How Licensing Works

Thanks for the information bro!

Just wondering, some of my videos aren't monetized and they use royalty free music. I probably sang some song for a brief moment but will that make it ineligible for monetization? For example, the first 2 parts of my video series of Civ 5 are monetized but the others aren't even though they haven't got any music that deems copyright just the background music of the game. There's no singing as well. If anyone could answer this question I'd truly be greatful. :)
 
Great to see this post. Man adding music to your video's is really cumbersome.
 
If you say One Time Justin Bieber cover that's ok right because your mentioning them?
 
Hey guys - putting together this tutorial because it seems there's a lot of confusion about how music licensing works. Hope this clarifies some stuff.

The Fully Legal

YouTube's requirements for anything you include in your videos is that you must either:
A. Own the content, or
B. Be able to provide written consent of your right to use the content

Now, it's important to note that this rule applies whether your videos are monetized or not.

So the safest choice is either to use your own music, or use music your friend can license to you (be sure to get it in writing)

Now, if you're not monetizing the video, you're looking for royalty-free music. But keep this in mind: royalty-free is just a term people use - it doesn't necessarily mean anything about what you're licensed to do with the music.

What you want from a technical perspective is a "synchronization license". Usually the sites that advertise these charge a fair bit, so we'll save that until we're talking about monetized videos.

Unfortunately, many of the companies that provide royalty-free music don't do the best job of documenting their licenses, so you'll have to use your best judgement. Here are a few guidelines:

Can (probably) use:
  • "licensed for YouTube"
  • Licensed under Creative-Commons (with attribution)
  • Copyleft, or under another free license (MIT, BSD, WTFYW)
  • Music that came with your editing software is almost always licensed for any purpose
Can't (probably) use:

  • "personal use"
  • not licensed "to distribute"
  • limits on the number of copies
Now, if you are monetizing, then you do specifically need a commercial synchronization license. High-end music licensing companies will know what this is and will list it. If they mention anywhere in their legalese that it's "licensed for YouTube", you can go with that as well (it's defensible, and you could fight a copyright claim if it ever came)

Unfortunately, a lot of "royalty-free" music companies do a terrible job of documenting the licenses. So you have to use your best judgment, or contact them directly (save the email in case you ever need to appeal a copyright claim). I can wholeheartedly recommend SmartSound, but it's ridiculously expensive.


The Practical
When a company holds a license, and YouTube detects that you've used it, they have three options. They can:
  • Do nothing
  • Monetize your video for themselves
  • Flag you for copyright and throw you at the mercy of the Google gods
There are high-up YouTubers that violate copyright from time-to-time (Meekakitty comes to mind). But keep in mind that the ability to appeal with Google (or at least plead for a lesser sentence) is going to depend heavily on how much revenue you've been generating for YouTube. YouTube isn't going to take Meekakitty down, but you can bet they'd take down someone who's bringing in very little.


So ultimately, it's up to you to be practical about what you use. Here are a few tips:
  • Keep documentation forever! Be sure that if for whatever reason, you get flagged, you've got a copy of the purchase / license / email /whatever, to prove you're in the right.
  • READ THE LICENSE! "Royalty-free" is just a buzzword. Licenses aren't fun to read, but they are at least, English.
  • Be cautious - if you want to risk using something in the hopes they'll just monetize your stuff, go for it, but be aware a company can change its policy at any time.
  • Find musicians! This forum is full of 'em! Paypal 'em five bucks, and save yourself the worry :)
Hope this helps, everybody!

I have to become bigger on youtube for this to work but how this is really hard and it's not fair either how would I get written consent for copyright from justin Bieber Madonna and all the other artists?
 
I have this one video where I used a song that had no copyrights into it
so how do I solve this problem and monetize it.
I did put the youtube link in the description
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Youtube Video Here:
Sub goal: 4/50
Total Views Goal: 5/1000
 
This is incredibly informative. Certainly makes me think about my own situation. I think Perhaps In the near future I'll split my account into two accounts. One for original stuff and one for Covers and whatnot. I've never been interested in monetizing a video with copyrighted content, but it certainly would be a sword through my heart if my entire channel was taken down Because of a pokemon theme song cover. =P


Yea, I see top youtubers having all kinds of songs and dont even get content-id matched, how's that?
 
Anybody know what is typical words in game licence. I mean I want to check if I can use game for vidoes but it is very very long and I dont know how to find this kind of information there :/
 
This is a fabulous thread and I couldn't agree more.
We are currently one of only three truly royalty-free music promotion channels.
RoyalTrax (Royalty-Free for YouTube only) and the other two being Creative Commons promotion channels.

All the big "no-copyright" channels simply upload music that doesn't trigger Content ID.
Whereas we reach out to Artists to see if they would like their music shared across YouTube.

Your frustration was my frustration, and that is why we created the #1 Royalty-Free Music channel on YouTube :)
 
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