you will find songs with hooks in styles as varied as hip-hop, Latin music, or EDM.

However, to enjoy this collection and its thousands of music tracks, you must know the different subscription plans that Artlist offers you.

‘Creator Pro plan’

Its ‘Creator Pro’ plan, the platform’s most popular, costs $16.6 per month billed in a single payment (the equivalent of $199 per year), and offers you the following advantages:

‘Social Creator plan’

On the other hand, they now also have a ‘social creator’ plan, which is perfect for any type of social media.

Its cost is even cheaper than the ‘Pro’ plan, $9.99 per month billed in a single payment (or $14.99 billed monthly), and although it does not include client work or broadcast, it can be used on:

‘Teams Plan’

If you need to use Artlist with your team, this will be the best option instead.

It is designed to have between 2 and 7 members, and their license covers the same as the ‘Creator Pro’ plan.

You will have as well an ‘admin management’ in your dashboard, where you can add and remove team members easily.

Its price starts at $28.20/month for 2 members, billed annually.

‘Enterprise Plan’

This plan is designed for large-scale organizations (100+ employees), broadcasters and app developers, or teams of more than 8 people.

It’s tailored to your enterprise’s needs and you will have to contact their sales team to know the price.

All you have to do to get them is click on the following button and choose the subscription that best suits your needs:

 

Epidemic Sound

The second of these platforms is Epidemic Sound.

With more than 12 years in the industry, it is clearly one of the market leaders.

It offers you a constantly growing music library that already exceeds 32,000 music tracks and 64,000 sound effects, all of them available for use in TikTok.

All of them can be downloaded and used in your videos by subscribing to any of its three available plans.

Personal Plan

The Personal Plan ($15 / month or $144 / year) is designed for content creators or tiktokers who create videos for their own use, which includes:

Commercial Plan

The Commercial Plan ($49 / month or $299 / year) covers all freelancers and companies that create productions for commercial purposes, i.e. for TikTok accounts that already create promoted content with their videos.

This plan includes all the benefits of the personal plan, plus:

Enterprise Plan

The ‘Enterprise’ Plan is designed for large companies and media that are looking for a broader music solution, both in TikTok and in other media.

It does not have a defined price, so a quotation should be requested according to the company’s needs.

This plan includes all the benefits of the previous plans, and also adds the following:

As you can see, Epidemic Sound, not only offers a wide amount and variety of music tracks and sound effects, but also puts in your hands plans that fit what you need to add the best music to your TikTok videos.

But that’s not all, because they are now offering their new customers up to 30 days free to try out the platform at no cost.

This way you can find out if it really is the kind of service you were looking for, and without having to make any outlay.

If you want to try the platform for free for a month, all you have to do is click on the button below:

Envato Elements

The next service we are going to introduce you to is Envato Elements.

This subsidiary of the great marketplace Envato Markets has managed to gain a preferential position among the best royalty-free music services.

Since its launch in 2016, this platform has been increasing its music library exponentially, reaching more than 90,000 music tracks, including songs and sound effects.

But not only does its music library grow weekly at a great pace, but so does its entire stock of creative solutions.

In case you didn’t know, Envato Elements also has a wide variety of creative resources to help you grow in TikTok, including:

All of them will be available to you when you subscribe to their platform.

A subscription that, by the way, is quite economical for everything it offers.

For only 14.50€/month, you can enjoy benefits such as:

Envato Elements calls itself “the ultimate unlimited creative subscription,” and with over 54 million creative assets they offer their users, it’s no surprise.

If you too want to benefit from everything Envato Elements can do to make your TikTok account the success you’re looking for, just click the button below.

How to add your own music to TikTok videos from the app

Now that you know where to find original royalty-free music for TikTok, let’s see what steps you need to take to add it to your videos.

To do this, we will need to download an app that has a video editing function.

Step 1. Download InShot (or other video editing app)

One of the simplest and most used is InShot, and it is available for both iOS and Android devices. Once you have it downloaded and installed we can continue with the process.

Step 2. Download the song you want to use

Whether you choose Epidemic Sound, Envato Elements or Artlist, you must access the platform in question, and choose the song you want to use in the video.

Once you have chosen it, download it to your smartphone.

Step 3. Record the video you want to upload to TikTok

It’s time to record the video you are going to upload to the platform.

You can do it with the application of your choice, but it is important that you can download it to your smartphone to edit it with the InShot app.

Step 4. Open InShot and add the video

Then you will have to open the application and choose video. Then choose the video you want to upload to the platform and click on the green tick at the bottom right of the screen.

Step 5. Add music track to the video

When the video is ready to be edited in InShot, a series of options will appear, including the “Music” option. Click on it, and then, in the next menu, click on “Tracks”. The app will automatically take you to your smartphone’s music library.

Simply choose the song you have previously downloaded and click on “Use”.

Step 6. Edit the audio track

When adding the music track, you will have to click on “Edit”. You will then be presented with a menu with a series of parameters to modify as follows: Here you can modify:

Once you have edited the song to your liking, click on the tick.

Step 7. Preview, refine, and save

If the video has not been synchronized with the audio the way you wanted, in this step you will have to make the necessary modifications to get the video ready.

Once you have it, you must save it by clicking on the following button. Then press “Save”, wait for it to be saved and you will have it in your library.

Step 8. Post on TikTok

Switch to TikTok app. Next click on the “+” button as if you were going to record a video, then go to the library and click on the video you have edited in InShot. Once you choose it, add your description, your hashtags, tag your friends and click on “Post”.

That’s it!

Now you know how to add music to TikTok step by step from your smartphone.

But can you do the same from your computer?

How to upload a TikTok video with copyright-free music from your PC or Mac

TikTok is a platform that is designed to be used from a smartphone.

However, you can also access it from a traditional computer or laptop.

This will allow you to create customized TikTok music videos.

To do this, you will have to perform a process very similar to the one you have seen above, but instead of using the InShot app to edit the video, you will have to use a desktop video editor such as Adobe Premiere, Windows Media Maker or Filmora.

Conclusion

Before it was Musical.ly, now it is called TikTok, but regardless of the name it has, what is clear is that it is here to stay.

At least until another platform manages to make its users fall in love with it more than it has done, something difficult to imagine nowadays.

Few online platforms can boast the growth that TikTok has had in such a short period of time, and there is no sign of that success slowing down anytime soon.

In fact, it is among the top 5 most downloaded apps on both the App Store and Google Play, and has the highest engagement rate per post, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.

However, to achieve a high engagement rate, it is essential to create content that is of value to your users.

And in an app whose videos have a short duration, you need to be original.

Gone is the trend of copying each other to get likes and views.

There are many ways to be original, but one of the ones that work best is to use royalty-free music, different from what is usually used on the platform.

Luckily, you now know the three best platforms on the entire Internet with this type of music: Epidemic Sound, Envato Elements, and Artlist.

Although different from each other, all three have music for TikTok of the highest quality.

With thousands of songs in its music libraries, all of them will be a fantastic option to differentiate you from the rest of tiktokers.

With any of them you will be able to offer your followers an original, eye-catching and catchy musical background that they will love, and all this in a legal way and respecting the terms and conditions of the platform.

Now it’s up to you which of them will be your musical ally to make your TikTok account take off and create a trend.