Can You Use Copyrighted Music in Vlogs - at all?

YBGuy

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Yup, you can also delete the bit of the video that has the copyright claim
I always wondered if music in the background could cause a copyright claim such as where a car or something is blasting music of a famous song on the street or something. To me that seems like a stretch, but who knows, until YouTube lands you with a copyright claim for that infringement.
 

HippoDrone

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I always wondered if music in the background could cause a copyright claim such as where a car or something is blasting music of a famous song on the street or something. To me that seems like a stretch, but who knows, until YouTube lands you with a copyright claim for that infringement.
I got a claim at an HD stand at a bike show coz they put a DJ in playing crap music. Pissed me right off as I wanted to promote the new HD bikes, but instead got a strike... I just removed the HD bit from the video... Dealerships need to look at what they are doing that puts off those of us offering free to them promotion.
 
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Theodor

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I too have received notification because of music in the background. Never been required to mute though.
 
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scooterwuf

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It's a slippery slope with ambient music in the background. Technically, you can call out places like a HD dealership if they are playing music in their space without the appropriate license. In film festivals, if a film is played with music that the filmmaker doesn't have the rights to, the record label may sue the festival, who would then turn around and sue the filmmaker.

Like shooting B-Roll material to use as a cut away, it may be a good idea to just take some time to record room tone - 30s to 1 minute of the ambient sound of a space (if possible, without any music being played). That way if you are showing something without any live commentary at the moment, you can edit in the room tone over any music that is being played in the space's background while you are shooting your footage.

If you are commenting while shooting and there's music played in the background, you may have to go back and add your commentary again as a voice-over track together with the room tone as well.

(Hope this all makes sense)

- Wolf
 

Meifesto

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Like shooting B-Roll material to use as a cut away, it may be a good idea to just take some time to record room tone - 30s to 1 minute of the ambient sound of a space (if possible, without any music being played).

This is actually a good idea.
Just take a camera or audio recorder into the field.
Or outside when it is raining to create some basic background noise
 

RideOnTwo

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You can look up music that you want to use and it will tell you if it is free to use, will get claimed or if it is not allowed. If you use a song or artist that is not allowed you will get a strike instead of a claim. I would suggest looking into the song before using as 3 strikes and they ban your channel.

can't remember offhand how to look the songs up but I will leave a detailed instruction if anyone is interested.
 

HippoDrone

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You can look up music that you want to use and it will tell you if it is free to use, will get claimed or if it is not allowed. If you use a song or artist that is not allowed you will get a strike instead of a claim. I would suggest looking into the song before using as 3 strikes and they ban your channel.

can't remember offhand how to look the songs up but I will leave a detailed instruction if anyone is interested.
I think YT have removed the checker from their site, now it is up to the individual to see what they can use, not sure when they did that, but can't find it anymore???
 

Theodor

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I think YT have removed the checker from their site, now it is up to the individual to see what they can use, not sure when they did that, but can't find it anymore???
As if that ever worked properly. I t had very limited list of songs and often you could not find info about the songs you did find just a week earlier. I t just kept coming up with "no results"
 
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Pooley

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As if that ever worked properly. I t had very limited list of songs and often you could not find info about the songs you did find just a week earlier. I t just kept coming up with "no results"
I imagine the 'free' songs were free until the owners renewed the licence at which point you might have already used it in a video. Bad news!
 

UncleL

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I just got quite a new YT action. I had one cilp with highlights from one of my trips where I used some copyrighted song mixed with the motorcycle engine sound. It was published year ago straight with copyright claim and ad revenue going to the record company. And it was absolutely fine with me. But I found out that for a few recent days that video had no views (compared to a 100 per day average) - when checked what's up I found up that the video is now restricted because of the copyright claim so no one can see that...

So, I was left with the only option to replace that song which sucks a big time as I lost all the music sync and bike sound as well. And I think if I should remove the vid completely and replace it with a new one with updated soundtrack.

So guys, beware that if you use copyrighted music - they can always change the way they claim rights even if initialy YT says it's all good
 

scooterwuf

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Good point. Even if YT says it okay, that still won’t stop the original copyright owner from suing a motovlogger as well. YT generally gives a strike for music, but I’ve seen lots of motovloggers use footage from movies and TV shoes as well. They’re equally as vulnerable for using thT footage, especially if the are monetized.

- Wolf
 
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Drakhen99

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Aug 31, 2020
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Good job ScooterWuf!

It's a slippery slope with ambient music in the background. Technically, you can call out places like a HD dealership if they are playing music in their space without the appropriate license. In film festivals, if a film is played with music that the filmmaker doesn't have the rights to, the record label may sue the festival, who would then turn around and sue the filmmaker.

Like shooting B-Roll material to use as a cut away, it may be a good idea to just take some time to record room tone - 30s to 1 minute of the ambient sound of a space (if possible, without any music being played). That way if you are showing something without any live commentary at the moment, you can edit in the room tone over any music that is being played in the space's background while you are shooting your footage.

If you are commenting while shooting and there's music played in the background, you may have to go back and add your commentary again as a voice-over track together with the room tone as well.

(Hope this all makes sense)

- Wolf

I have had this happen several times ... usually when I forgot to turn off my bike's stereo but I was still recording. I actually use the stereo's sound as an editing hack - I go through footage at 2x or 3x, if I don't hear the radio, I must be talking (or about to) and it's time to slow to 1x playback and edit out the footage with radio sound in it.

If it's something I really want to keep, since I know I'm not talking, I'll drop in some free YT music track (like I did when I edited my "Got my Harley back" video), thus avoiding any possibility of a copyright strike.

When I did my Street Glide vs Road Glide video, I used the footage I recorded in a dealership, minus any audio from that, and overlaid it on top of my voiceover and background riding footage.

I hope to monetize my channel some day, and don't want past videos getting me copyright strikes and stuff.

-John
 

scooterwuf

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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
 
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