In this post we will look at one of the easiest opportunities to earn money on YouTube without the need for an expensive camera, lights, complicated software, or advance video editing skills. You don’t even have to show your face in the video!
Key takeaways
- Meditation videos are highly popular and if done right can quickly accumulate views and subscribers.
- You can make a wide range of videos, including general relaxation videos, meditation soundscapes, binaural beats, guided meditations, affirmations, and meditation quotes.
- To make money you need to join YouTube’s Partner Program and ensure your content meets YouTube’s monetization policies.
- Include original elements and make sure your videos offer value to the viewers to avoid issues with reused content demonetization.
- Use properly licensed meditation music and sounds to avoid copyright issues and ensure monetization.
How creators make money on YouTube?
Most creators make money through YouTube Partner Program (also know as YPP).
You do need to apply and get accepted to start monetizing your videos.
Once you are accepted into the program you can start monetizing your videos. In a nutshell, monetization works like this:
1. You make the videos and grow your audience.
2. YouTube places ads in qualifying videos.
3. The viewers watch your videos with the ads and you get paid.
Please note that you must meet the minimum eligibility requirements before you can start making money:
1. You need to live in a country where the YouTube Partner Program is available.
2. You must have more than 4,000 public watch hours in the last 12 months.
3. You must have more than 1,000 subscribers.
4. You need a linked AdSense account.
Learn more about how ads work on YouTube.
What videos should I make to become partner?
You can focus on any subject that complies with YouTube advertisement guidelines.
But keep in mind that you need to quickly gain 1000 subscribers and to accumulate 4,000 watch hours.
Thus, pick a subject with potentially wide audience and make longer videos that people will watch to the end.
What videos meet these requirements?
One of the easiest options, in our opinion, is to create meditation and relaxation videos.
UPDATE YouTube has been gradually raising the bar for the entry into the YouTube partner program (YPP). This places higher requirements on your videos. Specifically, the need to include original, unique content.
Despite abundance of existing relaxing videos, this type of content is still popular, the videos tend to be long, and people will watch them through to the end without skipping.
PRO Tip
Don’t simply copy existing ideas for relaxation and meditation content.
Try finding your own UNIQUE angle and focus on showcasing your expertise (create your own meditations or apply unique visual editing styles).
This will help you to quickly gain the required 1,000 subscribers along with 4,000 watch hours.
Related: Don’t Make These 5 Types Of Videos If You Want To Monetize On YouTube – Do This Instead
Related: 10 Possible Reasons Your Video Has Little Or No Views On YouTube (With Solutions)
Main types of meditation videos
Now let’s look at some different kinds of meditation videos.
Depending on your video editing skills, some are easier to make, some are a bit harder, yet still possible to create without any advance editing.
1. General relaxation background and ambiance sounds (including nature sounds) for work, sleep or to simply reduce anxiety, clear the mind, and unwind.
2. Meditation soundscapes and tones for spa and yoga classes.
3. Binaural beats and 432 Hz tones for healing and deep meditation exercises.
4. Guided meditation for peaceful motivation and spiritual enlightenment.
5. Meditation quotes videos for mindful inspiration.
Pick the type you are most comfortable with or start with something simple like a generic relaxation videos and move to more complex types with time.
Related: 6 Types Of Meditation Videos YouTube Creators Should Make
Now let’s see what do you need to start making meditation and relaxation videos. Hint: not much, it’s really easy!
How to easily make meditation videos?
To make a basic relaxation or meditation video you will only need:
1. A stock video footage, preferably a loop, so you can easily extend it to the desired length. This can be a calm, soothing abstract background or videos of nature, water, or peaceful landscapes. Make sure to read the update section below.
2. Relaxing or meditational music soundtrack. Soft ambient music tend to work best. You can also use relaxing sound effects, like soft rain, ocean, birds, or meditation bowl sounds.
3. If you’re making guided meditations, you will also need the spoken word audio. You can hire a freelance voice actor to record it for you or make your own if you have any equipment to record audio.
4. Optional: Short relaxing music intro or outro as recognizable audio logo for your channel.
Related: 5 Tools You Need To Record Professional DIY Guided Meditations
UPDATE
Recently YouTube started rejecting monetization requests for “reused content” reason if the videos are constructed solely from re-used free assets.
Related: What counts as reused content on YouTube
In order to improve your chances of being accepted into YouTube’s partner program, we strongly suggest adding original content to your videos.
