Using Music in Videos Explained

JohnnyFox

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Okay folks, so I haven't been here long and I already see a lot of forum threads on here about people saying a video was taken down due to copyright of a song. I also hear a lot of people posting about Royalty Free music for their videos. Now let me explain this a simply as possible to answer everyone's questions.

Royalty Free Music is Not Free. Basically royalty free music means that you pay a certain amount of money to a company or artist to license their music for your content. There are direct agreements in place, paperwork, and other stuff that gives you the rights to license it under a certain contract that has terms and conditions. They vary per distributor so even after you pay your 10 bucks or so you need to read the fine print and all the terms before using it in a monetized situation.

Copyright Free is Not Safe Either. Music on places like NoCopyrightSounds or whoever that distributes non-copyrighted material do so because there is no copyright on it NOW. That doesn't mean that the creator can't take that song/video/picture and not make it copyright later. No Copyright distribution is only for NOW not guaranteed for later so I still don't recommend it for usage later unless you have an agreement on paper with the artist/company in question.

Copyrighted Music is Off Limits. Unless you are part of that company or have a particular deal with the company that owns the copyrights to a particular song you are not allowed to use it for monetized or public use. Even if its fair use (which is foggy with youtube honestly) I wouldn't risk it if I was you.

Bottom Line. If you want to use a music track in your videos make sure that you have actual written permission from the distributor or artist that explicitly states you have the permission to do it. Otherwise you risk a copyright strike.

Extra part (from a Reply by the Admin named Michael)

"I would definitely add something about free royalty free music that you get freely and use in your videos because there are quite a few awesome sites out there that give you their music to use freely in your commercial/monetised videos as long as you leave them credit within the description.

@ProfKranc wrote an article with many of them here http://yttalk.com/threads/royalty-free-music-sites.107883/"
 
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JohnnyFox

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i just use the music youtube gives you for free to play it safe :)
I agree that is a possibility. The usage I refer to is people using it for intro music or background music. Not as the main track. The main track is only completely safe if you have written legal documentation of your right to use it (via license or lawyer drawn up papers or copyright application) or if YouTube has approved it. In theory, YouTube's predetermined music could go the same way as copyright free music and the owner retract the rights and cause a strike. It's not likely but possible. I don't use any type of music unless it's already documented for. That's just my thoughts.
 

Michael

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I would definitely add something about free royalty free music that you get freely and use in your videos because there are quite a few awesome sites out there that give you their music to use freely in your commercial/monetised videos as long as you leave them credit within the description.

@ProfKranc wrote an article with many of them here:

http://yttalk.com/threads/royalty-free-music-sites.107883/
 

JohnnyFox

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I would definitely add something about free royalty free music that you get freely and use in your videos because there are quite a few awesome sites out there that give you their music to use freely in your commercial/monetised videos as long as you leave them credit within the description.

@ProfKranc wrote an article with many of them here:
I read that thread already. Good post. Just thought i'd explain the legality of all of it so people would understand the way to avoid YouTube giving them a copyright strike and if it happens what to do instead of scream "I GOT DMCA" with no documentation. If anyone has any questions on the legal side of the bit with DMCA and all that send me a PM or something. Since I have used YouTube before (not for me, but for client's personal channels for their weddings, funerals, family reunions, etc) I know all about the complications as they have happened when people wanted to play a copyrighted song by Celine Dion and other artists that are copyrighted.
 
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Tarmack

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Pretty good thread. I wanted to add two bits that I feel are important. There isn't really such a thing as copyright free, at least in the practical sense. There may be copyrighted content that has an open license to use and there may be copyrighted content that has entered the public domain (virtually nothing that is actually recorded media as this doesn't occur in most countries until somewhere around 70-90 years after creation or the authors death). It may seem like a silly distinction but it is an important one in my view.

The second point is to make absolutely sure that YouTube or some kind of online use is listed in the verbiage of the Royalty Free license agreement. Audiomicro specifically mentions monetized use online unlike some other Royalty Free license agreements. Very very important because if you buy the wrong license or from the wrong source you're still in breach of copyright.
 

JohnnyFox

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Pretty good thread. I wanted to add two bits that I feel are important. There isn't really such a thing as copyright free, at least in the practical sense. There may be copyrighted content that has an open license to use and there may be copyrighted content that has entered the public domain (virtually nothing that is actually recorded media as this doesn't occur in most countries until somewhere around 70-90 years after creation or the authors death). It may seem like a silly distinction but it is an important one in my view.

The second point is to make absolutely sure that YouTube or some kind of online use is listed in the verbiage of the Royalty Free license agreement. Audiomicro specifically mentions monetized use online unlike some other Royalty Free license agreements. Very very important because if you buy the wrong license or from the wrong source you're still in breach of copyright.
+1 You're right. I use my own music creations for all the music bits, I never really try to use anything that I didn't create that way YouTube can't start their s**t!
 

RoyalTrax

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You're absolutely correct and i'm surprised to see this here in all honesty, I highly recommend Kevin's channel but i'll also do a shameless plug for RoyalTrax too if you don't mind ;) We work with producers that want their music featured across YouTube, they only require credit & in the description of the video.