90 s Audio Library song in a 3-minute Short: what covers the rest

YouTube's Shorts page (read 2026-10-08) says Shorts Audio Library songs can be used for up to 90 seconds in a 3-minute Short, and some songs are limited to 60 or 30 seconds. So a 180-second Short with one library song has at least 90 seconds without that song. Two ways to cover the rest on Sume: render the picture with a silent spine and add a second library song in YouTube, or generate a bed with Music 1.0 at $0.125 a track and let Timeline loop it under the whole render.

What the page says

The facts below come from the YouTube page, and the Sume prices come from the docs linked in the sources.

• Shorts can be up to three minutes, square or vertical.
• Audio Library songs: up to 90 s in a 3-minute Short; some are limited to 60 s or 30 s.
• A Short over one minute with an active Content ID claim is blocked globally and loses monetization.

Option A: silent render, library song in YouTube

Timeline 1.0 accepts audio.mode: "silence" with a declared length. A 178-second silent render bills three ceil minutes, $0.30. You add the library song in YouTube, up to its limit. Sume does not sell or list YouTube Audio Library songs, so this part is outside Sume. The song covers 90 seconds at most, so the second half stays quiet unless you also add other audio.

Option B: a Music 1.0 bed

Music 1.0 (Lyria 3.5) has no duration parameter. You write the length in the prompt, and you must listen to the result. It bills a fixed $0.125 a generation. In Timeline, soundtrack takes a bed with loop, gain_db and fade_out_seconds of up to 10, so a bed shorter than the Short can loop. duck_db (0-20) lowers the bed under a voice, and it needs a real spine and not silence.

Which to pick

Pick option A when you want a current library song and can live with 90 seconds of it, or with a shorter song limit of 60 or 30 seconds. Pick option B when the Short must have sound from the first frame to the last and you want the length decided in Timeline and not by the song. In both cases the picture render is the same $0.30, so the choice is about sound, not about the render bill. Two beds cost $0.125 more than one, which is the price of a mood change at the midpoint.

A Content ID caution

The YouTube page says a Short of more than one minute with an active Content ID claim is blocked globally. Music made by a model is not a guarantee of no claim, and Sume cannot promise a claim result. Check the video in YouTube Studio after you upload, and keep a shorter cut if a claim shows up.