The top 10 best songs for YouTube videos

Top 10 best songs for YouTube videos

Finding the perfect background music for your YouTube videos can be tough. If you’re a content creator on the hunt for the best background music for YouTube, or simply want to get your hands on that one track you know your audience will love, Lickd is here to help.

With Lickd, you can access popular music for YouTube videos, from real artists. Without worrying about copyright issues! No more digging around in royalty-free music libraries to find a decent track either. You’ll have instant access to music from famous artists that’s super quick and easy to license.

Using the world’s best music in your content just got a thousand times easier. 

1. Heat Waves by Glass Animals

Glass Animals Heat Waves

Released back in 2020, Heat Waves had some small success. But, in 2022, it rocketed to the top of the Billboard 100 in a record-breaking ascent, knocking off Disney’s ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno”. The track has been wildly popular ever since and is used by creators across all sorts of platforms like YouTube and TikTok

A video we loved featuring this track:

2. Love nwantiti (ah ah ah) by CKay

CKay Love Nwantiti

Love Nwantiti was the sound to a crazy popular TikTok dance challenge (used in over 1.8 Million videos!), helping it spread around the world and gain popularity. It’s still going strong across YouTube and is excellent for background music, whether you’re doing a dance challenge or just want a popular song for your video.

 

 

A video we love featuring this track:

3. No Lie by Sean Paul ft. Dua Lipa

Sean Paul ft Dua Lipa No Lie

What happens when two of the biggest recording artists in the world collaborate? Magic. No Lie offers a blend between R&B, reggae and tropical pop that’s perfect for all manner of content. The example below shows how it can help inject tons of energy into a workout video.

A video we loved featuring this track:

4. Monday by Imagine Dragons

Imagine Dragons

Alternative pop band Imagine Dragons have quite a varied back catalog. This upbeat track may not be their biggest hit, but it’s excellent for setting the tone of a video, whether you want something in the background. 

A video we loved featuring this track:

5. Titanium by David Guetta ft. Sia

David Guetta Titanium

Bestselling house DJ David Guetta knows a thing or two about making catchy songs. This song, released in 2011, is one of his biggest hits. It’s regularly used by YouTubers and all manner of other creators across film and audio. 

Fun fact: the song was actually written by Sia but she was never intended to be featured on the song originally.

A video we loved featuring this track: 

6. Lemonade by Don Toliver, Gunna, Internet Money, NA

Lemonade Internet Money

This banger by hip hop collective ‘Internet Money’ features a handful of much-loved rappers. Since its release in 2020, it’s become incredibly popular. You’ll probably recognize it from TikTok where it was a massively popular sound for a while. It’s an absolute hit for content creators, offering laid-back vibes with a catchy hook. The perfect background music for all sorts of content.

A video we loved featuring this track: 

7. Thot Shit by Megan Thee Stallion

Megan Thee Stallion Thot Shit

Megan Thee Stallion is one of the hottest artists on the planet. Performed by her alter-ego, Tina Snow, Thot Shit is Megan Thee Stallion at her angriest. It’s perfect for getting fired up, and who doesn’t want to license a song from one of the world’s biggest hot-right-now artists?

8. FRIENDS by Anne-Marie ft. Marshmello

Anne-Marie Marshmello FRIENDS

Anne-Marie is well known for her upbeat and catchy pop songs. They’re absolutely perfect for anyone looking to set a positive tone in their videos. We’ve seen her songs get a lot of love from fitness YouTubers especially, all around the world. What makes this track extra special is that it’s a collaboration with masked DJ and producer, Marshmello!

9. Attention by Charlie Puth

Charlie Puth - Attention

Charlie Puth’s Attention is all about moving on when someone spiteful is trying to keep your attention. For such a downbeat subject he sure knows how to make it sound fun. It’s the perfect track for fitness videos, as exemplified by Anna McNulty below. (Psst, does anyone else mishear the lyrics for “throwing that turtle on my name”? Give it a listen and tell us we’re not crazy. Please…)

A video we loved featuring this track: 

10. Breaking Me by A7S & Topic

A7S and Topic Breaking Me

A nominee for ‘Top Dance & Electronic Song’ at the Billboard Music Awards, this banger from German DJ Topic and Swedish singer A7S is incredibly popular amongst content creators. Undoubtedly helped by its popularity on TikTok! Chilled but euphoric at the same time, it’s easy to see why.


A video we loved featuring this track: 

Tips for working with background music

Finding the best background music for YouTube is one thing, but artfully weaving it through your videos is a skill. Making sure your viewers can still hear you talk, but that your audience gets the vibe you want from your video can be tricky. This blend sets the best videos apart.

It doesn’t matter where you’ve sourced your soundtrack from, you still need to make sure you’ve used the music effectively. Here’s what to consider when you’re editing background music into your video:

1. Choose music that matches the tone of your video

Think about some of your favorite movie scenes or film soundtracks. There’s a reason why the producers of the Harry Potter films chose that magical, mystical, lilting melody rather than a punk rock soundtrack. Music is essential to setting the mood of your content.

In fact, 30% of YouTube viewers say that music can make or break a video. If you get it wrong, it could quickly get your audience clicking away from your content and subscribing to a different channel. Not only that, but you need to consider how your music choices fit with the overall style of your YouTube channel and the vibe your audience expects.

We’d recommend working on the video first and finding a track to match it later. Check the tempo, do you want lyrics or something purely instrumental? If you get the blend right you’re onto a winner.

2. Choose tracks that loop, or tracks that flow well into the next

If you’re looking for a cohesive feel to your video, choose tracks that loop easily. This way you can use a few similar tracks on repeat and not worry about potentially jarring changes between melodies.

Another way to tackle this is to pick tracks that have the same genre or BPM. We showed you above how fitness creators choose tracks that go well together in their longer pieces, which adds variety but keeps an overriding tone and theme.

3. Adjust the audio levels in your video

There’ll be points in your video where you want your chosen music to be the most prominent audio, but at other times, you’ll want to be heard talking over it. Background music often needs to remain in just that –  the background – so it’s important to understand how to adjust audio levels.

How you do that will depend on your video editor of choice, check out our
audio editing tutorials to help you. For more top tips on how to choose the right music for your YouTube videos, watch the video below.

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Now you know all about the best songs for YouTube videos! So, what is Lickd?

Now you’ve worked out the kind of tracks you want to use and how you’re going to seamlessly blend them into your content, it’s time to license them. Lickd allows you to quickly, easily and cheaply license tracks from Billboard 100 artists to use in your content without getting copyright claims. Never worry about being hit with a copyright claim again. Sign up today and get 25% off your first track. 

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