Did you receive a copyright claim for using legally purchased / licensed royalty free music on YouTube? Now, you may not agree with me (for now anyway) but getting that copyright claim may be a good thing! In this post I will explain how purchasing AdRev registered music can protect buyers from licensing fraud.
Why Music Composers Use AdRev And How It Can Protect Buyers From Fraud
I think it’s safe to say that most YouTubers who use royalty free music don’t appreciate getting copyright claims. Just take a look at this comment below that sums it all up pretty well. This comment was left on our earlier post discussing how to use copyrighted music on YouTube.
I Will Never Buy AdRev Controlled Music
I’m an honest YouTuber who buys all of her music, but sometimes I get stuck buying “Royalty Free” music from artists who report their track to Adrev (without informing the buyer), and it takes anywhere from 24hr to a week to get the video released from Adrev. By then all of my subscribers ( and I have a pretty big channel) have seen the video already, thus I receive no advertising revenues from that video.
Is this fair? What did the artist get out of this? I’ll never buy from that person again or support him, in fact I’ll be sure to spread who NOT to buy from to other YouTubers. When I complained to this artist, all I got was a, “I have to protect my music”…… *sigh*
Now let’s hear what the composers have to say
Here’s a comment from a well known royalty free music producer who stayed out AdRev for years to save his clients the trouble of dealing with claims. Unfortunately, this good plan has backfired.
Why I Joined AdRev
I’ve been on the fence about AdRev for quite some time now. There have been a lot of pros and cons presented through multiple posts with varying author experiences. For me personally, as a lot of my music has ended up in YouTube projects going back at least 5 years now, the jump of registering would affect thousands of people.
Something happened that has pushed me over to a final decision however, and I have now registered my entire music portfolio with AdRev. If there was an experiment to be had with AdRev, this is certainly it.
The reason I am here telling you about it is because I want to warn you. The main reason I have decided to register my entire portfolio is because …. are you ready … a business/label started registering my songs under their own name!
A few weeks ago I started receiving e-mails from different past buyers who were asking what Content ID was and why their videos were getting flagged on YouTube. I had no idea what was going on. To my horror, I realized that my music was being claimed by someone else. To make things worse, I couldn’t white list videos or channels because the videos weren’t registered in my name!
I’ve come across a lot of annoying things working in the music industry over the years, but this one shot my blood pressure through the roof. Just imagine how angry that would make you, I know you can relate for sure.
Not only did I not have the tools to remove the claims for buyers, I didn’t even know what songs had been registered.
Blindsided, I didn’t have anything on my website to inform buyers about the process and worst of all someone else was making money off of my music and I wasn’t sure for how long.
I got in contact with AdRev (and our lawyers) immediately and got things sorted out (which I won’t get into now).
I scrambled to build a Content ID knowledge base on my website, added a special form to help buyers clear claims and claimed (or claimed back) my music.
SO – word to the wise: Yes it may be a small inconvenience for both us and buyers to get used to the Content ID system, and yes there may be a few bumps,… but what is worse, is someone else registering your music, making money from it, and screwing up your customer base for you as you’re left clueless about what is happening!
So in my world, registering with AdRev went from a maybe distant possibility, to: “this is happening today.”
Just wanted to throw out the warning friends – claim your music before someone else does!
However controversial this may sound, buying AdRev registered music helps to protect the buyers from licensing fraud
Takeaway
- If a popular royalty free music track left unregistered, it’s only a matter of time before some “smart” crooks will start registering it under their own name to make money off YouTube videos already using that music.
- If you happen to legitimately license that track, you will NOT get the claims retracted, since these guys are not interested in keeping you as a happy client – all they are interested in is getting more money by keeping your video claimed for as long as possible.
- On the other hand, composers who own and sell their music are able and willing to retract the claims and even whitelist entire channels for legit buyers. They want you to be happy and they want to keep you as their clients.
Be vigilant when licensing music online
- License from a provider with proven track record. See how companies like Ricoh, GE, and many more use our music in their YouTube videos.
- License from a provider that offers post-sale support. Please note that all our composers agreed in writing to promptly remove copyright claims for our clients.
- License from composers who monitor and protect their music via AdRev or a similar service. This will protect you from rogue claims that won’t be easily retracted.
Frequently Asked Questions
How AdRev claims affect your videos
AdRev claims do not affect the availability of the video and your channel is NOT being penalized for copyright infringement. However, YouTube may start showing ads in your video and YouTube partners will not be able to monetize on that video until the claim is removed.
How to quickly remove AdRev copyright claims
Please refer to our Buyers Guide To Resolving YouTube Copyright Claims for more information.
For our regular clients who purchased extended licenses we also offer whitelisting their entire YouTube channels. Please contact us for more information.
How to remove copyright claims and the ads BEFORE publishing the video
Upload your video but keep it “Unpublished”, clear the claims, and then change the status of the video to “Published”.
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hello sir
i am a poor boy.i make some music video.but i did not register because money problem.can i publish & protect on youtube with content id program?
if yes so please help me how do this?
please help me.
thank you sir.
Hi Raj,
While registering for the Content ID directly may only be available for large publishers, you can easily get your music into Content ID via one of YouTube’s partners, such as AdRev.
Hope this helps!
Hi,
i want to buy your song and how can i copyright it at adrev?
AdRev is colluding with music publishers and YouTube to extort payments from legitimate users of royalty-free music libraries and Fair Use videos.
Yes, there are way too many examples of people misusing copyrighted material, but AdRev’s actions are a perfect example of the axiom “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”