Making a Yoga Playlist? Where to Get Music for Your Online Classes

Are you teaching yoga online and looking to add music to your live classes and video replays?

Then pay attention because creating a yoga music playlist for your online yoga session is VERY different than making yoga class playlists for teaching at your local yoga studio.

As tempting as it may be to stream your favorite playlist on Spotify into your recorded classes, using music that is not royalty-free can have huge repercussions, especially if you intend to distribute content after you go live or create a YouTube channel.

If you upload videos with copyrighted music onto YouTube, you will not only be ineligible to monetize but YouTube will also remove your content…all the time and energy you put into creating your video would be for nothing.

So if you want to use music in your recorded online classes, always be sure to use royalty-free music.

Here are some royalty-free music resources for you to check out if you plan on using music in your classes.

1. YouTube’s Free Audio Library

YouTube offers a free audio library for creators to browse and use music from. If you’re a yoga instructor that is used to teaching in the yoga studio, then this is a great resource for starting out because it lets you quickly select music without the fear of running into copyright laws.

Pros:

• The music is free, which is a plus.
• You can find a lot of instrumental music, making it easy to pair with voice overs for either giving instruction or guiding meditation.

Cons:

• The selection is not that ideal for a yoga class, per se. It’s not necessarily “yoga music” and the songs on their music playlist are pretty limited.
• Another downfall to YouTube’s audio library is that most of the tracks are very short, so you would need to loop the tracks, which takes more time and would require software from apps like GarageBand or iMovie.

2. Epidemic Sound

Epidemic sound is a royalty-free music subscription site that specializes in content for creators and YouTubers.

Both the Personal and Commercial plans offer a free 30 day trial in addition to monthly or yearly subscription options. You also have the ability to purchase just a single track license if you prefer not to have a subscription.

Pros

• Even though you may need to loop the tracks, this option gives you the ability to be more creative with your music.

Cons

• It can be tricky to find tracks that work specifically for practicing yoga. Finding songs that match the rhythm of a vinyasa yoga class or yin yoga class, for example, may be challenging.
• You will probably need to loop them as most songs are only 2-3 minutes, but when you download the music you have the option to use different gradations of the track. So you can use the whole song, the melody, or just the string instruments.

3. Premium Beat

Premium Beat is another royalty-free music site that offers individual track purchase options, which is perfect for the yoga teacher who is just becoming familiar with creating an online yoga studio. They also have a wide selection of yoga songs available, making it easy to create yoga class playlists for many styles of yoga, from yin yoga to vinyasa flow.

Pros

• Though it’s a bit pricier than Epidemic sound, it has a greater selection of music more suited for yoga classes.
• Licenses are valid for one track and pricing includes the full song, loops and short clips.

Cons

• This service costs more than the free or bulk plans when you start buying multiple yoga songs for your online classes (especially for free yoga classes).

4. Soundcloud

Soundcloud has a large variety of royalty-free stock music loops, including ambient sounds. Ambient music and sounds like singing bowls, gong sounds and sound spas are great for yoga classes and easy to loop. Ambient music is also helpful to cover up not so great audio quality in your videos.

Pros

• Creating yoga class playlists is easier than ever with the massive library of ambient sounds, making it perfect for yin yoga, guided meditation, savasana, breath work, and even a yoga flow class.

Cons

• The extensive library can be a bit overwhelming for a yoga teacher who often turns to their trusty playlist on Spotify, making it difficult to find songs or yoga music quickly.

5. Make Your Own Music

There are so many great ways to create your own ambient sound for your yoga class videos! By creating your own yoga music playlist, you have absolute control and rights over it. It also gives you the opportunity to make the perfect yoga flow with music you love (yours!).

You could play a singing bowl or record yourself chanting. Maybe you have a friend or fellow yoga teacher who plays the harmonium, pan flute, ukelele, or guitar. Get creative and have fun with it!

Pros

• Creating your own music or ambient sound is completely free – royalty and monetarily!
• You get to support your fellow yoga instructor by sharing their music with other yogis.

Cons

• If you haven’t worked with the technical aspect of recording and uploading your own tunes before, then this can be challenging.
• Making enough music to create an entire playlist of yoga music can be challenging if you’re fairly new at it.

Read Next: My Exact Tech Tools For My Million Dollar Online Yoga Platform

6. Collaborate with Artists Who Want Their Music Shared

Find an artist you resonate with on Soundcloud or Spotify and ask them if they would like to have their music featured on your YouTube videos.

So many artists are looking for opportunities to expand their exposure and grow their audience.

Pros

• This could provide free music for your yoga session, depending on which artists you connect with.
• It’s a beautiful opportunity to share upcoming artists with other yogis, supporting others in their own dream.

Cons

• It’s not a sustainable way to find songs for your vinyasa yoga playlist as it likely will take a lot of time and energy per song.

Final Thoughts

While it’s great to want to include music in your videos, keep in mind that it makes the whole process of creating and sharing videos on YouTube a lot longer and more complicated.

If you have good audio quality you may just want to not use music and instead, let your students pick their own music.

They could choose their own playlist or you could create Spotify playlist links for your classes that your students can listen to as they follow along.

This gives you the option to use music that is not royalty-free but also eliminates all of the extra work that goes into uploading music to your vinyasa flow class. It also likely offers better music for your students to choose from since you’re not restricted by

Also keep in mind that for many, silence is golden and no music may be the best option, especially if you already have good quality audio. People can have strong reactions to music and for many, having no music is more appealing.

This not only gives your students the option to play music that they prefer but also makes your life a lot easier!

If you look at some of the top channels on YouTube like Yoga with Adrienne, you will find that she chooses not to use music in her classes. I talk about this topic so much more in depth in my 200 Hour and 300 Hour YTTs. You can also check out my YouTube Channel, Brett Larkin Yoga to see what I choose.