How to Add Music to YouTube Shorts: Phone, Computer, and Hands-Off

October 2, 2026

To add music to a YouTube Short on your phone, open the YouTube app, tap Create, choose Short, and tap Add sound before you record or Sound after you record. On a computer, upload the Short, then open it in YouTube Studio, go to Editor, choose Audio and add a track from YouTube’s Audio Library. Both routes are free. The part that trips people up is the music itself: which library you pick from decides whether the Short can earn money, whether it can run past a minute, and whether a copyright claim can block it.

This guide covers the three ways to add music, the rules that come with each kind of track, and how to mix music under a voiceover so it helps instead of drowning the words. It ends with the hands-off way, for a channel that publishes often enough that adding a track by hand has become a chore of its own.

The three ways to add music to a YouTube Short

The first two are YouTube’s own tools, and the next sections go through each one step by step. The third is any editing app you already use. It works the same way as adding music to any video, so the useful part here is which tracks are safe to put in.

How to add music in the YouTube app

YouTube’s help centre describes the flow like this (as of October 2026):

1. Open the YouTube app and sign in.
2. Tap Create, then Short.
3. Tap Add sound at the top of the camera screen and pick a track. You can search or browse, and tap a track to preview it.
4. Record your clips. The music plays while you record, which helps if you are cutting to the beat.
5. Already recorded without music? Tap Done, then Sound in the editor, and pick a track there instead.
6. Use Volume to balance the music against your original audio and any voiceover.
7. Tap Next, add a title, choose who can see it, and upload.

The iPhone help page also describes a feature that syncs your clips to the beat of a track YouTube suggests, with a carousel to swap the music. If the track it picks is wrong, you can skip that step and add the audio by hand.

One catch: the music library inside the app comes with conditions. YouTube’s help page for its Shorts tools says the music and sounds there “are free of charge to use, but only for personal, non-commercial use, unless you have the appropriate licenses.” For a hobby Short that is fine. For a channel you plan to monetise, read the rights section below before you pick a song.

How to add music to an uploaded Short from a computer

If you made the Short in another app, or you already uploaded it without music, YouTube Studio can add a track afterwards. The steps on YouTube’s help page (as of October 2026):

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio on a computer.
2. Select Content in the left menu and click the Short.
3. Click Editor in the left menu.
4. Select Audio and use the filters to find a track. Click play to preview.
5. Click Add. Drag the track to where it should start, and drag its edges to set how much of it plays. You can add more than one song.
6. Click Save.

Two things the same page warns about. The mobile app can no longer change a video’s audio track; this needs a computer. And since June 2025 an edit saved in the Studio editor cannot be undone with the old “Revert to original” option, so preview before you save.

The upside of this route is the music itself. Studio’s songs come from YouTube’s Audio Library, and the help page says those “can be used in monetized videos.”

Which music is safe to use in a Short

This is the question that matters more than which button to press. There are three kinds of music you can reach for, and they behave differently.

• Popular songs from the Shorts audio library. These are licensed through YouTube’s agreements with record labels. YouTube’s rights-holder help page says that when a creator adds one of these songs with the Shorts creation tools, “a special Content ID claim is created,” and that these claims are not visible to the creator. Using the same song from a file you edited elsewhere is different: that use “is eligible for standard copyright claims.”
• Royalty-free music. YouTube’s Audio Library in Studio, and the royalty-free tab in YouTube Create, carry tracks meant for exactly this. Studio’s library is the one YouTube says can go into monetised videos.
• Your own files. A track you bought a licence for, or made yourself. Keep the licence text somewhere you can find it, because it is what you will show if a claim ever arrives.

Length matters too. YouTube now treats vertical videos up to three minutes long as Shorts, and its rights-holder page says “Shorts longer than one minute that have an active copyright claim, regardless of the policy, will be blocked on YouTube.” So a popular song is a much bigger risk on a two-minute Short than on a 40-second one. If your Shorts run long, royalty-free music is the safe default.