That does not mean you have to create everything yourself. Here are few strategies to make your videos more original, even if you use stock content:
1. Try adding motion elements and small animations.
2. Don’t rely solely on copyright free music that already appears on thousands of other videos. Use quality meditation music created specifically for relaxation and meditation. Add meditation sounds to create a more original soundtrack.
3. Best of all, make your own footage that offers VALUE. Use AI tools when appropriate.
Presently, it is getting even more important to create unique videos where you create and own the footage. YouTube has started consistently rejecting monetization application when your videos consist solely of stock footage.
Using AI-generated footage: pros and cons
With the rise of AI tools, many creators are turning to AI-generated visuals to enhance or even replace traditional stock footage.
This approach can be helpful in creating original-looking videos, but there are important considerations if you’re trying to monetize your content on YouTube.
Pros of using AI-generated video
- AI visuals can look unique and help differentiate your video from others using the same stock clips.
- You can generate scenes that would be hard or expensive to shoot yourself (e.g. fantasy landscapes, animated meditations).
- AI video generation is faster and often cheaper than hiring a videographer or animator.
- It allows creators without video production skills to still produce high-quality content.
Cons and monetization risks
- AI-generated content may still be flagged as “reused” if it appears generic, widely reused, or lacks original narrative/context.
- YouTube requires that creators add meaningful value through commentary, storytelling, or unique editing — AI visuals alone are not enough.
- Some AI tools produce results that may contain watermarks, visual glitches, or licensing uncertainties — which can further hurt your eligibility.
- If multiple channels use the same AI assets or prompts, the content may appear duplicated to YouTube’s algorithm.
Tips for safely using AI footage
- Always customize AI footage with overlays, text, transitions, or your own narration.
- Combine AI visuals with original material — even short clips filmed on your phone can add authenticity.
- Use AI to support your ideas, not to replace your voice or creativity entirely.
Bottom line: AI can be a useful tool for creating more visually engaging content, but it’s not a shortcut to monetization. You still need to contribute something original — especially when applying for the YouTube Partner Program.
BEST OPTION
If you have experience with meditation, offer your own insight into the process.
THAT will surely add value!
Related: 5 Ideas For Original Meditation Videos To Help Your Channel Grow On YouTube
Still can’t get your monetization application approved by YouTube?
You still may be able to make money. After all, you already have the videos and at least 1000 subscribers eager to see more of your content.
See 5 ideas how you still can earn on YouTube if your monetization request was rejected.
Should I use free music?
It depends. Free is great but when you monetize it is considered commercial use and some music that is free for personal use may not be available for commercial purposes.
As a rule of thumb, if you want to monetize (or for any commercial use in general) it is strongly recommended to properly license any music you use.
What are the risks the music that wasn’t cleared for commercial use?
Getting sued for copyright infringement is undoubtedly the worst case scenario but that’s relatively rare. The most likely outcome is getting a copyright claim on your video.
When you get the claim, YouTube disables monetization for your video and send your ad earnings to the music owners (instead of you!). Not much can be done here to dispute the claim if you’re using somebody’s music without permission.
On the other hand, having a license will allow you to quickly remove the claims if you ever get one. Learn more about how YouTube copyright works.
How to choose best music for meditation videos?
Meditation music typically refers to relaxing music with soothing, ambient zen feel.
UPDATE
We have started adding 1 hour long meditation music to our collection:
Listen to more 1 hour meditation music tracks.
That usually includes ambient music soundscapes, calm atmospheric guitar, and relaxing piano music.
Here are some examples of background music that (according to our members) works great in meditation and relaxation videos:
Note that some music tracks may incorporate sound effects, like flowing water, birds, and other soothing nature sounds.
Depending on your goals, this may be an advantage or a disadvantage, since the sound effects may not correspond to the content of the video.
For greater flexibility, it’s best to choose the version without the effects and add your own sounds (as needed) later on.
If you’re looking to make spiritual videos, try music with eastern zen feel:
For more contemporary “chill” sound sound try chillout music or lofi music that blends the elements of ambient and pop or hip-hop genres.
Want to use our music in your meditation video?
Explore TunePocket’s collection of royalty free music, ready to use in monetized YouTube videos and commercial projects.
Use safely with full support against rogue copyright claims.
