How to Get Background Music for Guided Meditations on Insight Timer + How to Become a Teacher / Publish

So you’re looking to become a teacher on Insight Timer! I’m here to help you learn about the process and to provide resources for creating your own guided meditations, including how to get background music for Insight Timer and how to record and edit your mediations. I’ll also provide specific details about how to upload your tracks, how to credit your contributors properly, how income is earned, and also some tips to perform well on Insight Timer.

Prefer a video tutorial? Check that out here.

How to Become a Teacher on Insight Timer

Insight Timer is an amazing platform that welcomes many meditation teachers, mindfulness teachers, musicians, and more to share content on their platform and to earn an income based on their performance within the platform.

You can sign up to become a teacher here: https://insighttimer.com/meditation-teachers/join

Where to Get Background Music for Insight Timer

If you are going to create guided meditations, you may want some relaxing background music to accompany your vocal narration. Luckily, there’s an easy option! I have a huge library of relaxing, ambient background tracks that you can license for an affordable price and use in your guided meditations.

The process is simple:

1. Visit Indie Music Box
2. Review the license terms
3. Find the tracks you’d like to use
4. Purchase the tracks
5. Download the tracks (links provided at checkout and in confirmation email)
6. Download the PDF Invoice / License Certificate (links provided at checkout and in confirmation email)
7. Add the music to your tracks
8. Publish and make money! 🙂

You only have to license a track one time and you can use it in as many guided meditations as you’d like. If you’d like more than one track, you can purchase an album or bundle of music or you can use the discount code CUSTOMBUNDLE at checkout if you have $60 or more in your cart (this discount only applies to individual tracks, not existing bundles). That will save you 20%.

I hope my music will work well for your meditations! Thanks for listening and for using it.

How to Create and Record Your Guided Meditations

I have put together a detailed tutorial explaining how to record your guided meditations, using a free program called Audacity. All you will need is a computer, headphones, a microphone, the background music, and your meditation script. This tutorial is available as a written post and as a video. I hope it helps!

How to Upload Your Meditations to Insight Timer

Once you have been approved and accepted as a teacher on Insight Timer, you will have access to your Teacher Dashboard which is available at https://teacher.insighttimer.com

Once logged in, you should go to the Publisher Profile page and customize it with a profile picture, bio, and all other relevant information. View this page for teacher profile requirements. You should also go to the Payment Details page and fill out all the forms, which will allow you to get paid for your content on Insight Timer.

To upload your guided meditations to Insight Timer, you should first navigate to the Tracks page and click the button that says “Create a track”

Choose whether you want to release your guided meditation as a free track or a premium track. I highly recommend starting out with a bunch of free tracks and branching out into premium tracks on a smaller scale. You will be able to grow your audience more with free tracks. I will get into this more later. Either way, you can earn income from both types of tracks.

Next, Complete the Upload Form:

1) Add a title for your guided meditation.

2) Add a description (explaining what the listener will hear and what they might get out of this track)

3) Be sure to credit the composer of the background music in your description + any other relevant credits (thank you!)

4) Upload an MP3 version of your guided meditation

5) Upload and crop a background image (Make sure your image is high resolution and that you have obtained the rights to use the image. Try Unsplash or Pexels for great free stock images.)

6) Complete the other dropdown selections (type of content, primary use, language spoken, audience)

7) Click Save & Next (be patient for your files to upload)

8) Confirm that you own the copyright or have obtained the rights for all content that you are submitting. (If you are using my background music, you can select “No – someone else does, but they have authorized me to publish it” and then upload the PDF invoice/license certificate that was provided in your purchase receipt when purchasing my music. You can also upload a screenshot of the email purchase receipt.)

9) Click Save & Next to continue to the categorization page.

10) Select up to three benefits provided by your guided meditation

11) Choose a main practice type for your guided meditation

12) Select an origin, tradition, or belief system that influenced your track

13) Add tags to your track (think of keywords that people might use to search for your track that may not be included in the title)

14) Select what kind/style of voices are included in the track (Male/Female are the options available)

15) Confirm whether the track contains background music or sounds.

16) Confirm whether the track contains bells or words to signify the end of the practice.

17) Click Save & Next to continue to the final screen

18) Review everything to make sure it is correct and then click “Submit”

19) Once it has been submitted, you will have to wait for it to be approved. Insight Timer typically emails you once it has been published.

How to Add Courses, Premium Audio, and Live Events on Insight Timer

There are also options to upload premium courses, premium audio and host live events on Insight Timer. You are welcome to use my background music in courses, premium guided meditations, and live events as well!

Premium Courses

Uploading a course is done on the “Courses” tab of your teacher dashboard. In order to be eligible, you must have all necessary qualifications and trainings on the topic you are teaching and you must have at least two tracks published and have a minimum of a 4.5 average star rating.

Premium Audio Tracks

Uploading premium audio is done on the “Tracks” tab. You must have at least two free tracks published before uploading any premium tracks. Premium tracks are only available to listen to by Member Plus members, and your earnings from interaction with these tracks will be higher. For this reason, your premium audio tracks should be of the highest quality possible, and should not be used elsewhere on the app. It is currently up to you to decide what is premium and what isn’t. Essentially it will be locked behind a paywall and is meant to be exclusive.

Live Events

Live Events are also a good way to grow an audience and provide value to the community on Insight Timer. You can host live events once you have uploaded a minimum of two free tracks and you have an average rating of 4.5 or higher. To host an event, head over to the “Live Events” tab on your teacher dashboard and click the “Apply here” button. You will need to go through an application process and then learn how to set up and host the live event. This tutorial does not cover the ins-and-outs of that process. However, please know that it is possible and a good idea for teachers! Be aware that Insight Timer does not tolerate promotions, hate speech, swearing, political content, conspiratorial content, nudity, sexual content, deceptive content, hypnosis, drug use (or promotion of drugs use), and no-shows of live events.

