sound Music licensing question

I

illuminis

Hello folks, I am beginning to dabble in making videos set to my favourite pop/EDM songs. Music is the number one priority to me, as I want to set the tone of the video to it.

So I'd like some advice to prevent running into any copyright/licensing issues. The videos are mainly for my friends and family, but I will be posting on Youtube. Is it enough to give due credit in the video and description as to the artist and record company?

Generally I will just aim for about 2 minute clips, so will only require a portion of the songs, if that makes any difference.

Would appreciate some wisdom, I don't want this to deter me from my video making dreams :)
 
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illuminis said:
The videos are mainly for my friends and family, but I will be posting on Youtube. Is it enough to give due credit in the video and description as to the artist and record company?
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Due credit includes copyright licensing/permissions. If you use it and it isn’t yours, just telling people where it came from doesn’t mean squat.

People think it’s perfectly adequate on YouTube to type into the description, “I do not own this song. All copyright goes to the copyright holder.” I mean... seriously? That’s basically saying, “I have no idea what copyright means, but I’m freely admitting to infringement anyway.”

Either get permission from (and likely pay royalties to) the legal copyright holders, or see what licensing is available through YouTube.

illuminis said:
Generally I will just aim for about 2 minute clips, so will only require a portion of the songs, if that makes any difference.
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“I’m only stealing half the car, if that makes any difference.”

Bottom line: the fact that you even stopped to ask puts you way ahead of the average YouTuber. Copyright is copyright... the “right” to make “copies”. Get permission to use it an you’re good to go.

Getting slapped with copyright infringement early in your video making career is something that can follow you down the road. If you decide to do this professionally, potential clients who see that you’ve been pinged for infringement may think twice about working with you on their projects.
 
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YouTube's automatic system will immediately detect your music and will flag it for copyright infringement. I continually have this happen for production music that I have legally licensed/purchased to use in my films. Even though I have "licensed" the music to use it, the composer still owns "copyright". Youtube will flag it.
 
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And the thing that really sucks, is lets say your video is 10 minutes long and you only used 10 seconds of a song (whether you got the rights or not). If YouTube flags you and it's a monetized video, the MUSIC holder gets ALL the money from the monetization. I have to fight this all the time with songs I do have the rights to. YouTube needs a better system for this. I know the guys at Corridor Digital are fighting it. The monetization the music rights holder is entitled to should be based on how much that song makes up your video. Sound represents half the video, so we're down to 50%. Then is needs to be based on what percent of that 50%. Not the entire thing.
 
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Ok thanks guys.
I did some researching, and it seems a good starting point is to just check out Youtube's music policies at https://www.youtube.com/music_policies

Can search the song you wanna use, and it lists whether it can be used or not, if they'll add ads on it, etc.

If my song doesn't show up on the search then I'm not sure, I'll contact the licenser.

I'm not in this for money or anything, I just don't want my videos to lose audio/get banned !

I may also check out some channels like nocopyrightmusic and Proximity music that seem to advertise their music is free to use, just give credit. If you have any more advice please let me know.
 
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I've had good success with reaching out to indie musicians/bands that write their own music. Quite a few are willing to license existing songs for use in movies in exchange for a credit.
 
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illuminis said:
Ok thanks guys.
I did some researching, and it seems a good starting point is to just check out Youtube's music policies at https://www.youtube.com/music_policies

Can search the song you wanna use, and it lists whether it can be used or not, if they'll add ads on it, etc.

If my song doesn't show up on the search then I'm not sure, I'll contact the licenser.

I'm not in this for money or anything, I just don't want my videos to lose audio/get banned !

I may also check out some channels like nocopyrightmusic and Proximity music that seem to advertise their music is free to use, just give credit. If you have any more advice please let me know.
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I didn't know about the youtube music polices page. That's awesome! It's nice that this page is pretty black and white as far as what you can and can't do with certain tunes. Nice find.
 
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eomer41 said:
Does anyone have any thoughts about using stock music for films? What kind of permission might be needed?
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No reason not to. For low-budget at no-budget indies, this is a great way to go.

Licensing will be specified in the purchase, but a lot of sites offer buyout licensing, meaning once you buy it you can use it for any film/video project you want. You don’t have to pay to use it in a second project. Or a third. Or... you get the point.

And some of the free composer sites require full attribution given in the credits in order to use it for free.
 
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