Start with our 10 most popular meditation music soundtracks and then explore more relaxing music.
New music is added daily!
Related: Meditation Video YouTube Tags
Wondering what tags work best for meditation videos on YouTube?
Try our free YouTube tags generator to get great ideas for relevant meditation keywords and tags. Simply copy and paste to your video.
Want to know how much you can earn on YouTube?
Use our free YouTube money calculator to quickly estimate how much YouTube will pay you based on the number of views.
Experiment with other kinds of relaxation videos
Learn how to create and monetize sleep videos or ASMR videos.
Takeaway: How to make money on YouTube without being on camera or showing your face
In the video below, Curious Pavel, a videographer and YouTube author answers some common questions about how you can start making money on YouTube, what videos to make, and explains why making meditation videos can be one of the easiest options.
DISCLAIMER
Please note that this video was recorded few years ago. At the time this idea worked very well. However, things change and you may need to adjust the ideas discussed in this video to make it work today.
At TunePocket we believe in responsible marketing and we strive to provide you the information that is relevant and not misleading.
The ideas discussed in this video are based on analyzing successful YouTube channels, as well as our own experience of monetizing on YouTube.
We cannot possibly guarantee that you will earn money or get accepted into YouTube’s partnership program by simply repeating the steps outlined in this video.
The actual result depends on many factors, including (in large part) your ability to create quality videos that fully comply with all relevant YouTube policies.
We regularly update this post as we learn about changes related to YouTube monetization rules and policies. Read more below and feel free to ask questions in the comments.
Important
If you want to earn money on YouTube, you must follow YouTube’s monetization policies.
That includes creating authentic and original content that reflects your own ideas and effort.
Under the updated inauthentic content policy, mass-produced or repetitive videos (especially the AI slop) are no longer eligible for monetization.
To avoid issues, use tools like TunePocket’s YouTube Idea Generator to find trending topics and the YouTube Video Title Generator to craft engaging, human-sounding titles.
Learn more how to avoid getting your YouTube channel demonetized.
Questions? Comments?
This post explains how you can start earning on YouTube by making meditation and relaxation videos. It’s not a magic trick or get-reach-quick scheme.
This method does require you to produce quality and authentic videos that people want to watch.
YouTube Monetization Update: Automatic Second Review for Yellow Icon Decisions
So far we explained where you can get the content for the videos to make the production easier. We will be happy to expand the tutorial with additional details (editing tips? something else?).
Let us know what you’d like to learn by posting a comment!
Download 13,000+ Royalty Free Music Tracks And Sound FX
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I’m a senior citizen and just want to thank you for the clear, concise and informative posts you share. They are quite helpful. I’m currently researching how to start and make money from my personal prayers/meditations.
T
I started a channel for relaxing sounds and sleep sounds. I started out using Pexels and now I’m using my own. I’m layering the sounds to make it original. Should I delete all my first videos before applying for monetization? Second question, since my clips are looped or fade to black for sleep videos… What can I do to them so they’ll be eligible for monetization? And how often throughout a long looped video that’s ten hours would you suggest editing it? Thanks for all your help.
Wow. I was looking for a music as I already have meditation videos created
I love these meditation videos! They’re so calming and helpful.
I’m still confused about what make original content for meditation video? Can you give examples?
This is how YouTube defines reused content: “videos that contain content from other sources repurposed without original commentary or educational value”.
Thus, stitching together a collection of stock videos does not create original content. However, providing insight into meditation techniques or making a guided meditation can be considered original. For example, guided mediation features a calming voiceover guiding the viewer through a meditation practice, so it adds value, even if the footage is not original. We put together more ideas for original meditation videos here: https://www.tunepocket.com/meditation-videos-ideas/ Hope this helps!
Hello, I have a meditation channel on youtube and I share videos with ocean waves and rain sounds on this channel. I also shoot all the sound and images on my channel myself. However, despite all this, I encountered a “reused content” warning. What should I do in this case, how should I proceed?
* If I delete all the videos I’ve posted so far on my channel and apply minor animations (such as subscribe, channel name) and background music in the new videos I will prepare later, will these be beneficial for monetization? (Calm background music behind a rain sound)
Sorry to hear. YouTube has been gradually tightening the rules and requirements for accepting new people into the partnership program. We believe, the main factor to consider is the potential value of your videos to YouTube’s advertisers. Perhaps, in your videos, stress that your content is unique and cannot be found on other channels. Also, here’s a new post that discusses alternative ideas for monetizing the channels rejected by YouTube partner program: https://www.tunepocket.com/make-money-youtube-rejected-monetization/
I liked the way you explained how we can make meditation videos for our channel and grow it. I did this as well. I would love it if you explain how to make 40 Minutes or longer videos. Thanks!
