Podcast music licensing: what you actually need.

Podcasts get the licensing question harder than most creators realise, because the exposure is bigger and the myths are stickier. The statutory damages for music infringement run $750 to $30,000 per work, and up to $150,000 for willful infringement (MillionPodcasts). That is the real number, not a scare. Here is what actually clears you to use music in an intro, a bed, or an ad spot.

"Royalty-free" is not the same as "cleared"

This is the single most expensive misunderstanding. Royalty-free is a payment model, not a legal clearance (MillionPodcasts). It means you do not pay per play. It does not automatically mean you are licensed for every platform, for commercial use, or in perpetuity. Before you use a royalty-free track, confirm the licence explicitly covers:

• All your distribution platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
• Commercial use, if your show earns any revenue (ads, sponsors, membership).
• What happens if you cancel a subscription: do episodes already published stay licensed?
• Whether attribution is required, and where.

A commercial song needs two licences, not one

If you want to use an actual commercial track (a real song by a real artist), you are not buying one permission, you are clearing two separate copyrights: the sound recording (usually the record label) and the composition (usually the music publisher) (MillionPodcasts). Both have to say yes. For an independent podcast, that is almost never practical or affordable, which is exactly why creators reach for safe alternatives instead.

The safe path: public domain and Creative Commons

For an indie show, the clean options are public domain music (no permission needed) and Creative Commons music (free, with simple conditions). With CC0 there is nothing to do. With CC BY you add one credit line in your show notes. Both let you cover the parts of a podcast that actually need music:

• Intro and outro themes: the recurring identity of the show.
• Beds under interviews and narration: low, atmospheric, sitting beneath the voice.
• Transitions and stings: short moves between segments.
• Ad and sponsor spots: distinct energy to mark the shift.

The part that is genuinely hard

Finding music that fits the show. You have a feeling for what the intro should sound like, often a specific song in your head, but it is copyrighted and clearing it is off the table. So you browse Creative-Commons libraries by mood tag, hoping something lands, and most of it does not match what you actually heard.

everysong solves that one step. Drop in the track you wish you could use (the song that has the right energy for your intro or your ad break) and get back 20 Creative-Commons tracks ranked by how closely their audio matches, each licence-clean with a credit line and a download link. $5 once, lifetime, no subscription. You confirm the licence fits your distribution and commercial use (CC BY and CC0 in our catalogue both allow commercial use), and you are done.

Quick checklist before you publish

• Is the track public domain, CC0, or CC BY? (If it is a commercial song, stop.)
• Does the licence allow commercial use, if your show earns anything?
• Have you added the attribution where the licence requires it (show notes)?
• For CC BY-SA: are you okay with the share-alike condition on any remix you make?