Can I use copyrighted music in ads? What brands need

Can you use copyrighted music in ads? Only with a licence that names advertising. A song you hear on the radio holds two copyrights, and an ad needs permission for both. The music libraries inside social apps are mostly for personal posts. For brand video, use a platform's commercial library, a stock licence whose terms cover paid ads, or music you own.

This post answers the questions marketers and founders ask before they put a track under a launch film, an explainer, a Reel or a paid ad. Each answer comes from the platform's own help pages, a copyright office or the terms of a music library, and each one links to its source.

Can I use copyrighted music in ads at all?

Yes, when you hold the right licence. The law does not forbid music in ads. It forbids music you have no permission to use.

A brand video is commercial use, so a licence for personal posts does not cover it. The question is never "is this song famous" or "is it short". The question is "does my licence name this use, on this platform".

The rule matters to anyone who posts video for a business. That includes a founder who records a product demo, a marketer who boosts a Reel, and an agency that makes films for clients. Paid placements get the strictest review, but an organic post from a brand account is commercial too. TikTok, for example, tells businesses to use the Commercial Music Library for all commercial TikTok activities, not only for ads.

The penalty is not only a muted video. Soundstripe reports that two 2026 complaints by record labels against brands over creator content seek statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work. Soundstripe notes that these are complaints, not rulings. They still show that the rights holders watch brand content.

Why does one song need two licences?

Because a recorded song is two works. The U.S. Copyright Office explains that sound recordings and musical compositions are two separate works for copyright purposes.

The composition is the melody, the harmony and the lyrics. Its authors are composers, lyricists and songwriters. The sound recording is one fixed performance of that composition. Its authors are performers, producers and sound engineers.

The Copyright Office gives an example. The composition "Respect" and Aretha Franklin's recording of it are two distinct works. A copyright in the recording is not a substitute for the copyright in the composition. In practice, a publisher often licenses the composition and a label often licenses the recording. To put a famous recording under your ad, you need permission from both sides.

This is why stock music is the usual answer for brand video. A stock library or a platform library clears the track before you see it, and its licence tells you in one document what you may do. If you record a new version of a famous song with your own musicians, you still need the composition's licence. A new recording removes only the label from the deal.

Can I use music from Instagram's or TikTok's library in a brand video?

Not from the general library. These apps have two kinds of library, and the difference is the whole point.

On TikTok, businesses cannot use the general music library for commercial usage. TikTok gives businesses the Commercial Music Library instead. TikTok's help page calls it a pre-cleared global library of 1 million songs, free for businesses to use. For another user's original sound, TikTok tells businesses to consult their legal team about a proper licence.

On Instagram and Facebook, the trending songs come with a licence for personal posts. Soundstripe describes what happens when a brand boosts such a post: Meta re-evaluates the audio under advertising rules, and the system mutes the audio or rejects the boost. Meta's answer for brands is the Sound Collection. Soundstripe counts more than 14,000 tracks and sounds in it, cleared for commercial use, including ads, at no cost.

Both commercial libraries have a limit. Each one is the platform's own library, made for that platform. Soundstripe says that the Sound Collection covers Facebook and Instagram only. TikTok's help page speaks of commercial TikTok activities. If the same film also goes to YouTube or your website, read each library's terms before you reuse the track there.

What about YouTube?

YouTube has its own Audio Library inside YouTube Studio. YouTube says that copyright-safe music from the Audio Library won't be claimed by a rights holder through Content ID. The same page adds that only music and sound effects from the Audio Library are known to YouTube to be copyright-safe. Some tracks in it use a Creative Commons licence, and for those you must credit the artist in the video's description.

Content ID is the system that finds other people's music in your upload. When it finds a match, the rights holder's settings decide the result. YouTube lists three actions: block the video, monetize it, or track its viewing statistics.

Any of these can differ by country, so a video can play in one country and be blocked in another. For a launch film, a blocked video in one of your markets is a quiet failure: you do not see it from your own desk.

What does a stock music licence have to say?

"Royalty-free" means you do not pay per play. It does not mean free of rules. Read the licence and look for the uses you plan. Soundstripe gives three questions for a commercial licence: does it name paid social or advertising use, does it cover client work if you are an agency or a paid creator, and which platforms does it list.

