How To Use Music in Short-Form Editing
The answer may get me in trouble…
I use Spotify.
I’ve been curating and selecting music on Spotify for the past two years to use in my short-form videos of all kinds. How do I get away with it?
It’s fair use.
”Fair use” is a copyright term that describes a piece of content material that, if modified enough, can be used in a new piece of content without the original owner trying to copyright strike you.
Sometimes, copyright holders vary in what they allow you to do if you want to use their material. For the majority of music you’ll find on Spotify, the copyright holders will allow you to use their track in a video only if it’s short, not monetized with native platform ads, and not created for commercial use.
The majority of editing projects I work on are eligible to use music under that category. After editing hundreds of short-form videos over the past 2 years, I’ve never had copyright blocks or strikes from the music I grab from Spotify, except for YouTube shorts. This is usually because they may re-categorize your short as a regular video, which then disqualifies it as fair use since it may be monetized.
Now, I have several playlists for different moods of edits. My favorite music score to use lately has been the Interstellar soundtrack.
The reason I use Spotify is that their algorithm for regular listening is already so handy for when I’m quickly skimming through tracks to use for an edit. It also suggests new music similar to what I’ve already used before, so my catalog is constantly expanding.
Because you read this far, I’ll share one of my favorite playlists I like to use for fun edits called “Music for Ironic Edits”: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5uN6wrocWsbAT261p2nYtv?si=fd591bbd0654411a
Here’s an example of where I used several tracks in just 1 edit from this playlist for my friend Savannah: https://www.instagram.com/p/DKStSmGN-Rm
I will have to write another post about why I use classical music to make fun of or to show the irony of a situation. For now, know that it JUST WORKS.
Remember that these fair use reasons to use random music on Spotify will almost only apply to your short, non-monetized, non-commercial videos. So good luck if you try to use it in your podcast. Don’t send the lawsuit my way.