When Is It Legal to Use Copyrighted Music

A lot of YouTube creators use copyrighted music in their videos thinking that it's legal, fair use, or just doesn't matter, but copyright law in America doesn't take it quite as lightly. Here's a quick summary of when it's legal to use copyrighted music in your YouTube videos based on an article from ReelSEO.

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Using Copyrighted Music in Videos: When is it Legal?

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Tim Schmoyer

OTHER CHANNELS I'M A PART OF

[YaleChen]

Im so sorry for your grandpa. I hope you are doing well. Its very nice of you to decide to make a video when you have more personal stuff to take care of. Best of luck

[PrincessaAnastasiya]

I too am sincerely sorry about your loss. I checked out your vlogging channel and love your intro and subscribed. I recently started out on YouTube and as a huge music person, I was so bummed to learn about copyright infringement and couldn't imagine how I could find good free music to use in my videos. Then, I began to comb SoundCloud, and have been able to discover amazing little known artists who use Creative Commons 3.0 licenses and are down to have their songs featured. It's been a bit of a blessing in disguise :) Takes a bit more work, but great for music discovery!

[OSW]

I'm sorta surprised to see Tim taking the hardline "never" approach (and not more of a workaround), which is legally correct but not that helpful on YouTube! A big factor is if you monetise your videos or not - it'd help if you had a second account with which to upload the music first, and see what YouTube's content ID system has to say about it (i.e. fine, blocked, or matched with ads). This does run the risk of getting blocked or (eventually) getting a strike, which is horrible.  It also depends how much of the music your using, or if it's a mashup; if it gets caught by the content ID system.

Myself, I don't monetise my videos and I use 80s/90s videogame music (well, 7-10 second clips) or music created for me so I don't get these content matches. People don't expect copyrighted music (or anything past a sting) on YT so just use a few seconds if you really have to. In that case I'd appeal copyrighted claims under fair use, which for a few seconds, would be :)

[NerdSyncProductions]

I'm super excited about the Creator Credits being available to more people! I've done a few collabs with channels who have less than 10k subs, so I'm happy that they will finally be able to use this feature.

[MustangConnection]

Tim, Sorry for your loss and thank you for yet another informative video. Really enjoying your channel. 

[OmniND]

I'm sorry for your lost Tim, may he rest in peace. Thanks for clearing the copyrighted music up, I have a better understanding on that now!

[BeardedBarley]

You can get copyright free music for videos by doing a search for it. Often music artists would love exposure but with a little recognition by putting them in your credits or in your description/about section below. Usually the music is marked as cc instead of the standard copyright sign (c). Check out SoundCloud also.

[diannadiatz]

i just discovered your channel, and really appreciate your suggestions and ideas.

My condolences on your grandfather's passing.  He sounds like he really inspired you!

Thank you for all the free information and suggestions.  I would like to create a channel, but have to decide what area(s) to focus on.  Your videos really help clear up confusion about the choices to make regarding the "biz" side of channels, as well as values and benefits for viewers.

My best wishes to you for continued success,

Dianna

[ThatLondonLife]

I think a lot of people are confused as to whether they can use copyrighted content (music usually) in their videos as long as they don't monetize it. As long as they are not making money on it, then they figure they can use it. Thoughts? I don't personally know the answer.

[ScottScottJenniGerber]

Plain and simple we just don't use copyrighted material. Just use what is allowed...
Take care.

[BarryEuphorik]

I stick to my own music at the moment if I use any. I haven't used any on my channel I'm using to comment yet, but have on my other one. If I was to move away from my own music it would be Creative Commons Attribution licensed music from netlabels/weblabels or public domain.

For some odd reason I don't feel comfortable using any All Rights Reserved music for fear of Content ID. You could go get permission via PRO's or the artists themselves and still Content ID'd.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid :)

[NOcowsgoats]

Condolences on your loss. 

Thanks for the tip about the YouTube Creator Studio on iOS. I was feeling very frustrated trying to get stats on my phone! 

[KimTheGoodGirl]

Tim, could you show us how to write a proposal that companies on Famebit would want to look at? I haven't had any luck and I'm thinking it's because I never know what it is they're looking for in a proposal. Mind demonstrating what you would write if you were sending a proposal? Thanks :)  

[ColinDeWaay]

Very sorry to hear about your grandfather Tim. Correct me if I'm wrong but you can use copyrighted music (if it's shown in the ad-supported music) you just can't monitize it right?

[aky]

I am sorry to hear about your loss tim. May he rest in peace.
I have a question for you that can you use in game audio or the theme songs? I have seen many youtubers doing it like theRadBrad, GhostRobo, etc while monitizing it. Is it just allowed to bigger channels or do you need permission?

[StylHarmony]

Thank you for the tips.
All my condolences for your Grandfather, bless you and your family.

[MatthewMoniz]

Great video Tim! Sorry for your loss. 

[SparkergamingBlogspot]

Wow, as someone who never met there grandfather, I was pretty sad, but knowing him well and watching him die, I feel so bad, but probably you will get over it, but if you want to take time off it will be okay

[miaoooh]

First, I'm so sorry to hear about your grandpa. :( I've seen big channels using copyrighted music in their videos, but I'm assuming they have permission to use them. But I've also seen some not that huge channels using them and I wonder if they also have permission (I know, I'm speculating a lot here hehee). And YouTube comment section on the creator studio yesterday went crazy on my end, I could see some weird comments there in different languages, from channels that I've never seen, like people commenting on their channels and they were showing in my comments section, that was crazy!!! I refreshed the page and they went away though.

[TheLionsDenNews]

Thanks for the love on the article Tim.