Pet Perfect Stock Music for Your Furry and Fuzzy Video Channel
Soundstripe Team
Jan 22, 2019
(Side note: If you want access to 6,000+ radio-quality songs that are approved for YouTube, check out our pricing options. Subscriptions start at $20/month.)
Animals and the internet are pretty much our generation’s peanut butter and jelly – the perfect combo! YouTube and social media feeds are filled with animal videos, from cute and cuddly, to instructive, and hilarious.
As a result, top animal-related channels can easily garner hundreds of thousands of views per video, which translates into serious revenue. Is your kitty, puppy, or other furry/feathered/scaly friend a star in the making? Then it’s time to start planning your pet-friendly YouTube channel as well as the royalty free music you’ll need to make your pet a hit!
Let’s take a look at some of the most popular musical genres and musical moods that make the purrrfect accompaniment to pet-relatedYouTube channels. We’ll use some of today’s most popular pet channels to help us along the way.
Before we discuss the right music for your pet YouTube channel, it’s worth asking the question of whether this is even a good idea.
Creating any YouTube channel with the goal of earning income is a challenging endeavor all by itself. Top YouTube channels must put out a regular stream of interesting, relevant, and polished videos in order to develop and maintain a loyal following.
This becomes even more difficult when you add in the fickle personality of your pets who aren’t always inclined to memorize their lines and hit their cues.
However, the rewards for a successful pet-related channel can be great.
While there aren’t many useful statistics available about the value or earning potential of pet channels, all you have to do is scroll through your Facebook feed to realize something important. People love, love, LOVE adorable animal videos. These videos are like warm coco on a blustery winter day, and people love sharing them.
Pet videos aren’t just good for melting the hearts of your friends and family members. They can also earn you some serious cash. Top pet-related channels can easily garner hundreds of thousands of views per video, and top pet videos have even hit the million-plus mark, like this video from The Dodo that showcases the story of Bailey, an orange tabby cat who loves his little human siblings.
Once your videos start getting serious viewership numbers, you can apply to YouTube’s Partner Program and enable ads on your videos.
You can also earn more money through channel memberships or from YouTube Premium members. Many YouTube channels even offer merchandise directly to fans. For example, fans of the Cole and Marmalade channel can purchase t-shirts, tote bags, sweatshirts and more featuring the two famous kitties.
If your videos are adorable enough, you could soon be earning a nice amount of income with the help of your furry and feathery friends, but only if your videos are polished and professional. Even the cutest, cuddliest kitten won’t grab viewers if your video production and editing are sub-par. One big factor in the success equation is the music you use for your channel.
Not all pet-related videos utilize background music, but many of the top channels do. Take a look at this ultra-adorable kitten compilation video from the savvy folks at the Pet Collective. Yes, the fuzz ball kittens are the main attraction, but one could argue that the video’s next most prominent feature is its fun and upbeat musical soundtrack.
Music has a powerful ability to affect the feelings of viewers and to enhance the emotional impact of what’s happening on screen. (Check out this fascinating article we wrote about how music affects the human brain.)
Most pet-related videos are designed to make viewers feel happy, so an upbeat song can be the perfect accompaniment to many of these video types.
As you begin to plan out your first pet videos, think about what music will best support the emotions you want your viewers to feel.
Almost all pet videos are designed to elicit positive emotions from viewers. Many of the most successful channels capitalize on how pets are cute, funny, and silly. It’s no surprise that of the best musical selections also project these same emotions.
When searching for stock music, many beginning videographers focus their selection on genre. However, genre is a broad category that can include a wide array of different music.
For example, you may think that “ambient” music is a good genre to search for pet video background music. What you’ll find, however, is that the emotional message of the songs within the ambient genre vary greatly.
For example, at Soundstripe, our ambient music category includes “Angels Song,”which would be a great accompaniment to many of the videos found on The Dodo or the Pet Collective. At the same time, our ambient collection also features “Valley Morning,”which probably isn’t right for a cute or silly video. Searching through the ambient genre could end up being a time-consuming endeavor!
If you want to start your search in a specific genre, we recommend the corporate genre. Corporate music is designed to be warm and positive. You’ll find a lot of cheerful and playful songs in this music genre that go well with the cute and silly antics of your cats, dogs, and other pets, including the song “Inspire.”
Corporate music also makes for excellent background music for pet-related instructional videos. This video from the Cole and Marmalade channel uses an excellent corporate music song to provide a positive and upbeat vibe as it instructs viewers on how to introduce a new kitten (or kittens) into a household that already has cats.
While the corporate genre may yield plenty of promising songs for your pet videos, we recommend not focusing in on a specific genre as you begin your musical search. Instead, look to filter your music by mood.
Experienced videographers know that a better way to search for the right stock music is to focus on the feeling the music conveys. That’s why many background music sites, including Soundstripe, allow users to sort music by “Mood.” Instead of wading through a wide variety of songs in a particular genre, you can use the mood filter to home in on the specific emotion you want your music to evoke.
What type of emotion do you want to cultivate in your next video? Is this a silly video of a dog trying to get through a door while carrying an impossibly long stick? Then you might want to look for funny or comic music. Is your video a heartwarming tale of a rescue dog overcoming her fear? Then consider music that is hopeful or comforting.
At Soundstripe, some of the best musical moods for pet videos are:
If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, then you already know that YouTube does not tolerate the use of copyrighted music. Its sophisticated Content ID system is incredibly good at identifying when newly uploaded videos include copyrighted music or images.
If you get caught, your videos could be pulled down, or worse, the copyright owner could choose to take all your video’s ad revenue. If you post multiple videos that include copyrighted music over a short amount of time, YouTube could even hit you with three strikes and pull down your entire channel.
To summarize, using copyrighted music just isn’t worth the risk! Fortunately, there are plenty of places where you can access great royalty free background music for your pet videos. YouTube offers a free music library that includes lots of different songs and sound effects. You can even filter the music by ten different moods.
YouTube’s free audio library is a great place for new videographers to start, especially if you are on a tight budget. However, as your channel grows and your videos become more sophisticated, you may want to look into other stock music resources that can give you a greater and more unique variety. The problem with YouTube’s library is that it’s the first stop for most new videographers, which means its songs are often overused. You don’t want your videos to look and sound like everyone else’s, right?
Consider looking into a stock music site like Soundstripe. Our library of royalty free background music is constantly growing, and our music is fresh and unique. Unlike other music sites, we don’t charge our customers per song or limit how many times they can use a particular song.
Instead, we offer complete access to our music library for a single subscription. The subscription model means that not everyone and their neighbor will be using our music, so your video soundtracks will sound unique and engaging to your audience.
We also offer 64 different mood filters, so you can find exactly the right sound for your next video! Our playlist feature lets you create a variety of playlists to save your favorite sounds and make the editing phase as fast and easy as possible.
Visit our music library today to find the happy and cheerful stock music that will help your pet’s sweet and silly personality charm the world.
Interested in reading more top resources and getting our best filmmaking tips and tricks? Here are a couple of our most popular articles from across the Soundstripe blog: