Music makes a stream feel alive, and it is also the most common way streamers get into copyright trouble. Twitch's music guidelines say you should only play music you own or have the rights to. Rights holders can send DMCA notices over live streams, VODs and clips, Twitch can mute affected parts of VODs, and repeated notices can put a channel at risk. If you also upload highlights to YouTube, Content ID checks those too.
Free-to-use playlists of unclear origin are not a reliable fix. Music you made yourself and hold a licence for is. With AI you can build a full set of stream music in an evening, in your own style.
What a stream actually needs
Think in screens and moments rather than songs.
- Starting Soon: an upbeat loop of 1 to 3 minutes that builds a bit of anticipation.
- Background bed: low, steady instrumentals under gameplay or Just Chatting, often lo-fi, chill electronic or synthwave, roughly 70 to 110 BPM.
- BRB screen: a relaxed loop that does not get annoying after five minutes.
- Ending or raid outro: something warm to close the stream on.
- Short musical stingers of a few seconds for follows, subs or segment changes.
- Optional: a channel theme song with your handle in it, for intros, highlights and community moments.
Why instrumental, and how loud
Your voice is the content. Sung lyrics under commentary make you harder to follow and tire viewers out, so keep beds instrumental. Save vocal tracks for the starting screen, intros or a channel anthem when you are not talking.
Set the music clearly below your microphone. A common habit is to set it so you can just hear it while talking normally, then check a recorded VOD, because what sounds quiet in your headphones may be loud on stream.
Style prompts you can copy
Add "instrumental, loopable, no big changes" to anything that will run for a long time.
- "chill lo-fi hip hop, 80 bpm, dusty drums, soft keys, vinyl warmth, instrumental, loopable"
- "retro synthwave, 100 bpm, driving bass, neon pads, instrumental, steady"
- "upbeat electronic, 120 bpm, bright synths, starting soon energy, instrumental"
- "cozy acoustic, 85 bpm, soft guitar and light percussion, relaxed, BRB background"
- "Hinglish gaming anthem, 140 bpm, heavy drums, rap vocals, hype"
- "Indian fusion chill, sitar and lo-fi beat, 85 bpm, instrumental"
A channel theme with your name
A theme song gives your community something to recognise and even sing along to. Keep it short and put your handle in the chorus:
Hinglish: [Chorus] Live aa gaye, mic on hai / Chat mein shor, game on hai / RaviPlays ke saath chalo / Aaj raat sab on hai
English: [Chorus] Lights on, we're live tonight / Squad up, chat's alight / Welcome to the RaviPlays show / Grab a seat, here we go
Step by step in Autunes
A complete stream set takes a handful of generations.
- For loops, open the Short-Form tab and choose the Game Background template. It is instrumental, loop-friendly and comes in 30 or 60 seconds for 3 or 5 credits.
- For longer beds, use the Song tab with Instrumental only switched on. Songs run up to 3 minutes on Free and Pro and 5 on Creator. Zori5 Turbo costs 10 credits and Zori5.5 XL 15.
- Make 10 to 20 beds in one or two styles so viewers do not hear the same track all night. Variations cost 5 credits each.
- For stingers, trim a few seconds from the start or end of a short-form clip at a clean phrase end.
- For the theme song, paste your lyrics into the Song tab with [Verse] and [Chorus] tags.
Setting it up in OBS
Add each loop as a media source with looping switched on, or play a folder of beds as a playlist. Give music its own audio source so you can set its level separately from game audio and your microphone.
OBS can also send a separate audio track to Twitch VODs, so music can be left out of the VOD while staying on the live stream. With licensed music you do not need that, but some streamers like keeping VODs clean for editing highlights.
Licensing for monetised streams
A stream with subscriptions, bits, ads or sponsors is commercial. Free-plan songs are for personal use, so use a paid plan or buy the ₹9 single-song licence (US$1.79 or €1.59 outside India) for each track. Licensed songs can be used in live streams, VODs, clips and YouTube uploads with no royalty and no credit to Autunes required. Pro is ₹599 for 30 days with 300 credits, a one-time pass that does not auto-renew.
Paid plans also include creation proof, a SHA-256 fingerprint and creation time for each song. Keep those records with your music folder; they help if you ever need to show where a track came from.
Common mistakes
Most of these are about volume and variety.
- Music louder than your voice on the stream, even though it sounds fine in your headphones.
- Vocal tracks under commentary.
- One 30-second loop for a four-hour stream.
- Using playlists labelled copyright free without knowing who made them.
- Using free, unlicensed songs on a monetised channel.