How to Add Music to Stream in OBS

Lee Stanton September 29, 2023

Adding music creates personality and boosts the quality of your OBS streams, providing a more enjoyable experience for the viewers. And having music in the background of your stream is an entertaining way of keeping your audience engaged, especially when you aren’t talking much. To add another dimension to your streams, you could add music from your computer, Spotify, or Apple Music.

If you don’t know how to add music to OBS streams, we’ve got you covered. This article explains everything you need to know.

Adding Music In OBS

There are a few ways to add music to streams in OBS, like adding YouTube music, music from Spotify, and using the OBS music plugin.

Add Music From Your Computer to OBS

If you already have music files on your computer that you’d like to add to your OBS streams, follow these steps:

Open OBS.
Select the “+” icon beside the “Sources” section.
Click on “Media Source.” Here are some supported file types: mp4, mp3, mkv, aac, wav, ts, flv, ogg.
In the box that appears, name the source.
Select “OK.”
Click on the checkbox next to “Local File.”
Use “Browse” to choose the song you want to add from your computer.
Adjust any other options like “Loops” or “Playback Speed.”

Add Spotify or Apple Music to OBS

If you don’t have music saved to your computer suitable for your streams, you might prefer to choose from your Apple Music or Spotify playlists.

Here are steps for adding music from Spotify or Apple Music to OBS:

Open OBS.
Also, open Spotify, Apple Music, or any other music streaming platform and minimize it.
Go to OBS and click on the “+” icon beside the Sources Section.
Select “Window Capture.”
In the box that appears, name the source.
Go to “Add Source.”
Select the program you want to use from the window to play your music.
A drop-down menu will appear. Choose Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you want to stream music from.

When you choose software using Windows Capture, a window from the program remains visible as an overlay on your screen. You don’t want viewers to see this window covering most of your screen. For that reason, edit how much of your screen is shown to your viewers. To do so, hold the Alt key and crop the sides and top of the window. You can also drag it to a different position on the screen.

Add Music to a Specific Scene in OBS

When you add a music source from OBS directly, it plays during your entire stream. Streams in OBS are divided into sections like Starting Soon, Interval, etc. You may want to add specific music to each scene to set the tone of your stream.

Here are steps for how to add music to a scene in OBS:

Decide what scenes will be included in your stream, then go to “Studio.”
Beside the Space Station section, select “+” to create a new scene.
Input the name of your scene, then hit “Done.”
To choose music for the scene, click “+” beside the Sources section.
Go to “Media Source,” then select “Add Source.”
Click on the checkbox next to “Local File” and choose your music.
Hit “OK.”
Go to “Settings” next to “Mixer.”
In “Audio Monitoring,” select “Media Source.”
Choose “Monitor and Output.”

Follow the steps above for all the different scenes, and OBS will automatically play the music selected for each scene.

Add YouTube Music to OBS

If you want to play YouTube music in OBS streams, you can do so by adding the playlist to OBS or downloading the playlist as mp3s and adding it via “Media Source” using the abovementioned steps. You can also play YouTube music using “Window Capture.” Remember to leave the YouTube tab open to play the song during your stream.

Where to Get Royalty-Free Music for OBS

Using non-copyrighted music to play in your OBS streams is essential, as you wouldn’t want your stream to get muted or have your channel deleted. To be safe, source music from sites that provide non-copyrighted selections.

Here are a few places to get royalty-free music for your OBS streams.

No Copyright Sounds (NCS)

If you’re looking for royalty-free music on YouTube, NCS is a great and popular choice many content creators use. NCS has up to 1,000 royalty-free music choices that you can apply anywhere. They have a diverse library, including bass, drum, electro-pop, and many other genres. It’s free to use, but it is recommended that you credit the composer.

Soundstripe

Soundscripe is geared to provide music solutions for production. With a subscription, you can get unlimited music downloads to be used anywhere, including broadcast or YouTube, and you’ll get over 9,000 label-quality songs.

Epidemic Sound

Another excellent library source is Epidemic Sound, which contains many interesting music track choices. It’s not free, but you can give them a go with a one-month free trial and choose if you’d like to subscribe. They have over 32,000 song choices to suit different scenes or moods.

Game Chops

Video Game streamers who’d love to add music or sound effects to their OBS streams will appreciate this site. Game Chops has lo-fi options of famous game soundtracks like Minecraft, Pokemon, Legend of Zelda, and much more. These tracks can add a cool game vibe to your OBS streams.

PremiumBeat

PremiumBeat is a subsidiary of Shutterstock, and they have a royalty-free music library that gives you a big production, house-polished feel. All the music tracks on PremiumBeat are exclusive and have been cleared for copyright.

Chillhop

Another site that offers lo-fi tracks to add to OBS streams is Chillhop. There are a lot of vibey, late-night relaxation tracks to choose from here.

Pond5

Pond5 has a variety of royalty-free music, audio for film, TV, and production projects, and stock sounds for your OBS Streams. If you take out an annual subscription, you get a 50% discount

Envato Elements

With Envato Elements you get unlimited downloads of music and sounds for use in OBS for a competitive monthly fee. You’ll never run out of choices since they have over 15 million tracks to choose from!

Create Atmosphere on OBS Streams With Music

Adding music to your OBS streams helps you create the right atmosphere for your audience. You can add music directly from your computer, YouTube, or streaming platforms like Apple Music and Spotify.

You can add different music to specific scenes to add even more dimension to your streams. It’s essential to ensure the music you use is royalty-free, and we’ve given a few sites above where you can source good tracks.

Have you ever tried adding music to enhance your OBS streams? If so, did it help generate more interaction with your audience? Let us know in the comments section below.