Is YouTube Audio Library music safe to use?

What it is

The Audio Library is a catalogue of production music and sound effects inside YouTube Studio. You open it from the left menu in Studio, or go straight to youtube.com/audiolibrary. Each track downloads as an MP3, so you can edit it into a Short in any editor before you upload.

YouTube adds new tracks twice a month. You can filter by genre, mood, artist, length and whether a credit is required.

Why it is the safest choice

YouTube Help puts it in one sentence: "Copyright-safe music and sound effects downloaded from the Audio Library won't be claimed by a rights holder through the Content ID system."

The same page is blunt about everything else. Only Audio Library music is "known to YouTube to be copyright-safe", and YouTube takes no responsibility for "royalty-free" music from other libraries or channels. For a Short longer than one minute that matters a lot, because YouTube blocks those Shorts worldwide while a claim is active. YouTube's page on three-minute Shorts names the Audio Library as music that "won't receive a Content ID claim".

The catch

Some tracks carry a Creative Commons licence, and those need a credit in your video description. Miss it and you have broken the licence, even though no claim arrives to warn you.

To get the credit text, find the track in the Audio Library, click the Creative Commons icon in the "License type" column and copy the text from the pop-up. To avoid the issue, turn on the "Attribution not required" filter and pick from what is left.

Monetising

If you are in the YouTube Partner Program, you can monetise videos that use Audio Library music and sound effects. A video using the library also shows a "Music in this video" section on its watch page. That section does not replace the credit a Creative Commons track needs.

What the page does not say

YouTube Help covers videos uploaded to YouTube. It does not say whether the same download may be used on TikTok or Instagram, so do not assume a cross-posted Short is covered.