How to LEGALLY upload a cover song video to Youtube!! - The Independent Artist Academy

[@TheAmericanIndie]

“Just do it” u just killed all my overthinking with that line lol

[@UNKLELUKE86]

Me too!

[@shaniamarx3873]

😀 will do

[@justemusicme]

Lol uh nah. Don’t “just do it”. There is a process and a correct way to do it so you don’t have your channel removed or blocked. Most people that don’t know any better aren’t going to be making money or getting “discovered” anyway lol.

[@MonteleónOficial]

True!!

[@milobroth9212]

Same

[@ocoocososococosooooosoococoso]

This was a simplest video that explains how to upload a cover song on youtube! OMG, other videos talks so much and got me so confused. Thank you for saving my time!

[@honorvictoria]

This was the best video I’ve ever seen lol! I can’t believe you said “ust do it!” Very encouraging it makes me want to get started in building my channel

[@sbuceeh]

Awesome video!!! And great advice! 😅 “Just do it” . I totally agree with this. I have my own music but I don’t release music all the time so covers are helping me get some visibility. Thanks again for a lovely video!

[@Maplyne]

Love how you simply answered the question 👏

[@CloseWave]

2:47 this moment solved so many doubts I had for months.. thank you mate

[@miggoy734]

HELL YEAH!! That last bit of advice was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a bunch!

[@lespetitespommesfrenchprog30]

finally a clear and quick answer to this question!! Thank you!!

[@mvande4]

I've watched a couple different videos; each had their pluses. But you have a real video presence about you. Appreciate all the answers.

[@CongLuanMVDeDoi]

Very concise advice! Thanks Landon! Your 3 words “just do it” clarified bunch of confusion and headache for some! ❤

[@despiertateymotivate]

You got my Like just due to the Just Do It...thanks! Clear and straight to the point!

[@janthonyht93]

Awesome I love the ending literally helped me

[@ereh5616]

Straight to the point, great video bro!

[@WiseAudioBooks]

3 words to summarize this whole video. Thanks a lot.

[@AndySaunarMusic]

This is really helpful! I'll "Just do it" and will let you know how it goes. Thanks! God bless!

[@acoversong4699]

How are you going to let us know, if your channel is taken down? :) : ) , I think you get three strikes, and a 'claim' is not a strike, so yeah, let us know, will be interesting to see.

[@AndySaunarMusic]

@@acoversong4699 I uploaded a week ago, I got a copyright claim within an hour 😆 kzbin.info/www/bejne/eGGxnXaqaJuZbZI

[@acoversong4699]

@@AndySaunarMusic I guess the publishers are busy, lol , they'll make a hella lot more money if they make claims and don't just generate strikes .

[@Featureman]

They do split the income sometime. I uploaded a cover of Justin Bieber's Baby in 2013. They claimed it and I was then asked to monetize it. I thought I would get nothing. It was 2017 when they claimed it. Since that time I have received over $35 as my share of the monetization. Not a lot, but I think the cover songs help to bring in Subscribers. I have covers and originals and non musical videos. They all help the channel grow, I think.

[@landon]

Yes, sometimes you will get a portion of the revenue on a cover song video. But for the most part they will come in and keep all of the $. However, if you work with We Are The Hits they will give you a list of cover songs where the revenue is split.

[@Featureman]

@@landon Thanks, Landon, that is good information.

[@TheTapDanceClub]

What about using a cover song covered by someone else?

[@michaelnugraha7465]

What a champ, doesn't take too long to describe the main point. Cheers mate!

[@BopKitBill]

Much appreciated.! It's very daunting what with all the chuckleheads endlessly pontificating. I haven't been able to get past the analysis paralysis of how to proceed. Your video is a great help! Thanks.

[@love_lyzza]

2:49-2:52 😂 love how simple this vid is!

[@shyvalor3544]

COVER BY Your Truly: Shevéze Kristös “I Need A Girl” by Usher 😇 kzbin.infoYWXXBVm6COs

[@feeshushi]

That really helps... especially when he said "just do it".

[@Gavialis666]

All these idiots who need to make a 20 min video about this subject just to drain some extra money for their adds and rant about the god forgoven "hit the bell" button, you're straight to the point, it's rare nowadays, have my like!!

[@counterpartmusic]

Great video, Landon. I've tried to explain the need for a sync license and difficulty getting one to some clients with some challenges, so it's great to have a video I can send them!

[@eui.4347]

Thank you so much! I've been overthinking since I want to start a youtube channel with my ukulele covers

[@KeturahKeith]

Thank You! For sharing all the stuff is so confusing !

