Youtube – What Happens If Someone Else Monetizes My Track

[Tbone]

Hi everyone,

I just realised how little I know about how Youtube works.

Let’s say I have just released a piece of music for sale through my website, but it is currently not on Youtube at all.

What happens if someone uploads my track to their Youtube channel and monetizes it?

Does anyone know?

Thanks for any help you can give.

[Tbone]

To clarify my question a bit:

1. When any piece of audio is uploaded to Youtube is it fingerprinted:

a) automatically?
b) only if it’s also monetized in the Youtube channel?
c) only if the channel is in Content ID?
d) not at all?

2. If 1 is no, then how do you get it fingerprinted?

3. Can more than one Youtube channel monetize the same piece of audio? (I’m guessing not).

[Desire_Inspires]

You have good questions. I still do not have a full understanding how the content monetizations aspect works.

[Mark]

Hi Tbone-
Simply uploading a track to youtube does nothing. People can monetize a video that contains the music but that still has nothing to do with youtube contentID and only pertains to that one video.

So in answer to your questions

1. When any piece of audio is uploaded to Youtube is it fingerprinted:

the answer would be D, not at all.

A composer or a company representing a composer has to deliberately upload the music to the youtube contetID database. This requires opening a youtube contentID account with youtube.

2. If 1 is no, then how do you get it fingerprinted?

They get fingerprinted when a composer or a company or a record label specifically uploads the audio into the youtube contentID system.
This has nothing to do with simply uploading it to a youtube channel or a simple youtube video. It also has nothing to do with the monetization of a youtube video.

3. Can more than one Youtube channel monetize the same piece of audio? (I’m guessing not).

Yes it can, absolutely. Unless that music is in the youtube contentID database then the record label or composer who owns the rights to the music can decide whether they want to earn revenue off of the video or block the video entirely from being shown.
This removes the option for the person who created the video to earn any revenue at all from the video.
But remember that issues arise when someone has actually licensed your music to avoid that exact situation of a composer claiming to own and earn revenue from the creator’s video.

Do you have a specific issue that has happened with your music on youtube?

-Mark

[Tbone]

Wow… that response is hugely appreciated. Thank you Mark.

I don’t yet have an issue, but I’ve just launched a side-project, for which I suddenly realised I needed to know about Youtube – and also suddenly realised how little I know.

That all makes sense – except for in my last question I meant it in terms of:

If the track is not in Content ID, can more than one Youtube channel upload the track in a video and monetize that video? (Now I’ve seen your answers I’m guessing this must be yes!)

E.g. I let three different channels upload a video with my track in and all three channels independently monetize their videos – it’s not like the first channel gets to monetize but not the subsequent ones right?

[Mark Lewis]

it’s not like the first channel gets to monetize but not the subsequent ones right?

Exactly. If your music is not in youtube contentID then videos containing your music can be monetized separately on different youtube channels with no problems.
If your music is in contentID then you would have to monitor their activity and allow them to monetize their videos.

The only thing that can happen in rare cases is that youtube may request to see a license for the music that a video creator is using in their video. But that still has nothing to do youtube contentID and fingerprinting. That is usually just a case of an over-zealous employee working at youtube needing to see proper documentation for the use of copyrighted material.

[Tbone]

Very interesting stuff and again very useful.

Ok I think I’m getting the hang of this now. Something I do wonder about is what stops unscrupulous people from uploading music to Content ID and trying to steal the Youtube royalties this way? Especially for smaller labels/artists this could be a problem perhaps. Or is it more robust?

[Mark Lewis]

what stops unscrupulous people from uploading music to Content ID and trying to steal the Youtube royalties this way

From my experience absolutely nothing stops them. It appears that anyone can upload anything with no vetting whatsoever. But try and get your music removed when someone uploads your music without your consent or permission and you have to prove to youtube that you own your own music.

[woodsdenis]

what stops unscrupulous people from uploading music to Content ID and trying to steal the Youtube royalties this way

As Mark knows, and quite a few of here have found out, libraries who should no better, have uploaded their entire non-ex catalogue, sometimes tens of thousands of tracks, without any consent from the composer, to content id.

The first we hear of it is through someone like Mark, whose clients have legitimately licensed the track from him, and get a “this track is owned by xxxxx library” when put on YT. They, quite understandably get a little annoyed.

[Tbone]

Now that I understand this better I find it staggeringly stupid that a non-exclusive library would enter its tracks into Content ID.

I was also wondering about what would happen if some nasty individual just started uploading tracks to Content ID which they didn’t own. It could create an absolute nightmare.

[mikevan]

I was also wondering about what would happen if some nasty individual just started uploading tracks to Content ID which they didn’t own. It could create an absolute nightmare.

Better be prepared for that, someone is already doing it. Somebody uploaded one of my tracks to Rumblefish, credited it to another composer with another title. Neither me or the other composer had ever had any business with Rumblefish but we had collaborated on a movie soundtrack that was never released. It took days to clear that up.

The problem is that companies like AdRev or Rumblefish accept track into their program without checking with composers first if the track is exclusive or not or even if they agree to have their tracks in the program.
Probably Youtube doesn’t ask for that information or doesn’t care.

Mark suggested to have videos for all my tracks on my Youtube account and I think it’s a very good way to check if some copyright issue pops up on your tracks ( I spotted the RF problem that way).
Check the copyright infringement page of your channel often and you will hopefully catch any claim before a pi***d client contacts you about it.

[Tbone]

Wow, that is exceptionally bad… and actually sounds malicious to me but then I don’t know the circumstances.

What a nightmare this could be for library work that isn’t already in Content ID.

[Author]

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