Channels Monetizing Songs they don't own

[PositivelyBrainwashed]

My friend pointed out to me that there are channels who upload songs they don't own, and get massive views and are able to monetize them.

An example is the channel: Mrs Downey

We found many channels like this. How are they able to get away with this? Also is it fair to assume that if videos are showing ads that they are indeed monetized?

 

[KatyAdelson]

I've moved this to the video monetization discussion forum. ^^

I'd imagine that the video is monetized, but not by the content creator. I've made a few cover videos after talking to the copyright owner to make sure they wouldn't get taken down -- and they are monetized by the copyright holder, not me. Ads appear on the videos, but I don't make any money from them.

Or they are in a network that has a negotiated blanket-license deal with copyright holders. YouTube has a similar negotiation with a lot of music labels, and details for qualified songs can be found in their music policies:
https://www.youtube.com/music_policies

Or they are stealing. Even big channels steal... >.>

The channel, "Nerdy Nummies," used Mario / Nintendo sound effects in her intro for years before it suddenly changed to kitchen sound effects. I'd imagine there was an issue with the sounds she was using, otherwise she probably wouldn't have changed it...I'm speculating, though...

 

[Sin B]

I've moved this to the video monetization discussion forum. ^^

I'd imagine that the video is monetized, but not by the content creator. I've made a few cover videos after talking to the copyright owner to make sure they wouldn't get taken down -- and they are monetized by the copyright holder, not me. Ads appear on the videos, but I don't make any money from them.

Or they are in a network that has a negotiated blanket-license deal with copyright holders. YouTube has a similar negotiation with a lot of music labels, and details for qualified songs can be found in their music policies:
https://www.youtube.com/music_policies

Or they are stealing. Even big channels steal... >.>

The channel, "Nerdy Nummies," used Mario / Nintendo sound effects in her intro for years before it suddenly changed to kitchen sound effects. I'd imagine there was an issue with the sounds she was using, otherwise she probably wouldn't have changed it...I'm speculating, though...

Kinda strange since a lot of people use Mario sound effects, and not to bash on Mario or anything, but a lot of the sound effects are still from the 80s? They're not the most complex thing in the world to replicate, but idk.

I was having a nostalgia trip and watching some old theme songs and noticed a lot of them were monetized and some had 10s of thousands on socialblade from estimate earnings, who knows really if they got the funds themselves or the actual creators. It would be a sneaky way to abuse copyright even more than people already abuse it, but I imagine the consequences would be much greater legally speaking.

 

[MattyGreen]

Most likely is the publishers claim the songs and take the money from them. The people who uploaded get nothing but the views. Happens on the covers we make however we can revenue share since it's a cover

 

[xxheathermarie]

I have a couple videos with Disney music that have ads on them that Disney put there. I did not monetize the video for copyright reasons. So Disney is making the money off the ads, not me!

 

[TheSwedishTraveler]

There´s a high possibility that it´s claimed, that the one uploading it doesn´t earn the money.
I have a channel were I sing snippets of songs, which has´t been claimed!

 

[luckee]

I did this 4 years ago by making a lyric video before I made a separate channel that doesn't have music at all. 4 years ago, youtube was not that strict but today 2016 as we talk this about, they are super strict now. And yes, you can earn from it but that is if it is not yet caught. I think, youtube is using something to detect if you are using third party whatever, so, be really careful. Mine, I already deleted that lyric video channel to be safe.

 

[TheOmegaOni]

They have the right to monetize these videos with songs if the music they use is non-copyrighted/royalty free, such as Kevin Macleod's music being a big one. Monstercat has license subscriptions you can buy for $15 a month where you can monetize any Monstercat labeled music. Another thing is fair use, but this one is tricky, and they may have an network to help them with that. As for channels such as Mrs. Downey, I am honestly not sure how they are able to do it. They've most likely been copyright claimed so the producers of the music are taking their money from the views. But generally most bigger music labels and such don't claim, they strike. I've never really been too sure of it myself.