[@elleryuk4052]

I was so relieved, all of the videos I watch talk about a lot of staff, about copyright claim and copyright strike, but neither one of those answered the question in my mind. I'm a newbie, and I just started doing ukelele song covers. Thanks for this short but very helpful information sir.

[@IelleFaith]

thank you for this!

[@jessicaroi8359]

I have a couple of parodies and minor key covers of classic country songs that I've been wanting to release but have been afraid of legalities. This video was very helpful and motivating, thank you!!!

[@nebulathedivine]

I actually wrote what you said point by point n this is my face when you said "just do it" 😶 - Thank you for the confidence boost for my very first youtube vid! Sending you love and light from Bali

[@ehubusa]

I love the “just do it” advice! 😂🎉

[@arturmokrushin]

Great video! I'm planning of doing some song covers in the near future, but then I found myself trying to figure out this whole licensing thing to the point where my head was starting to hurt. Then I hear, "Just do it!" and I felt the pressure come off. I'll just go ahead and "just do it" and deal with the Content ID claims as they come.

[@Annaviyuoh]

I’m still confused. If someone posted them weekly for a year it would not matter? Lol do I need a license to do it consistently or not 😂

[@arturmokrushin]

@@Annaviyuoh To monetize your videos, yes, you would need a license. To publish your videos without monetizing, as I understand you don't need a license. In the latter case, the worst that can happen is that your video is removed, but it seems like usually they would get claimed by the content owner so that your video has ads that make revenue for that content creator. If you want to monetize your videos and need some free background music, there are sites where content creators provide a license for personal or commercial use; you just have to be sure that you include that license in your video description. However, if you doing a cover song, chances are that it's not one of those free-use songs, so you'll need to buy the license for that song in order to monetize your video. I, personally, plan to publish cover song videos without licenses now, deal with the claims as they come, and get into licensing for those videos later when I am able to monetize my channel.

[@nowzen4240]

same here. Ive been procrastinating because I don't want to get into trouble.

[@Mellodia_yt]

i watched 3omin long videos that i cant process and within this 3 minutes all i understood is " Just do it " :D Thanks bro! stay safe and have a great day :D !

[@sonicacoustics9176]

Great video, well explained. This is really helpful! :)

[@esdrasluna_]

I was looking for a video like this. Thank you!

[@CARONIHOMEBOY]

Hey dude no offense never heard of you but was checking your advice on uploading music covers and listened to your song on Spotify and wow bro great stuff!

[@brunoluz7046]

Best advice ever, thanks man

[@SonnyGrossoTheSongfatherBAM]

What about live stream concerts of cover songs to facebook, instagram, tiktok, etc?

[@AdreanX]

Awesome! Love your style thanks!

[@FolksingerFitness]

Helpful, thanks. It seems like wasted money for the labels not to have a convenient way for us small KZbinrs to pay for the rights. I'd be happy to pay even $100 to cover a song legally.

[@jagammk6900]

Thank u man I wanna cry

[@nowzen4240]

This is still so confusing to me in the aspect of their are so many artists doing coves with millions of followers I just don't see how they aren't getting busted, unless they got the license for all. I would get busted. That's my luck.

[@ADELSOSIC]

what if the monitized says "sharing" how much am i sharing exactly

[@DeAnnaChoi]

Thank you so much for explaining this especially the sync licensing part! So clear and to the point!!

[@kenmercermusic]

Good video. Sadly now they have those copyright strikes where they delete your videos directly and issue a warning. 3 of those warnings and they delete the channel with all content. Do you happen to have a workaround for that? Thanks in advance. 🙂

[@__allie_4660]

Such a helpful and clear video. Thank you for making this 🙏🏼✨🌸

[@brandtbaron7809]

I was looking for a comment calling him out saying it isn’t that simple but I guess it really is.

[@mpilar328]

Thank you for tour video! Helps to decide what to do. Other videos and articles scare the hell out about what to do! 👏🎶😍

[@rhettorical]

So if I'm understanding this right, if I want to make and distribute a cover song, I can upload it to KZbin and just let their system handle it, and then use something like DistroKid to distribute it to places like Spotify and Apple Music and whatnot, where DistroKid's process will handle things? Basically saying that while you're not likely to make money on KZbin since the publisher could just take all the ad revenue, you could make a little money through the distributor, since they'll split the royalties and whatnot accordingly? In other words, if I just want to make videos for fun, I can upload them and should be fine, but if I want to actually make money, I'll need to distribute music and probably go down other avenues like selling merch. If that's the case, it actually sounds a lot like how things work IRL, where you'd make basically no money touring and all your revenue comes from merch sales, plus a paycheck from your record label as your album sells.

