Can You Use Copyrighted Music in Vlogs - at all?

[Drakhen99]

Drakhen99,

Those are always good ideas. I think of my motovlogs as short films instead of a video posted to YT. That way I can upload it to other venues such as a film festival, TV show, or my interest in making a group of post into an e-book with embedded stills and videos.

US copyright laws are wide and deep but once you understand the logic behind them, they make sense. I just wish they’d lower the cost for applying for one back to $5 instead of where it is at around $60 +.

- Wolf

With other platforms or uses in mind, videos as short films is a good attitude/goal to have ... and is kind of how I see mine - no need to worry with copyright claims no matter where you post it up

This is why I like to get hands-on and get pics and footage in-person - there's nobody else who can claim my stuff

-John

 

[YBGuy]

I use epidemicsound.com for background music for some of my videos. It is a monthly premium service, but as far as I know you I covered for any videos you made in past as long as you had a license for when you released/uploaded your video. So you are never stuck in any long term contract that way.

 

[scooterwuf]

With other platforms or uses in mind, videos as short films is a good attitude/goal to have ... and is kind of how I see mine - no need to worry with copyright claims no matter where you post it up

This is why I like to get hands-on and get pics and footage in-person - there's nobody else who can claim my stuff

-John

Professional practices is always a good way to go.

- Wolf

 

[MIDLIFEWAB]

Well youtube flagged me for my latest video but its the theme song from Mr Rogers. I do have friends making music for my channel but you could join a few music sites that are youtube approved but then again its 10 bucks a month just for that. If you not at 1k subs i dont see the need IMO.

 

[scooterwuf]

If you get enough strikes they could ban your channel. I use the YT audio library, and this site - Freemusicarchive.org for tracks under the Creative Commons license. When I have been tagged by YT for music from the site I challenged their claim. To date I haven't lost a challenge and have had the strikes removed.

- Wolf

 

[TallADVer]

I recently included a clip of one of my guitar teacher's songs in one of my YT videos, with his permission, and it got a copyright flag as soon as I published it. Even though he was fine with my using it, he had no control over the fact that his publisher had an agreement with YT to automatically flag any use of his music. I've even had my videos copyright restricted when I used my own recorded cover of a song. I suspect I could have challenged both, but really, I'm never likely to have enough views on those videos for it to matter.

Going forward, for my moto videos at least, I expect I'll be sticking to royalty free music through the YT library or other paid collections. Besides, there are a lot of really good instrumental choices available through those libraries.

 

[TallADVer]

Im not sure on the rules in other countries but here you can use whatever you like youtube will just demonetize it and the copy right owner can potentially take revenue from your video post

I've read that if you get three "copyright strikes" in 90 days, you can lose your account (and any channels attached to it). But a copyright strike is not the same as when a video gets flagged on upload for a content ID match, which has happened to me multiple times with zero consequences (other than potential demonetization, which for me isn't a concern at this point). When that happens, you get a message explaining that "The Content ID claim on your video doesn't affect your channel. This is not a copyright strike." I don't know if there's a limit to the number of content ID claims, but it seems much more benign than a strike.

I've also had one video blocked after upload, but that was also not a strike, it was just a more severe form of content ID claim. In that case, I had assembled a photo montage reel for a hockey team with the season's game music as a soundtrack, so it had at least 10 copyright violations in it. I really didn't expect it to pass the copyright check but hoped if I set it as unlisted, it would sneak through. Nope... it was unviewable as soon as processing finished.

For a strike to happen, the copyright owner has to actually submit a formal takedown request. It prompts
specific steps you have to take (including copyright education). At least, that's my understanding - hasn't happened to me yet.

Here's the flip side: my cousin did get a strike when he used a piece of Wikimedia Commons public domain licensed music (a piece of Chopin's Nocturne) in a video. Some musician also used that same recording in a song, and then went after him. He tried challenging it, but I don't think he won (I need to find out what happened). Point is, even with music that should be completely free to use, there are risks.

Anyway, IANAL, YMMV, etc...

 

[Drakhen99]

I've read that if you get three "copyright strikes" in 90 days, you can lose your account (and any channels attached to it). But a copyright strike is not the same as when a video gets flagged on upload for a content ID match, which has happened to me multiple times with zero consequences (other than potential demonetization, which for me isn't a concern at this point). When that happens, you get a message explaining that "The Content ID claim on your video doesn't affect your channel. This is not a copyright strike." I don't know if there's a limit to the number of content ID claims, but it seems much more benign than a strike.