We have a handy tutorial that explains how to make long meditation videos from shorter clips: https://www.tunepocket.com/how-to-make-long-meditation-music/ Hope this helps!
Hello sir
I’m a musician and I want to start a channel with meditation music composed by myself. Is it necessary to have a video or is it enough to just add still images (pictures)? If so, can I still monetize the channel? The pictures has to be original or I can use stock royalty free images? Cause I just want to concentrate on music content, I don’t want to add voice overs or videos. Would that be suitable (apart of increasing the number of views and subscribers obviously) for a good monetized channel? Thank you
We always recommend creating unique content (as opposed to using stock images) to improve your chances of being accepted into YouTube’s partnership program. Hope this helps!
Hello my good friend. Is it true that YouTube does not pay for other relaxing channels and they no longer have any income? Even if they respect copyright?
Thank you for answering
What makes you think that? To the best of our knowledge (and our own experience), as long as your channel is approved for monetization and you’re getting views, you will earn (some) income. How much you earn depends directly on the popularity of your content. You do need to make quality videos that attract and retain viewers.
If you click on any other relaxing/meditation videos on youtube, none of them have any ads at all. I have been told that youtube now rejects videos like these for monetization
Thanks for your comment, Brendan!
That’s only partially correct. There are still plenty of relaxation and meditation channels that monetize and many of our clients do so.
There’s been, however, a policy change at YouTube, and it’s much harder now to monetize channels when you create your videos solely from stock content (as opposed to making your own original content).
This policy change applies to all kinds of videos, not only relaxation / meditation. We have added the section about this to the post, as soon as we learned it.
Here are some ideas how you still can monetize on youtube if your monetization partnership application was rejected: https://www.tunepocket.com/make-money-youtube-rejected-monetization/ Hope this helps!
Hello
Is subscription of tunepocket site mandatory to download and use meditation audio for making monetised meditation videos on youtube ?
If you’re referring to our music, then, yes, you have to be the member to download. On the bright side, we have the outstanding collection of meditation music at much lower cost compared to similar resources. We did some comparison here: https://www.tunepocket.com/download-royalty-free-meditation-music/
Hi! I’m planning on starting a YouTube channel for meditation, sleep, and mindfulness. I do the soundtracks myself. How do I license it properly so as to avoid any theft?
What keywords should be used in the title and description of the video and how to find them?
You can get some good keyword ideas using our free YouTube tags tool: https://www.tunepocket.com/youtube-tags-generator/
Technically, it’s for tags but you definitely can re-use the relevant tags as title and description keywords. Hope this helps!
What about stock footage that you can buy?
Yes, you can certainly buy or even use free stock footage but be aware that YouTube may reject your monetization request if your videos contain nothing but stock assets. For best results, try adding original content or at least use stock footage creatively.
If you’re looking for free footage, we reviewed 40+ sites to download stock videos: https://www.tunepocket.com/free-stock-video-footage/
Hope this helps!
Hi, I recently started a youtube channel for meditation videos.
I plan on making many short, guided affirmation videos that contain partly animated footage I have created and stock footage, stock music in the background but I also added meditation bells and my voice, no face image though.
In your opinion is that enough to monetize the channel in the future if I get enough subscribers etc?
Hi Nicky and thanks for getting in touch!
YouTube commonly rejects monetization requests for “reuse content” reason if the videos are constructed solely from stock assets. However, since you’re adding your own original content (animation) we think your channel will have a good chance to be approved for monetization.
Good luck and let us know if you need any help with the meditation music. We add new music daily!
Hi, could you clarify something for me please. How can I monetise videos that are not meant to have ads as they would interfere with relaxation, should I have one ad at the beginning and one at the end and is that enough to earn some money to be worth my while? I absolutely love such videos and would love to create some but only some of the videos I personally watch will have a couple of ads at the beginning and I always wondered how the ones without ads make any money… Or maybe they don’t… And the ones that do have some ads, do they make enough…
Hi Justina,
Thanks for your question!