[@FranciscoSilva-jl5kw]

You deserve my like, subscribe and probably my money xD incredible vid

[@gamintel1348]

Awesome dude...thank you

[@fjhk7]

People said mechanical license wouldn't be enough for uploading video on KZbin and will need sync license which is very expensive. If we upload via distrokid, if won't play as video, just a still picture and sound of course. And via distrokid, we won't be able to monitor the video and it's not even post on our channel. 😪 Tired of music licensing,

[@manoyd5456]

Hello I am from Philippines,,I really love to making a song cover thank you for sharing

[@HaBeFaStro]

I just made my first vocal cover song vid. (the instrumental is what belongs to someone else.) And yes... I did it did in fact get claimed. I’m not particularly bothered. I made the cover because I like the song, and yes... I do think the distributors should get their fair share for their property... Even so... boy it would be nice to have 0 claims... That’s fine though... covers/anything that utilizes something owned by another company are more of a rare commodity on my channel anyhow.

[@ivan_vulic]

it's not that the instrumental belongs to the person who might've manually made it or played it. The whole thing, the lyrics, the notes, even chord progressions (to some extent) is considered intellectual property and it's owned by the original band and/or their record label and they're the ones that need to be asked for permission, both you the singer and the person who did the backing track

[@HaBeFaStro]

@@ivan_vulic That’s fair... That’s reasonable. Thank you for that insight.

[@szzb-guitar4184]

I make guitar covers but I dont know what kind of category is it on youtube: music, entertaining or maybe educations?

[@tasmianoor5900]

that's most probably music :)

[@LadylynJose]

This is very helpful. Thank you!✨

[@Muzelle]

This was very helpful! However does having essentially reused content if you’re a cover page stop you from gettin monetized?

[@Nero6797]

What about if i want to make a cover of a song that was made by an independent artist and posted it straight to youtube?

[@allisonmanagement8928]

We are the hits

[@UrbanGuitarLegend]

Great video thank you. Yeah I remember in the past they had the copyright strikes which I'm sure they still do. In what kind of situation could you end with 3 copyright strikes and your KZbin Channel be shutdown? I understand that most sane copyright holders opt to let you keep running the video them make "money" lol. But in the event that 3 ask you to pull the video down. Is that 3 copyright strikes?

[@alwayslou12]

I like the way he explains

[@austenowensmusic]

I just got 2 million views on a cover & was excited but also hoping I wouldn’t get in trouble by the writers. I’ve noticed ads are up but I’m not monetized but how I know why!

[@kmpls4048]

Wow! That was so hopeful! Thank you so much!!!!

[@PEANUTBUDATROLLFACE]

My only concern is that if it's claimed, doesn't that mean it's less likely to get picked up by the algorithm?

[@christinesings2274]

Hahaha, thanks for that video, very helpful and motivating!

[@krikionis8330]

Nothing changed in 2024? From my experience all (except 2 that were instantly blocked but no copyright strike on channel) uploaded covers (singing along with recordings from youtube videos is still a cover, right?) were marked as copyrighted but I was able to publish them as youtube videos. In cases where I just sing using that original material from youtube but they are not heard good because of my laptop bad recording, even sometimes copyright is not marked on such my videos.

[@ginaocolprohhorov]

Hi Landon. I wish to upload videos of me playing piano music. All just done at home . Is there a way to do this with just 1 license?

[@leslielarsonandrus]

I currently have 2 strikes from playing Hotel Calif. on the piano. I had added sound effects and thought that was the reason for the first strike so I fixed it and uploaded it again. Nope!!! Got a 2nd strike!!! Just stay away from Don Henley songs I guess? Now I'm afraid to upload anymore songs because one more and I'm out!!!

[@danialtahvildari1413]

I do piano covers from popular songs. And I didnt get any claims so far. I mean I didnt reach 1000 subscribers or 4000 of watch time. But I didnt get any copyright claims. That means all the money from the ads are going to be for me in the future?

[@MegaDano86]

you fuckin nailed that. that was exactly what i wanted to know. thank you!!

[@nagaprodigalson2153]

bro i love the end. hahaha

[@JoyceisJBT]

A publisher shared royalties with me once 🥰, back when anyone could build ad revenue. My adsense has $0.11 waiting for me from then 😄❤

[@meanwhileinespoo1265]

Hey. If you dont want to earn from the cover in any way. Can you just uploaded it?

[@KyleWalz]

You can get rights for cover songs from Harry Fox Agency online.

