Captions & Music

Many people watch with the sound off, and many songs come with rules. Clear captions and music you are allowed to use make a video that works for everyone and stays up.

Captions people can read

• Short lines. One or two lines on screen at a time, a few words each.
• Time to read. Leave text up long enough to read it twice. About three words a second is a comfortable pace.
• Contrast. White or very light text with a thin dark outline or a soft box behind it reads on almost any background.
• A plain font. Save decorative script for a single word, such as a name or greeting. Use a clear sans-serif for everything else.
• Inside the safe zone. Keep text away from the very top and bottom of tall videos, where app buttons sit.
• Check spelling, especially names and dates. Read every caption aloud once.

Many editors and apps can create automatic captions from speech. They save time, but always check them: they often get names, accents and mixed languages wrong.

Greeting text that works

For festival and occasion videos, one short message lands better than a paragraph: the greeting, the name and maybe a date. Write it in the language your viewers speak at home, and check the spelling of any script you do not write every day.

Music: what you can use

Source	Usually allowed?	Check
Music library inside the app you post with	Yes, within that app	The licence may not cover saving the video and posting elsewhere
Royalty-free libraries	Often	Read the licence: some need a credit line, some forbid commercial use
Creative Commons tracks	Depends on the licence	CC BY needs credit; NC means no commercial use; ND means no changes
Old classical works	The composition is often public domain	A modern recording of it usually is not
Film and album songs	No, not without permission	Owned by labels, composers and lyricists
Music you made yourself	Yes	Make sure any samples or loops are licensed

Giving credit to an artist does not by itself give you permission to use their song. When a platform mutes, blocks or removes a video, it is usually because of a music match.

Sound that does not fight the picture

• Lower the music under speech so voices are clear.
• Fade the track in and out instead of cutting it mid-note.
• Record voice close to the mic, in a soft room with curtains or cushions, away from fans.

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