There are different types of ads. If you find pre-roll or mid-roll ads too invasive you can always settle for overlay ads, display ads, or sponsored cards that do not interrupt the video.
As to how much you can earn, that mostly depends on how many people view and interact with the ads. The more videos / subscribers your have, the higher are your chances or making a living off YouTube.
On our part, we try to help by offering the growing supply of meditation and relaxing music to use in relaxation videos.
Hope this helps!
I have a meditation channel and I got rejected when I applied for monetization due to reused contents.
Using no copyright audios and videos is a bad idea.
I spent long hours studying this topic and just found out that it’s hard to monetize meditation channel. It’s rather ridiculous to put my face and voice all the way as the audio plays on for 3 hours+. It’s not a guided meditation by the way, it’s more to a meditation and sleep ambient music.
There is no way for me to monetize this meditation channel.
I have two other channels and both are ambient music channels (cafe music and lofi jazz music). I don’t know how it would go with these two yet, but I made all my music on my own.
It’s cool if you want to start a meditation channel. It’s honestly good.
But if you’re looking to make money on YouTube, you might want to consider other options.
Hi Romana,
Sorry to hear your channel was not approved.
Quite a few of our members monetize their meditation and relaxation channels. In fact, meditation music and relaxation sounds are one of our most downloaded genres.
Having said that, you still need to have some sort of original content in your videos. If you simply put together a bunch of free clips there is a good chance YouTube will decline with ‘reused content’ reason.
So it’s absolutely possible but you still have to create quality videos with good music. That’s where we come into picture 🙂 Don’t go for overused free soundtracks – get quality meditation music with proper license and copyright support.
How do we know any of that?
Aside from providing music to plenty of YouTubers, we monetize our own channel and we do have meditation videos among others.
Hope this helps!
Sir/madam i wwant to open my on YouTube▶️ channel so sir i need you help. Sir i hope you will no you will help me. Thank you
Hi, if meditation quotes can be monetized with background music and stock image, why youtube people are saying inspiration quotes with background music and stock image cannot be monetized? I recently started a channel and asked on the youtube community if my channel can be monetized and I got the answer as no, even if I add voice to it. They said it has to have a face on screen or quotes should be my own. The same concept is applied to meditation quotes here, then what is the difference?
Since you’re trying to monetize you have to be careful with copyright. Most meditation quotes are by Buddha and other historic characters and are in public domain. With motivational quotes, if you’re taking a literate quote from a recent book or a movie the chances are it’s copyrighted, and you must be careful, especially if your sole intention is to monetize the videos (so you can’t really claim fair use). You certainly cannot just copy content from training sessions, lectures, or classes. Trademarks and commercial slogans from ads are definitely a big no.
On the other hand, you can quote politicians – anything they say during their time in the office is public domain, you can freely quote classic literature, and use any historical quotes that are now in public domain, and generally you can quote things that other people say unless they put it in writing.
Please note our reply is based solely on our own experience and research and cannot be considered proper legal advice.
Thanks for replying. I wrote the names of person. They are all public and famous quotes. Youtube told me unless there is face on screen and quotes are mine I cannot monetize it as per new policies.
Thank you for sharing. So you posted a new video and YouTube denied monetization for that video citing a new policy? Did they send you any links to that policy?
Thank you for the information – it helped me a lot to create my meditation YouTube channel.
That’s great to hear! Thanks for sharing!
I want to work with you
I have been trying to create my channel all to no avail? Please I need your help.
must i be partnership with company or if i just reach the 4k hours watch and 1k subscribers then once i upload my video iwill start earning
Once you reached 4K watch hours and 1K subscribers you can apply for YouTube Partner program directly with YouTube. There is a Monetization link in the creator studio to apply.
If YouTube accepts your channel you will be able to monetize your videos.
Hope this helps!
How do I start?
I am a retired pilot inst. I want to teach online and make some money. Plz advise
Thank you so much for the beautiful music
I really enjoyed
We forget to relax because this life is too busy
It’s good and healthy for us for 30 min a day
I want to send urdu poetry in my voice with light music
That’s a terrific idea! The poetry channels can get quite popular.
I like to state my chanal on youtube. Teaching civil engineering essy apply tips and majic ( Ilm e jafar ) which i now and have civil enginering 38 years experience and majic mostly 20 years experience and practiced. Which line is suitably quickly improve and famously.