Royalty-free music

[DiverGirl1972]

Can anyone clarify when I would need to use royalty-free music? If I'm just posting videos to my YouTube channel for personal use, it's ok to just use music from my own library that I've purchased through iTunes, right?

Also, what are some of your favorite places to find music for your videos? Sometimes I'm looking for music that has a certain "mood" or length. Can anyone recommend some good sites?

Thank you!

 

[TheTrickster]

Hi DiverGirl,

No, you cannot use copyrighted material on your YouTube videos, even if you have purchased the right to listen to it from iTunes etc...
The 'rights' you get when you pay for music is very tight, and redistribution is not permitted. You don't buy the music, only a license to listen to it!

I've moved to Vimeo now, they still have the same restrictions in place (don't use copyrighted material without permission etc...) BUT they don't do the audio scanner that youtube does - which detects music and either a) strips the audio or b) takes down your video completely.

 

[dfx]

Youtube and "personal use" are contradictory, since anything on YT is available to the general public. The only exception would be videos you've uploaded as private - not viewable by anyone but you.

 

[DiverGirl1972]

Youtube and "personal use" are contradictory, since anything on YT is available to the general public. The only exception would be videos you've uploaded as private - not viewable by anyone but you.

I suppose I was referring to personal use from the standpoint of non-commercial or not making money from them.

Thanks for the responses. Does anyone have websites they can suggest where you can select music for your personal videos based upon length, mood, etc...?

 

[JesperS]

FWIW, I've not had any issues using copyrighted music in my youtube vids. I thought the same thing at first, and used the youtube supplied music for my early videos. But when I experimented with using copyrighted tracks, I found that yes, youtube detects the song, but it then just lists what the song is in the video info section, with a link to buy the music (I think).

I do think one of the songs I used ended up getting me an email telling me the video would not be viewable in Germany due to copyright issues, but that is it.

IANAL, so take all this with a grain of salt.

 

[Wookie]

I use freeplay music. it's quite expensive. Be warned.

 

[DiverGirl1972]

Thanks all!

I just did some searching and found one called incompetech.com. JesperS, I too used copyrighted music on my first few videos and they did the same thing...just listed the artist with a link to purchase. I was actually watching some Cineform 2.0 tutorials and the guy mentioned selecting royalty-free music, which suddenly made me think I should look into the matter a little more closely.

 

[dfx]

FWIW, I've not had any issues using copyrighted music in my youtube vids. I thought the same thing at first, and used the youtube supplied music for my early videos. But when I experimented with using copyrighted tracks, I found that yes, youtube detects the song, but it then just lists what the song is in the video info section, with a link to buy the music (I think).

I do think one of the songs I used ended up getting me an email telling me the video would not be viewable in Germany due to copyright issues, but that is it.

IANAL, so take all this with a grain of salt.

It all depends on who owns the rights to the music in question. You're correct in that most of them play nice and simply want a link to a music store to buy the song. But, every time you use copyrighted music for a video, there's always a chance that whoever owns the rights does not want the music to appear on YT at all, and then you'll end with a muted video, or the video taken down altogether, and your account possibly flagged for misbehaving. And there's no way to know ahead of time. So the safe course of action would be to simply not do that.

 

[EL Pistoffo]

Hi DiverGirl,
I've moved to Vimeo now, they still have the same restrictions in place (don't use copyrighted material without permission etc...) BUT they don't do the audio scanner that youtube does - which detects music and either a) strips the audio or b) takes down your video completely.

Not the case anymore. I just had an upload on Vimeo rejected based on music copyright for some obscure song I used.

 

[NAM001]

Remember the days when no one cared what you pass along so long as it was not a digital version that retained the high quality sound.