No, it is against copyright laws to simply use a song from a personal music library. A license to the music used in any podcasts must be obtained.
It is so tempting to use a popular song or artist for your podcast music. Although it would be awesome to "Who Are You? by The WHO as a song for your podcast, you cannot use any song without purchasing a music license for it. Music license costs can be anywhere from $50-$10,000 or more per year depending on how popular the song is and who the artist is. For this reason, most podcasters do not use well-known songs and choose to use the royalty-free music option. Royalty-free music often has a one-time fee for lifetime use of the song.
If you purchased one of our podcast set-up packages we will be buying the music for your podcast on your behalf. We choose music from Soundstripe.com because they offer a one-time payment for lifetime use of the song. All the music that we provide to you will be royalty-free. We can pull more music options if you do not find any you like in the first batch.
If you do not find any options to your satisfaction on Soundstripe.com we can discuss using a different royalty-free music company on a case by case basis (such as premiumbeat.com).
Tom & Tracy discuss this topic in great detail in their podcasts. If you would like to learn more please check out the episodes below:
- https://podetize.com/get-great-podcast-music-without-worrying-about-music-rights/
- https://podetize.com/useful-strategies-in-adapting-to-the-new-linkedin-algorithm-and-podcast-royalty-free-music/
Music is also covered in our FREE How to Launch a Successful Podcast Bootcamp. If you already have signed up for the course below is the direct link to the module where we cover music copyrights.