How Income Works + How to Earn Money on Insight Timer

Publishing content on Insight Timer is a great way to provide value to the world and also to earn income doing what you are passionate about. Insight Timer is amazingly supportive of their teachers and splits earnings 50/50 with teachers. Currently, 70% of the teacher revenue generated will be allocated to premium content (courses and premium tracks). The other 30% of revenue is allocated to free tracks. That means that you can earn income on both the free tracks available to all users, and also on premium content. Premium content takes a larger piece of the pie, but the free content will receive much more attention from the large user-base on Insight Timer.

You earn income based on how often people are listening to your content and how well you engage with your audience. It is most beneficial to receive listens from the community, but it also helps to be active in engaging with your audience.

You can also receive donations from users. You will receive 100% of the donations from your audience! Donations are often made after your track is listened to or during live events.

Tips for Performing Well on Insight Timer

Here are some tips and tricks that I suggest for performing well on Insight Timer.

#1 – Make sure you have plenty of free content!

You may be tempted (by the potential income) to only produce premium content, but I highly suggest to make free content a large part of what you release. Make sure you are providing lots of value to your audience and growing your listener-base. Sprinkle in some amazing premium content that will make your audience want to delve deeper. If you only make premium content, you probably won’t get noticed or grow an audience. So, keep that in mind.

#2 – Stay consistent in releasing content!

This is one of the biggest mistakes that people make when they try an online endeavor. They pour all their energy into making some amazing content, release it, and then get discouraged that nothing happens! The truth is this: you are almost definitely going to need to be producing regular and consistent content and you’ll need to be patient about results! Try to set an obtainable schedule for yourself. For example, upload a new track once every month. Do this for a while, and things may grow. If you release a handful of tracks and then stop, things will likely not grow. So make sure you are regularly making new meditations and releasing them.

#3 – Try live events!

This is not something I have tried, but I suggest it for new teachers, especially if you are outgoing and enjoy interaction. Hosting live events will allow you to meet people in the community and grow your audience.

#4 – Interact regularly!

Make sure you are visiting the “Reviews” tab on your teacher dashboard and your “Donations” tab. You may find reviews and messages from listeners here. You’ll want to show your appreciation and respond to people’s messages! Also make sure to check your personal messages within the app, because sometimes people will message you there.

#5 – Promote your Insight Timer tracks and profile.

There is a “Promotion” tab on the teacher dashboard that provides handy links to share all your tracks and your profile. If you have an existing audience, you can promote your content easily. If you have a website, you can include links to your teacher page. This can help a lot!

#6 – Try not to include too much intro/outro narration!

A lot of people come to Insight Timer to have a powerful meditation experience and often to wind down to sleep. If you have lengthy intros and explanations about your guided meditation, this may turn people off from listening. I would suggest putting most of that information in the description and just diving right into the guided meditation so people can press play and immediately get the experience they are looking for.

#7 – Be very careful about jarring sounds!

One of the biggest complaints I see from meditators is that even the smallest sound that is jarring can really upset them and damage their experience. So please be very careful about including meditation bells or harsh drones that might startle people. If you are going to use a bell, make sure it is soft and be sure to warn listeners that a bell may sound following the guided meditation. A bell at the beginning is safer than at the end. Also, never include an ending bell when doing a sleep meditation. When recording your narration, you should be sure to keep your voice consistent and even, without any sudden changes in volume or tone.

#8 – Sleep content is popular!

People use meditation apps a lot at night to wind down for sleep. Insight Timer has a huge audience that use meditations and music for sleep purposes. Therefore, I highly recommend sleep content!

#9 – Create content that you would like to listen to!

This one is big! You should always try to create content that you would enjoy listening to. Try not to think about what might perform well because that will result in work that is less genuine and poorer quality. Instead, think about what would be inspiring (and fun) for you to make and do that. Your authentic passion about what you are creating will shine through for listeners and you will also get a lot more out of the process too. Don’t make content that you think will “sell” well. Make content that you would want to listen to yourself.

#10 – Have fun!

If this process starts to become a huge chore for you, you’re going in the wrong direction. You should get enjoyment out of creating this stuff. Try to have fun with it, keep it light-hearted, and enjoy the process. Chances are, you started this work out of a passion, so be true to yourself and don’t let it be corrupted into a stressful/pressure-filled/“work” part of your life. Less stress and less pushing always results in more success and enjoyment…that’s what I say!

Final Thoughts

All in all, Insight Timer is an amazing resource to share helpful content with the world and it is also a great way to earn some income while doing the work you are passionate about (or maybe what you are already doing!). I highly suggest joining and I hope you will consider using some of my music in your guided meditations.

Insight Timer has a Help Desk with tons of resources, answers to questions, and tips that you can check out.

Be aware that this guide was published in August of 2023, so Insight Timer may change things and continue to innovate their platform. Some of the information may become outdated, but hopefully it will always be helpful!

Thank you for reading my article and I hope my music will help you to create great guided meditations for your audience.

Feel free to leave comments with any questions about my music licensing or contact me via email. Take care!

About the Author

Chris Collins is an ambient and meditation music composer, sharing royalty-free compositions with creators who need background music—all sold at an affordable price and with flexible license guidelines, allowing creators to make quality content and earn money off their creations. He has been creating music for over 10 years and is a featured composer on Insight Timer.