YouTube Shorts expands music from 15 to 60 seconds

YouTube Shorts is expanding the length of music and sounds on its short videos from 15 to 60 seconds, thanks to new licensing deals with labels and publishers.

In the coming days, YouTube says that the majority of music on Shorts will be available in lengths of up to 60 seconds. Creators can now also remix or sample, up to 60 seconds of sounds from other videos.

TikTok already enables 60 seconds of music, and this update addresses one of the chief complaints from YouTube Shorts at a time when the definition of what constitutes a short video is evolving.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.