How to Add Music to a Video on iPhone (and Why Apple Music Won't Work)

The short answer: To add music to a video on an iPhone, use iMovie or Clips rather than the Photos app. In iMovie, open a project, tap Add Media, tap Audio, then My Music, and tap a track to drop it under your clip. In Clips, the built-in soundtracks automatically stretch to match your video's length. The catch that stops most people is Apple Music: a subscription download is licensed for playback inside the Music app and is not one of the sources Apple's own instructions list, so it will not appear as usable audio. Use a purchased or self-made file instead.

Why the Photos app isn't the answer

This is where nearly everyone starts, and it is a dead end for the thing you are trying to do.

Photos does have music. What it has music for is memory movies — the montages it assembles automatically from your library — where changing the soundtrack is one of the things you are meant to do. Those controls belong to a thing Photos generated. A video you filmed yourself is not a memory movie, and the editing tools Photos offers for it are trim, crop, rotate and filters. There is no track underneath it to put a song on.

So: two free Apple apps, and one important limitation shared by both. (If the video you want does not exist yet and the song is the only thing you have, that is a different job entirely — how to make an AI music video is the route for it.)

iMovie, step by step

1. Install iMovie from the App Store if it is not already on the phone. It is free.
2. Open it, tap Start New Project, choose Movie, and select your clip from the media browser. Tap Create Movie.
3. Move the playhead to where you want the music to begin.
4. Tap the Add Media button, then tap Audio.
5. Tap My Music to browse music on the device. Apple's guide describes this as finding music previously synced to your device from your computer.
6. Tap a track to preview it, then tap it again to add it to the project.
7. Tap the audio track on the timeline to trim it, drag its ends to change the in and out points, and use the volume control to set the level against your clip's own sound.
8. Tap Done, then the share button, then Save Video.

iMovie also carries a set of its own soundtracks and sound effects, reachable from the same Audio panel, which are free to use and sidestep the whole licensing question.

One line from Apple's page is worth reading twice, because it is the part people skip: to use a song purchased from the iTunes Store in a project, you must be the copyright holder of the song or have express permission from the copyright holder. Owning a file and being licensed to publish it in a video are different things.

Clips, for when speed matters more than control

Clips is Apple's fast social-video app, and it handles music differently in one useful way: songs and soundtracks are automatically adjusted to fit the length of your video. You do not trim anything; the app does it.

Open a project, tap the music button, and choose either one of the included soundtracks or My Music to pick from the device. To start somewhere other than the beginning, drag the waveform to move the start point. Some of the built-in soundtracks need an internet connection to download the first time.

Clips is the right tool for a fifteen-second vertical clip you are posting today. iMovie is the right tool when the cuts matter.

The Apple Music limitation, stated plainly

You cannot put an Apple Music streaming track into an iMovie or Clips project. Not with a workaround inside the app, and not by downloading it for offline listening first.

The reason is straightforward once you look at what a subscription actually is. Apple Music sells access, not files: you are licensed to play the catalogue inside the Music app for as long as you pay. A downloaded track is stored for offline playback, not handed over as a piece of audio you can export inside something else. That is why Apple's own instructions for iMovie enumerate a specific set of sources — music synced to the device from a computer, and songs you created in GarageBand, Logic Pro or another app and imported via iCloud Drive or the Music app on your computer — and why a subscription download is not among them.

What does work:

• Music you bought outright, subject to the copyright-holder condition above.
• Music you made yourself — a GarageBand bounce, a mix from a session, a track you had mastered. This is the one with no strings attached.
• iMovie and Clips' built-in soundtracks, which are supplied for exactly this purpose.
• Any audio file on the device, brought in through iCloud Drive or Files.

If the song you want is a commercial release you did not make, the honest answer is that there is no legitimate route to putting it in an exported video, and the platforms will tell you so at upload. That mechanism — Content ID, automatic audio removal, and what to do when it happens — is covered in the general guide to adding music to a video, which also has the desktop and Android routes.

Getting your own music onto the phone

Since your own files are the only frictionless option, it is worth knowing the two ways in.

Sync from a computer. Connect the iPhone, open Music (or Finder on a Mac), and sync the tracks across. They then appear under My Music in both iMovie and Clips.

iCloud Drive or Files. Export the bounce, put it in iCloud Drive, and import it into iMovie from the Files browser instead of the music list. This is usually faster if the track only exists as a single WAV or MP3.

Either way, a WAV is the better thing to carry over if you have one. It is uncompressed, so the phone encodes it once on export; a lossy file has to be decoded and then re-encoded.

When the phone is the wrong tool

A phone edit is excellent for a clip with a bed under it. It is a poor fit for a music video, because the constraint is not the editor — it is that you need three minutes of footage, and cutting three minutes of picture on a five-inch timeline is miserable work.

If what you actually want is a video for a song instead of music under a clip, the problem is inverted: the audio is fixed and the picture has to be built to it. Making a music video without filming anything covers that route, and what a music video costs covers what the alternatives run to.

Frequently asked questions

Can I add music to a video in the Photos app on iPhone?+

Not to a video you shot. The soundtrack controls in Photos belong to memory movies — the automatic montages Photos builds from your library — where you can change the song and the overall look. A clip you filmed and want to score needs a real editor, which on iOS means iMovie or Clips, both free from Apple.

Why can't I use Apple Music songs in iMovie?+

An Apple Music subscription gives you a licence to play tracks in the Music app for as long as you subscribe, not a file you own. Apple's own iMovie instructions list the usable sources as music synced to your device from a computer and audio you created in apps like GarageBand or Logic — a streaming download is neither, so it does not appear as selectable audio.

What music can I use in iMovie on iPhone?+

Songs synced to your iPhone from Music on a computer, tracks you made in GarageBand or Logic Pro and imported via iCloud Drive, iMovie's own built-in soundtracks and sound effects, and audio you record directly into the project. Apple adds that to use a song purchased from the iTunes Store you must be the copyright holder or have express permission from them.

How do I add music to a video on iPhone for free?+

iMovie and Clips are both free Apple apps and both include royalty-free soundtracks, so the entire job costs nothing if you use their built-in music. Clips is faster because its soundtracks auto-fit your video's length; iMovie gives you manual control over where the track starts and how it is trimmed.

How do I get music onto my iPhone so iMovie can see it?+

Sync it from a computer using the Music app, or drop the file into iCloud Drive and import it into iMovie from the Files browser. Anything you exported yourself — a bounce from GarageBand, a WAV from a session, an MP3 you were sent — works once it is on the device as an actual file, not a streaming entry.

Will my iPhone video get muted if I use a commercial song?+

Very likely, once you post it. YouTube matches uploads against rights holders' reference files and applies whatever policy the owner has chosen, from monetising your video for them to blocking it outright. Instagram runs comparable matching of its own, where the usual outcome for an unlicensed track is muted audio or a restricted post. The file plays fine on your phone either way — the problem only appears at upload.

A phone edit is a phone edit. A music video is a different job.

Melodious takes your track and storyboards a full video around it — scenes, keyframes and timing generated from the song itself, on any device with a browser.

Storyboard your song