Free libraries have terms too. Pixabay's licence summary, for example, lets you use its content for free and without attribution, and lets you adapt it into new works.

The same summary sets limits. You cannot sell or distribute the content on a standalone basis, that is, with no creative effort applied. A track under your film is creative use. A playlist of its tracks is not.

Keep a record for each film: the track's title, its library, the licence's name or a copy of it, and the date you downloaded it. Soundstripe advises you to keep the licence certificate, because you attach it when you appeal a muted or rejected ad.

A worked example: one launch film, four sizes, four channels

Here is the arithmetic for a common launch. You make one 30-second launch film and cut it in four sizes: 9:16, 1:1, 4:5 and 16:9 (our guide to video sizes explains where each one plays). You post it on four channels: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and your own site.

1. Files to clear: 4 sizes × 4 channels = 16 files. Each file needs a licence that covers its channel.
2. A track from TikTok's Commercial Music Library: the help page speaks of TikTok. It covers the 4 TikTok files. 16 − 4 = 12 files are left to check.
3. A track from Meta's Sound Collection: in Soundstripe's reading it covers Facebook and Instagram. That is 2 channels × 4 sizes = 8 files. 12 − 8 = 4 files are left: the ones on your site.
4. A third track for your site: 4 more files. The result is 3 tracks, 3 sound mixes and one film that sounds different in each place.
5. One stock track whose licence names paid ads on all the platforms you use: 16 of 16 files from 1 track and 1 mix.

The platform libraries are free and they work well for a post made for one app. A film that travels to several channels is simpler with one licence that covers all of them. The Ritual Coffee showcase is an example of this shape: one 9-second coffee ad laid out for 9:16, 4:5, 1:1 and 16:9. Whatever sound such a film carries goes to every one of those places.

What are the common mistakes, and how do I fix them?

• "It's only 5 seconds." Five seconds of a song are still the composition and the recording. Fix: clear a short sting the same way as a full track.
• A trending sound under a boosted post. The boost moves the post under advertising rules. Fix: pick the track from the commercial library before you post, if you may boost it later.
• A creator's sponsored video with their own music choice. The brand content is commercial, whoever posts it. Fix: write into the creator's brief which library the music comes from and who clears it.
• One track reused on a platform its library does not cover. Fix: check the licence's platform list before you post each size to each channel.
• A Creative Commons track with no credit. Fix: put the credit line in the description, as the licence asks.
• No record of the licence. Fix: save the licence with the film's files on the day you download the track.

A checklist before you post

1. Name the use: organic brand post, boosted post, paid ad or client work.
2. List every channel, and every size the film goes to on it.
3. Find the track's source: a platform library, a stock library, your own recording, or a famous song. A famous song needs both licences: the composition and the recording.
4. Read the licence for advertising use, client work and the platform list.
5. Add the credit line, if the licence asks for one.
6. Save the record: the licence, the track's title and the download date, with the film.

Music is one check of many. Run the rest of our launch checklist before you post.

FoxyLab follows the same rule when it makes a film from a chat, whether the film is a launch film, an explainer, a social video or an ad. The studio picks a licensed track from stock libraries, mixes it under the voice in every size, and keeps the licence record with the film. If you send your own track, it goes under the film as yours.

Questions marketers ask next

Can I boost a Reel that uses a trending song?

Expect trouble. Soundstripe reports that a boost makes Meta check the audio under advertising rules, and that the system mutes the audio or rejects the boost. Swap the track for one from Meta's Sound Collection or from a licence that names paid ads.

Do I have to credit royalty-free music?

It depends on the licence. Pixabay's licence summary says you may use its content without attribution. YouTube's Audio Library asks for a credit in the description for its Creative Commons tracks. Read the terms of each track.

Will YouTube claim my video if I use a stock track?

YouTube says Audio Library tracks will not be claimed through Content ID. For tracks from other libraries, YouTube makes no promise. Keep the licence, so that you can dispute a wrong claim.

Can a business account use TikTok's general music library?

No. TikTok says businesses cannot use the general music library for commercial usage. Use the Commercial Music Library, which TikTok describes as 1 million pre-cleared songs, free for businesses.

Your next film can start with a link or one line. Open the FoxyLab studio, describe the film, and the studio writes it, voices it, puts a licensed music bed under it and renders every size, with the licence record kept beside it.