YouTube has become a huge source of revenue for many musicians. But unfortunately, copyright laws aren’t very friendly to them.
The problem is that once someone uploads a video to YouTube, they own the rights to their music. So while you may legally play the song in your videos, you’re still infringing upon the artist’s copyrights.
Whether or not you love it, copyright law is here to stay. According to the United States Copyright Act, as of January 1, 2017, it is illegal to reproduce copyrighted materials without the permission of the rights holder. This includes music; if your song falls under “copyrighted” and you don’t have a license to use it, then you are infringing on their rights. Even if you don’t think that the music you love is copyrightable — and there are so many songs that could be contested — the consequences of infringement can still be severe. The good news is that there are ways to legally use copyrighted music on YouTube without getting into trouble yourself. Here we will discuss some of those options and how they can help your channel thrive as a result.
Use Licensed Music On YouTube
If you are looking for music to use on your YouTube channel, the first option is to license it. If you know of a song that falls under copyright protection, but you really love it and want to use it on your YouTube channel, then as long as you use a licensed copy of the song, you will be in the clear. Another option is to get permission from the rights holder for public performance. This means that if you have permission from someone who owns the copyright to a song or piece of music, then they can allow you to play some of their work on your YouTube channel without fear of getting into trouble themselves. The third option is to just stay away from copyrighted material altogether. There are plenty of songs that are not copyrightable and many artists that have no problem with their fans using them as inspiration for their own original works. Since there’s no risk involved with this option, why not go with something like this?
Use Compensating Streams
If you are looking for a music license, then your first option is to pay the rights holder or their representative directly for the song. If your budget is limited and you don’t think that paying a music copyright holder is feasible, then your next option is to use various compensating streams as an alternative. Compensating streams are recordings of an original performance that do not have any copyrighted music in them. They can be audio recordings, video performances, live performances, or even other people’s work based on the song’s lyrics. These clips can be used in videos without infringing on copyright law since they fall outside of “copyrighted” content. You’ll need to do some research on how to legally use these types of clips with YouTube’s guidelines, but if it seems like a viable option for you and your channel’s success, this might be a good way to go about it.
Create Your Own Music From Sources You Have Rights To
You probably won’t be able to use copyrighted music entirely legally, but you can create your own music from sources you have rights to. If your music is based on a piece of music that is in the public domain, then this is a great way to use it! Attribution — which means credit and link back — is a copyrightable element, so if you are using existing songs as inspiration to create new ones, make sure they are properly credited. If you don’t have access to a large library of public domain songs, but still want to use some copyrighted music, there are ways around this as well. You can always purchase stock audio or find royalty-free music and use it under fair use regulations for YouTube videos. And nowadays creating music is so easy. For example as you can see here, AI tools like Soundraw can help you produce unique music in seconds. Another similar tool is Fimstro, and you can find a demo and review here on Socialmarketing90.
Soundtrack Your Videos With Synonymous Songs
There are two ways to do this. You can either use a Synonymous License or a Fair Use License. A Synonymous License allows you to use the copyrighted song in your videos regardless of whether it is being used as background music or “synchronized with an audio-visual work” as required by copyright law. This license will make sure that your content stays legal and doesn’t violate any copyright laws. A Fair Use License allows you to use the copyrighted song for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. This license will make sure that your content stays legal and doesn’t violate any copyright laws. The other option is to pay royalties for the song’s usage on YouTube videos — but it should be noted that this can be difficult or impossible to do if there are no clear guidelines on how much money should be paid per video view or if you have no idea how many views your video has received so far.
License Existing Music For Videos
It is important to note that many types of music are not copyrightable, so you will want to make sure you have a license for music that falls under this category. If you don’t, then it is illegal for you to use the music in your videos. If the song does not fall under those categories, then there are two ways to legally use copyrighted music on YouTube:
- Get a blanket license from the rights holder
- Create content which uses the song with proper credit.
The first option is usually easier and less expensive than the second option. A blanket license means that if someone wants to use a song in their video and they send in paperwork with their video, they can do so without having to pay royalties each time they upload it. This can be very helpful if you have an extremely popular song that gets used by multiple people every day. It’s also helpful because once you have one blanket license, other musicians may grant permission for their songs as well, so you can continue to use them all while getting paid per usage!
The second option, creating content which uses the song with proper credit, requires more work. You’ll need to prove that your video uses only a portion of each song or that it’s not just simply playing back the same thing over and over again (which would be considered “sampling”). Additionally, when using this method you’ll need to give credit.
Summing up
I hope now you all get an exact idea about the article, if you want to know more about it, kindly let us know. And lastly, don’t forget you can also use YouTube’s official music library.