I've also had one video blocked after upload, but that was also not a strike, it was just a more severe form of content ID claim. In that case, I had assembled a photo montage reel for a hockey team with the season's game music as a soundtrack, so it had at least 10 copyright violations in it. I really didn't expect it to pass the copyright check but hoped if I set it as unlisted, it would sneak through. Nope... it was unviewable as soon as processing finished.

For a strike to happen, the copyright owner has to actually submit a formal takedown request. It prompts
specific steps you have to take (including copyright education). At least, that's my understanding - hasn't happened to me yet.

Here's the flip side: my cousin did get a strike when he used a piece of Wikimedia Commons public domain licensed music (a piece of Chopin's Nocturne) in a video. Some musician also used that same recording in a song, and then went after him. He tried challenging it, but I don't think he won (I need to find out what happened). Point is, even with music that should be completely free to use, there are risks.

Anyway, IANAL, YMMV, etc...

There's a lot of bogus [usually Chinese] companies "copyrighting" public domain music - and it blows. It hit me, and I was like WTF???

I fought one, and won, but I didn't fight THAT one. I probably should have, but didn't want to spend the time. A video I'd uploaded 2 years prior that got hit - that's the one I fought.

-John

 

[Moto Mengy]

I started off just using the free YouTube Audio Library stuff, but now I've also paid for Epidemic Sound ($108/yr) to use their music. Epidemic has much better selections and searching tools than the free YT library does, it's been pretty nice honestly. My channel has made enough money that I can invest some back into it and not feel too shameful about it.

I've had random other bikes or cars or people playing copyrighted music loudly around me on video a few times, I creatively edited around it or even overdubbed the sound to eliminate the music completely. I don't want to give the YT police any reasons to create drama for me, lol.

 

[Drakhen99]

I started off just using the free YouTube Audio Library stuff, but now I've also paid for Epidemic Sound ($108/yr) to use their music. Epidemic has much better selections and searching tools than the free YT library does, it's been pretty nice honestly. My channel has made enough money that I can invest some back into it and not feel too shameful about it.

I've had random other bikes or cars or people playing copyrighted music loudly around me on video a few times, I creatively edited around it or even overdubbed the sound to eliminate the music completely. I don't want to give the YT police any reasons to create drama for me, lol.

Man, I'm still on the fence about Epidemic Sound. I get that it's awesome and all that... but my channel just doesn't pull in the dollars to be able to spend it on that. Of course, if I stopped buying cameras, maybe I'd have enough YT money to put into music... so it's a give and take, I guess

-John

 

[scooterwuf]

Here's the flip side: my cousin did get a strike when he used a piece of Wikimedia Commons public domain licensed music (a piece of Chopin's Nocturne) in a video. Some musician also used that same recording in a song, and then went after him. He tried challenging it, but I don't think he won (I need to find out what happened). Point is, even with music that should be completely free to use, there are risks.

Anyway, IANAL, YMMV, etc...

A lot of classical music is within the public domain, but an orchestra, band, or musician’s performance of the composition may be what’s copyrighted. That may be what is behind the strike.

- Wolf

 

[TallADVer]

A lot of classical music is within the public domain, but an orchestra, band, or musician’s performance of the composition may be what’s copyrighted. That may be what is behind the strike.

- Wolf

Very true, but if a piece of music is submitted to Wiki Commons, it means it is licensed for free public use. So, the guy who put the piece of music at the end of a song was allowed to do so. But he isn't allowed to then claim copyright on the original piece. But that's exactly what YouTube allows to happen with its takedown system.

 

[scooterwuf]

Very true, but if a piece of music is submitted to Wiki Commons, it means it is licensed for free public use. So, the guy who put the piece of music at the end of a song was allowed to do so. But he isn't allowed to then claim copyright on the original piece. But that's exactly what YouTube allows to happen with its takedown system.

Yeah, that’s pretty much an illegal over-reach. I use royalty free music, and all of the YouTube copyright claims against me that I challenged were from fakes who claimed to be the copyright owners. For some reason YT is more interested in believing their members are guilty, than vetting those who make the claim.

- Wolf