How to Avoid YouTube Jail…Forever!
A guide to using copyrighted music in your Youtube uploads
Remember the good old days, when you would make the ~best~ photo slideshow video of our vacation, and would throw some Taylor Swift over it to highlight the beautiful moments of your trip?
Some of us would even bury the note “I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO THE MUSIC IN THIS VIDEO,” in the description of the video, praying that the YouTube gods wouldn’t mercilessly crush our video into smithereens.
Before the recent changes to YouTube, content creators that made videos with copyrighted music wouldn’t know what would happen to their video before they uploaded it. The audio in the videos could be muted, the entire video could be blocked, or it could be monetized by whomever owned the rights to the music in use.
But ladies and gentlemen, it is the TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. And we have all the freedom. When we worked on the Gear Up: Alabama video in 2015, we were looking for a good upbeat song to use that everyone would know, but we were afraid that the result would be pulled by YouTube, and that wouldn’t be good for us, or the client.
We found out that YouTube has changed the rules when it comes to using popular music tracks, and we learned that you can use most copyrighted music tracks under certain guidelines. Now, content creators can check the status on the music tracks they want to use before they upload.
YouTube’s Audio Library
To check on the status of the music you want to use, go to the YouTube Creator Studio, in the drop-down menu of your profile thumbnail.
Once there, click on the “Create” tab, and click on “Music Policies.”
This brings up a list of popular tracks that you’ve probably heard before. In the “Search Music” tab, search the name of the song you want to use. Let’s say you want to use everyone’s favorite song, “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars. This is what you will see:
This will give you all the information you’ll need to decide whether or not you want to use the track. Here, it notes that your video will be able to be viewed everywhere except for two countries, but ads can appear, and Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’s record companies will get the pay for the ads that come up on your video.
One thing that seems to happen frequently is that most songs in videos can be played everywhere except for Germany. Don’t exactly know what’s up with that, so just be careful if your videos are somehow specifically for a German audience.
This tool makes it a lot easier for you to see what will happen to your video before uploading, and keeps you out of “YouTube Jail,” where your video is either removed from YouTube or the sound is muted because of a copyright strike.
Copyright Strikes
The Copyright strike system is YouTube’s penalization system for videos that violate the terms of service or the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). Copyright holders (record companies, video game creators, etc.) can submit legal requests for copyright infringement. With three copyright strikes, your account could be terminated, which could result in the removal of your videos, and you won’t be able to make new accounts on the website.
You can also check the status of the copyright strikes against your account. Just click on the “channel” tab in the sidebar and click on “Status and Features.” There, you’ll see exactly where your account stands. You also have the option to dispute a copyright claim or content ID strike against your account if you feel like your usage was fair.
So you go ahead and keep posting those beautiful video collages of your spring break vacation dubbed with your favorite Justin Bieber song or ~whatever~, but understand that you won’t become rich and famous from that video, even if it goes viral.
However, thanks to YouTube, you have all the creative freedom you need.
