How to remove copyrighted music from a YouTube video

A claim or a strike: know which one you have

Most creators who search for this have a Content ID claim, not a strike, and the two are very different. A claim is YouTube’s automatic match: a rights holder registered a recording, and the system heard it in your video. YouTube says a claim is not a copyright strike and usually has no effect on your channel as a whole.

A strike is heavier. YouTube issues one after a valid legal request to take a video down. Three strikes put the account at risk of being terminated, and a strike expires after 90 days once you finish Copyright School. YouTube also points out that a claim can turn into a strike: if you dispute it without a valid reason and the owner then files a takedown, the dispute ends with a strike instead of a cleared claim.

What YouTube Studio offers, and what each one costs you

Open the video in YouTube Studio, go to the copyright details and you get a short list of fixes for the claimed segment. According to YouTube, the claim is lifted once every piece of claimed content has been muted, replaced or trimmed. Leave one claimed piece in and the claim stays.

YouTube itself says muting all sound is usually quicker and more likely to clear the claim than Erase song. That tells you something about Erase song: it is the gentle option, and on a loud song with singing, or a track mixed close to your voice, it can come back unable to separate the two. In that case YouTube suggests falling back to muting the segment or trimming it, which is exactly the trade you were trying to avoid.

Before you press Save in Studio

Since June 2025, edits saved in YouTube Studio are permanent. There is no undo and no way to put the old version back, so YouTube suggests downloading your video before you edit it. Do that first, even if you plan to trust Erase song; the download is also the copy you’ll need if you end up cleaning the sound yourself.

• Trimming in Studio only works on videos shorter than six hours, so a long stream archive may not offer it.
• Channels outside the YouTube Partner Program may not be able to save edits on a video with more than 100,000 views. Blurring faces is the one edit YouTube makes an exception for.
• Trimming in Studio needs no new upload, so the video keeps its URL, its views and its comments.

If none of the Studio options keeps what you need, the remaining route is to fix the sound on your side and upload again. Keep in mind that a new upload gets a new URL, and its views, watch time and comments start from zero.

When to clean the file yourself instead

Studio works after the fact, on a video that is already claimed. Cleaning the file yourself works before anything is posted, which is where it shines. Three situations make it the better choice:

1. 1The video isn’t up yet. A song in the background of a vlog, an interview recorded near a speaker or a cover track you used while editing will very likely be matched. Take it out first and no claim is raised at all.
2. 2Erase song failed on a part you need. If the claimed stretch is where you explain the main point, trimming or muting it guts the video. A cleaner separation on your side keeps the talk and drops the track.
3. 3You’re posting the same clip in more than one place. A clean master file works for YouTube, Shorts, Reels and TikTok without fixing each upload separately.

Cleaning a video with AI Music Remover, step by step

1. 1Open Remove copyrighted music from video and click Choose file. MP4, MOV, WEBM and MKV all work, up to 1.5 GB on a computer.
2. 2Leave the mode on Remove music. If you aren’t sure what to keep, click Not sure what to keep? and pick an answer.
3. 3Listen to the free 30 seconds preview with headphones. No account is needed for it, and you get 3 a day.
4. 4If a trace of the song is still there, click Still hear music? for a deeper pass, or lower the Music slider to zero.
5. 5Click Process full video, then Download video (MP4) and upload that file to YouTube.

Only the sound leaves your computer. The tool reads the audio out of your file, separates it and lays the new soundtrack back onto your own frames in the browser, so the picture is never sent anywhere.

What a cleaned video sounds like

Here is a real clip from our examples: a desk unboxing, the kind of video that gets claimed because a song was playing in the room while it was filmed.

“Okay, new headphones, let us take a look.”

“First impression, they are a lot lighter than I expected.”

“Noise cancelling on. Wow. I cannot hear my fridge anymore.”

Listen for the moments between sentences. That is where a matching system has the cleanest view of a song, and it is where a faint leftover would be easiest for you to hear too. If the gaps are quiet, the track is gone.

What to do when the song has lyrics

Singing is the hard case, for Studio’s Erase song and for any other tool. A sung line is a human voice, so it sits right next to your own speech, and it tends to stay with the voice when the backing track goes. Two things help:

• Click Still hear music? first. The deeper pass often pulls more of a sung line away from the speaker.
• Open Sliders and keep the Music slider at zero while you listen to the parts with singing. Your downloads use the mix you set.

If the singer is louder than the person talking, be honest with yourself: no tool takes that out cleanly. The fix then is editorial. Trim the few seconds where the chorus covers the speech, or let Studio mute only that short segment, and keep the rest of the video untouched.

Two shortcuts that don’t work

The comments under any video about claims repeat the same two ideas. YouTube’s own help pages contradict both:

• Keeping the clip short. YouTube says no length is automatically fair use, and a claim can land on just a few seconds of a popular song.
• Crediting the artist or writing “no infringement intended”. YouTube says neither makes a use fair; that question is decided case by case.

The reliable way to avoid a claim for a song in the background is for the song not to be there. That is the whole job of a music remover for copyrighted songs, and it is why we suggest cleaning before you post.

Common problems and how to fix them

Each full video uses one minute per minute of sound, counted by the second. New accounts get 10 free minutes, and packs start at $9.99 for 120 minutes on the pricing page. If something fails on our side, the minutes go back to your account. For the general walk-through, see how to remove music from a video; for vlogs filmed in shops and cafés, see removing store music from a vlog.

Questions