Playing music on a podcast is legal only when you either license the song properly or use music that’s already cleared for this kind of use. Nearly every recognizable song is protected by copyright, and dropping even a short clip into an episode without permission can expose you to statutory damages between $750 and $30,000 per song, or up to $150,000 if a court finds the infringement was willful.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 U.S. Code 504 – Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits The workable paths are royalty-free libraries, Creative Commons tracks, public domain recordings, direct deals with artists, and AI-generated music, each with its own catches.
The Two Licenses You Need for a Commercial Song
Federal copyright law treats a single song as two separate works: the musical composition (the melody and lyrics, controlled by the songwriter or publisher) and the sound recording (a specific recorded performance, usually owned by a record label).2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 U.S. Code 102 – Subject Matter of Copyright: In General Licensing one doesn’t give you rights to the other. To use a particular artist’s version of a song on your podcast, you have to clear both.
The first license is a synchronization license, or sync license, which covers the composition. ASCAP states directly that it does not license sync rights and that those rights must be obtained from the songwriter or publisher.3ASCAP. ASCAP Music Licensing FAQs There’s no standard rate. Publishers can charge whatever they want, or refuse.
The second is a master use license, which covers the specific recording. You get it from whoever owns that recording, usually the label. If you’d rather use a cover version, you still need a sync license for the composition and a master use license from whoever recorded the cover.
A common trap: having an ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC license doesn’t solve this. Performing Rights Organizations issue blanket public performance licenses,4SESAC. About Performing Rights Organizations but a PRO license alone does not cover podcasts because it doesn’t include sync or master use rights.3ASCAP. ASCAP Music Licensing FAQs Copyright owners hold the exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, and publicly perform their work,5U.S. Copyright Office. Circular 1 – Copyright Basics and podcasts touch all three.
Short Clips and Fair Use Won’t Save You
The most persistent myth in podcasting is that using 15 or 30 seconds of a song is automatically legal. No such rule exists in copyright law. Fair use is a four-factor test judged case by case,6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 U.S. Code 107 – Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use and for a typical podcast that plays a clip to set a mood or introduce a segment, every factor tends to point the wrong way. The use isn’t transformative, songs get strong protection as creative works, the Supreme Court has found infringement even where a small portion captured the “heart” of a work, and using recognizable music in place of a licensed track undermines the licensing market for that song.
Fair use is more plausible when you’re actually commenting on the music itself, such as a review podcast analyzing specific songs. Even then the outcome is never guaranteed. If you’re not commenting on the music, don’t rely on fair use.
Music You Can Legally Use
The licensing hurdles above are why most podcasters skip commercial songs entirely. Several practical alternatives exist.
Royalty-Free Music Libraries
Royalty-free doesn’t mean free of charge. It means you pay once (or subscribe) and owe no ongoing royalties each time an episode is streamed. Services like Epidemic Sound and Artlist pre-clear the sync and master use rights so you don’t have to negotiate them yourself. This is the path of least resistance for most shows. Read the license carefully, though. Some subscriptions limit use to particular platforms, and some require you to maintain an active subscription for tracks to stay cleared in older episodes.
Creative Commons Music
Some artists release work under Creative Commons licenses that grant defined usage rights to the public. Every CC license requires you to credit the creator.7Creative Commons. About CC Licenses The permissions differ by license type:
- CC BY lets you use, remix, and adapt the work for any purpose, including commercial, with credit.
- CC BY-NC is the same, but only for noncommercial use. If your podcast runs ads or generates revenue, this license won’t work.
- CC BY-SA allows commercial use and remixes, but anything you build with it has to be shared under the same terms.
- CC BY-ND allows commercial use with credit, but you cannot alter or remix the work. Playing a track as-is is fine; chopping it into a custom intro is not.
The NC and ND restrictions are what most often trip podcasters up. Check the license on each track before you use it.
Public Domain Music
Public domain works can be used by anyone, for any purpose, without permission or payment. As of January 1, 2026, works published in 1930 or earlier have entered the public domain in the United States. That opens up the compositions behind a great deal of early jazz, blues, and classical music. Watch one detail: the composition may be in the public domain while a modern recording of it is not. A 2020 orchestral recording of a Beethoven symphony is still a copyrighted sound recording, even though the composition has been public domain for centuries. You need a recording that is itself in the public domain, or you have to make your own.
Creative Commons also offers a CC0 dedication that lets living creators place work directly into the public domain.7Creative Commons. About CC Licenses Some libraries, including the Free Music Archive, include CC0 tracks with no attribution required.
Licensing Directly From the Artist
If you want a specific song, you can approach the publisher and label yourself to negotiate sync and master use licenses. For independent artists, this can be affordable and quick. For major-label material, expect it to be expensive, slow, and often unsuccessful. Many publishers won’t engage with a small podcast at all, and those that will tend to price the deal for well-funded productions.
AI-Generated Music
AI music generators produce original-sounding tracks on demand, and podcasters increasingly use them in place of licensed music. One rule is already settled: purely AI-generated content cannot be copyrighted in the United States. The Copyright Office has stated that copyright requires human authorship, and material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine is not eligible for registration.8U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright Registration Guidance: Works Containing Material Generated by Artificial Intelligence The Office’s 2025 report confirmed that AI-generated material lacking human authorship falls outside copyright protection entirely.9U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Part 2: Copyrightability Report
For podcasters, that cuts both ways. You can use an AI track without worrying about someone else’s copyright in it, but you can’t stop anyone else from using the same track either. Where a human controls the expressive choices rather than just typing a prompt, the human-authored portions of the output can still qualify for protection.8U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright Registration Guidance: Works Containing Material Generated by Artificial Intelligence
Two additional cautions. Check the terms of service for whatever AI tool you’re using; some platforms claim ownership of or impose restrictions on outputs. And because some AI music tools were trained on copyrighted recordings, outputs can sometimes closely resemble existing songs. If an AI-generated track is substantially similar to a copyrighted work, using it can still draw an infringement claim from the original rights holder. The legal theories are being tested in court now, so treat AI music as a convenience rather than a guaranteed safe harbor.
What Happens if You Use Music Without Permission
The consequences run from an inconvenient takedown to financially serious litigation.
Federal law lets copyright holders send takedown notices to platforms that host infringing content.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 U.S. Code 512 – Limitations on Liability Relating to Material Online Hosts and distributors like Spotify rely on this process to keep their own safe harbor, so when a notice arrives, they have to remove or disable the episode quickly. You get a short window to file a counter-notification, but the episode stays down while the dispute plays out. Repeat takedowns can get an entire show pulled from a platform.
If the copyright holder sues rather than files a takedown, exposure jumps. A court can award between $750 and $30,000 per work infringed with no proof of actual harm, and up to $150,000 per work if the infringement was willful.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 U.S. Code 504 – Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits Because a single song carries two copyrights, damages can apply to the composition and the recording separately. A podcaster who uses three songs without permission could face six infringement claims from one show.