The YouTube Create app adds one more limit worth knowing: its help page says music from the Shorts Audio Library “will automatically be removed if you export a video that is longer than 15 seconds,” and that you should upload directly to YouTube to use licensed clips up to 60 seconds.

How to mix music under a voiceover

Most faceless channels run on narration, and music under a voice is where most Shorts go wrong. A few rules that hold whatever tool you use:

• Keep the music far below the voice. If you have to strain to hear the words on a phone speaker, the music is too loud. Turn it down until it is something you feel more than hear.
• Pick the mood from the topic, not the trend. A calm track suits a space fact or a history story. Something upbeat suits a list or a quick tip. Drums suit a dramatic reveal. A trending song that fights the tone of the script does more harm than silence.
• Start the music with the first frame. A Short that opens on silence loses people in the first second.
• Fade it out at the end so the last line lands cleanly. YouTube Create has a fade control for exactly this.
• Leave it out when the voice carries everything. A dense explainer can be better with no music at all. Silence is a valid choice.

If you are still shaping the script the music sits under, how to write a script for a YouTube video covers pacing a short narration.

When adding music by hand is enough

The manual way is the right one for a lot of channels:

• You film on your phone and the music is part of the moment you are capturing.
• You post a few Shorts a week, and choosing the song is part of the fun.
• The song is the point, for example a dance, a lip-sync or a trend that only works with that exact track.
• You want a specific popular song, which only YouTube’s own tools can license for a Short.

In any of those cases, the YouTube app is the quickest tool there is, and nothing below will beat it.

The hands-off way, for a channel that posts every day

The work changes when a channel publishes daily. Adding music is a small step, but it repeats on every single video: pick a mood, find a track, set the volume under the narration, check the end, export, upload. On a faceless channel it sits on top of the script, the voiceover, the visuals and the captions, which all repeat too.

Nichecast is one way to take that whole run off your hands. You describe a channel once, including its niche, its visual style, and its background music: No music, Chill, Upbeat or Dramatic, each with a preview clip in the channel form so you can hear it before you choose. From then on every video it makes for that channel carries the same music choice. Each video arrives with:

1. A script written for the channel’s niche.
2. A voiceover recorded from it.
3. Footage and captions timed to the voice.
4. The chosen music bed mixed low under the narration.
5. A rendered 9:16 Short, uploaded to your YouTube channel as unlisted.

Nothing goes public until you publish it yourself. The Short waits in YouTube Studio, where you can watch it, change the title, or swap the track with the Studio editor steps above if a particular video needs different music.

The trade-off is choice. You get four moods, not every song on YouTube, and you cannot put a trending popular song on a Nichecast video. For a channel built on explainers, facts and stories, a steady background bed is usually what the format wants anyway. For a channel built on trending audio, stay with the YouTube app.

You can try it on five free videos without a card. The free script generator needs no account at all if you want to see the writing first, and how to make a YouTube Short covers the rest of the manual route if you would rather build each one yourself.

Quick answers

Can I add music to a Short after uploading it? Yes, from a computer. Open the Short in YouTube Studio, go to Editor, then Audio. The mobile app can no longer change a video’s audio track.

Why did my music disappear from an exported Short? In YouTube Create, licensed Shorts Audio Library music is removed when you export a video longer than 15 seconds. Upload straight to YouTube from the app to keep it.

Can I monetise a Short with music in it? Music from YouTube’s Audio Library in Studio can be used in monetised videos, according to YouTube’s help page. For the wider rules on Shorts earnings, see how to make money on YouTube Shorts.

Will a copyrighted song get my Short blocked? A Short longer than one minute with an active copyright claim is blocked, per YouTube’s rights-holder help page. A shorter Short can still be claimed or taken down when the song was added outside YouTube’s own tools. Royalty-free music you are licensed to use avoids both.

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