How to credit CC BY music

CC BY 4.0 music is free to use as long as you give credit. Good attribution takes a few seconds once you know what to include. Below are ready-to-use examples for every common format.

What a good credit includes

Creative Commons recommends an easy checklist, often remembered as TASL:

• Title: the track or album name (recommended when you know it).
• Author: who made it. Here, that's Purrple Cat.
• Source: where it can be found, such as purrplecat.com.
• License: the license name and a link to it, CC BY 4.0.

If you edited the music, for example by looping, cutting, slowing down or remixing it, the license also asks you to say that it was changed. CC BY 4.0 lets you give credit in any reasonable way that suits the medium, so a short line is fine.

The simplest version that covers everything is the standard credit line:

Music: Purrple Cat (purrplecat.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0

YouTube

Put the credit in the video description. It doesn't have to be at the top, but it should be visible without hunting for it.

Music: "Up All Night" by Purrple Cat (purrplecat.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

For compilations or long videos with several tracks, list them with timestamps and add one license line at the end:

00:00 Track one - Purrple Cat
03:12 Track two - Purrple Cat
Music by Purrple Cat (purrplecat.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0

For Shorts, the description of the Short works the same way.

Twitch and live streams

Add a permanent "Music" panel with the credit line, and set up a chat command like !music that posts it. If you export VODs or highlights to another platform, paste the credit into that description too. There's more detail in our guide to music for Twitch.

!music → Stream music: Purrple Cat (purrplecat.com), CC BY 4.0

TikTok and Instagram Reels

Short-form captions are tight on space, so keep it brief. A short credit in the caption is a reasonable way to attribute in this format:

🎵 Purrple Cat (purrplecat.com) · CC BY 4.0

If you have a link in your bio or a pinned comment, that's a good place to add the full credit line with the license link.

Podcasts

Put the credit in your show notes or episode description. If you use the same track as a theme for every episode, also add it to your podcast's main description. A spoken credit at the end of an episode is a kind extra, but not required if it's in the notes.

Theme music: "Track name" by Purrple Cat (purrplecat.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Games and apps

Add the credit to your game's credits screen, and also to the store page or a readme bundled with the game, since not every player reaches the end credits.

Music
Purrple Cat - purrplecat.com
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)

If you trimmed or looped tracks for gameplay, add "edited for looping" or similar. Game developers can find Purrple Cat music on itch.io and OpenGameArt.

Edited or remixed music

Say what you changed in a few words:

Music: "Track name" by Purrple Cat (purrplecat.com), slowed and looped, licensed under CC BY 4.0

Common mistakes to avoid

• Leaving out the license. "Music by Purrple Cat" alone doesn't say how others can use it. Include "CC BY 4.0".
• Calling it "no copyright." It's copyrighted music shared under a free license. "Free to use with credit" is accurate.
• Implying endorsement. Crediting the artist is great, but don't suggest Purrple Cat sponsors or endorses your content.
• Assuming every release is the same. Self Releases are CC BY 4.0. Label releases may differ, so check the license on the download page.