[@landon]

Harry Fox handles mechanical licenses but not sync licenses.

[@M1717Music]

lmao.. u nailed it brother

[@GenesisAnne]

what if they dont claim it? i guess you can't monetize it?

[@myartistguide989]

Is that case i wouldnt go through with it because anything is to be expected .

[@EllencyOfficial]

That's a great video brother! Though I didn't understand one thing. If you get the mechanical license, the money you get from Spotify, itunes, googleplay etc., will they be yours? Thank you man!!

[@starrymoonlight]

Does this also apply to dance cover videos?

[@Jaymarquese]

Do you have to this if the covers are only 45 seconds to a minute?

[@a-demusic6343]

can we cover a song of the original karaoke version without any recomposing (we dun play instruments) ?

[@vibingncs6217]

Yes

[@jorgeluisgamezruiz1026]

Hi dear Landon Austin,,,,so being almost 2024 are the rules the same?.. I mean I want to create cover song videos that are not listed in the "we are the hits" page,, so in case I receive an strike for uploading a cover song video of my rockband,,, I just need to delete that video and the strike will be cleared? Thanks in Advance!

[@lily-wp9hj]

Does the same apply if I do an animated trailer to a cover song? For example, a trailer for a comic series. And what about posting it on other platforms? Appreciate the help!

[@JakobPuchmayr]

is there a list with songs, that are not taken down? So I understand, usually the copyright owner will run ads on your cover video. is there a way we can find this out in advance?

[@ivan_vulic]

you're describing something like the "music policy tool" that was a thing just until recently when youtube removed it from their creator studio and pissed off a lot of people...

[@nowzen4240]

@@ivan_vulic really? man. so now what?

[@kokophaomei6999]

What about playing a music on my own and uploaded?

[@benmoore2253]

So if I post an “old maui” sea shanty cover to KZbin without intent for personal income, I’ll be fine, but others will still profit from it if they so please?

[@p0ln00c]

You tell, most of the publishers just will earn on my cover and that's how it is. But could I get somehow a list of real brutal publishers, who block you in your WC, even if you just think about their property's cover, if number of them so tiny?

[@juancruzmachicote5471]

The information you clicked for is in 2:47 and ends in 2:52

[@MichaelSuperbacker]

1:00 I have more than 200 subscribers though

[@IndabandJams]

What about in situations where you do a cover, but Content ID does not recognizes it, how can we fix that through KZbin without getting the licenses? Also even in situations where Content ID recognizes the right holder you may still get a strike in some bands such as eagles, the cars or bryan adams, you have gave that disclaimer. Just do it but with caution!

[@timtrocke]

Do I need to worry about copy right strike if I’m not monetizing a cover song video ?

[@vibingncs6217]

You won't necessarily get a strike You will get claims Strikes harm your channel But , claims harm your money but not your channel

[@brobro8489]

Same thing for Instagram?

[@DiegoAlanTorres96]

Does it matter if the instrumentals are exactly the same except for the vocals?

[@danielpleitez-martinez7638]

What if I wanted to get permission to use the song, is there a difference? Will I get performance revenue if I wanted to?

[@LEVI-TV10]

I love this dude 😂😂

[@starrymoonlight]

If for some reason we can't get those licenses, what should we do?

[@VimusKaraoke]

YEAH !!! Its NICE Tip Friend thanks

[@nowzen4240]

hi... doesn't you tube now have "acceptable " songs? Provided you list the info. Like I recall seeing that in the studio portion of your channel creation.

[@vequalia4411]

what about uploading to bandcamp? i know a song i wanna cover for my upcoming album, but im still hesitating (for legal reasons) edit: what if a song i wanna cover is released independently, how would it work then?

[@thevalkyriemedia6810]

😂 😂 😂 Dude I loved your advice 😂😂

[@layoramusic6875]

Hey anyone can help me? Im in sri Lanka So in my country u tube doesnt pay much for views. i want to make English cover songs And put them on u tube. How can I Let Us or Other English song listeners to watch my videos? Please help

[@Ranger7Studios]

True they are putting ads on my cover because I'm using their song. However, can't I put a claim on them for making money off my image? They are making money off the video aspect, therefor, aren't in the same violation? So how is one legal and not the other? I recently had a video claimed and they put ads on it. However, I don't and can't monitize on my channel. So, how do they get to make money off something I can't? That doesn't seem right.

[@acoversong4699]

Ha ha , yeah, I was wondering about that too, it should at the very least be a 50/50 split in my view.

[@ajcastle88]

Do you know how to upload a cover legally and also keep some of the revenue for it?