music copyright explained

Can I use this song in my youtube video if I'm not monetizing it? and other questions answered.
check out my new song #Games with lovelytheband!
tagmusic.ffm.to/games
Connect @tessaviolet on all platforms
Instagram: / tessaviolet
Twitter: / tessaviolet
Facebook: / tessaviolet
Spotify: spoti.fi/2LU2dcM
Music by Spencer Mulhearn!
Soundcloud: bit.ly/23ODuuU
Instagram: bit.ly/1odNddU
Amazon Affiliate links:
These are the lights I use: amzn.to/1KibKYQ
and this is the microphone I use (which I literally can not recommend enough): amzn.to/1OY2tnH

[@tessaviolet]

0:01 How song royalties work 5:05 Is it okay to give away a song cover as long as I'm not making money off it? 5:50 Is it okay to use someone's song in my video if I'm not making money off of it and I give all credit to the songwriter? 8:54 Where does fair use alway me to monetize someone else's song? 9:10 Is it true I can use a clip of a song as long as it's less that 30 seconds? 9:46 How do bigger channels get away with using popular music in their videos? 10:04 Do I need to register with the copyright office to protect my original songs? 10:27 Can i use your music in my videos? or can I cover your songs?

[@ravenmochalatte6902]

Thank you Tessa!This explained a lot to me!You're hair looks really cute in this video!

[@nsebs]

tip: you should be able to pin this comment so it appears always on top

[@DemiRonin]

Maybe I missed it but if I cover a song, and the owner monetizes my video...then they get 100% of the monetization and I get zero?

[@Gabs_plays]

Tessa Violet a

[@MaestroMephisto]

Tessa Violet - No matter what anyone says, copyright law gets way out of hand. If I make a short feature film (for example) and I use a piece of music/song from a fav band in the movie, obviously I'm not going to play out the entire song in the movie as it's just a background filler in-the-moment. No one wants to sit through an entire song in a motion picture as it's not a music video they're watching, it's a movie. And that little clip of a song is pretty much FREE exposure/advertising of the artist. Someone might hear it and say "that's an awesome song! I gotta find out who that is!" But nooooooo. Because the "law" which was brainstormed by greedy people says "You can't do dat", it's made lots of artists become greedy. An example is Metallica. Back in the day when Metallica first started out and up until their 4th album when they made their FIRST ever music video, they would always say in interviews "yeah man! We don't care if you record our concerts on video. Give us the exposure." Then, when they started getting really famous (and suck now) they started getting "corporate" and decided they didn't want anyone recording their shows anymore. This is how greed works.

[@itsagifnotagif]

I just finished a 3000 word assignment for my music business degree on how copyright law for music works and I think you just explained it better in 4 minutes than I did writing it for 1 month.

[@tessaviolet]

hahaha I had a good teacher.

[@itsagifnotagif]

Something to add possibly is Kobalt. For smaller artists who want to monetise their publishing rights more they use amazing technology and give you a really good administration deal that helps collect all your songwriting royalties where you can keep all your rights and just give them a small commission on the royalties they collect for you. :)

[@slothxing]

I follow you on tumblr & had no idea you had a youtube?? how did i not know this

[@itsagifnotagif]

MyOtterSide I don't post it much on my tumblr tbh

[@lizzykrueger4773]

You're one of the few youtubers that can make a video without background music and still be interesting and entertaining

[@johnkrueger1217]

Sister?

[@user-my8qj]

Lizzy krueger samee thoughts

[@laratahm8124]

I am a German and I used to hate our copyright laws because I wasn't able to watch music videos. Tessa, I am so happy that you uploaded this videos because I am planning to make covers on my channel in the future and I didn't know if I could do that. I was afraid that I could get strikes. But maybe the site louder can help me to pay the license the song-writers. Of course I want to support these artists but I also want to make my own covers and experiment with it. So I hope I can do that without any trouble in Germany.

[@tessaviolet]

Labels will automatically monetize any covers on KZbin (so even though like i said TECHNICALLY you shouldn't be able to do a cover on KZbin with our a license, you'll be fine because the label will find it). It's only if you want to sell the song outside KZbin that you'll really need a license. Loudr is great for that!

[@laratahm8124]

Ah okay!! Now I am completely relieved and actually happy. Because I thought that I could never do covers and I was always wondering how you all could do that legally (although technically it isn't as you said). Thank you for clearing me up about that!! I don't plan to sell my covers but when the moment comes I'll definitely use Loudr. :)

[@MrJDelaCruz]

So Tessa... questions. if you make a video, so a really great creative film that became viral on youtube and you would want to make money off the said video, but at the end (credits) you add a 10 second long song (music nothing to do with the creative video) from an artist/label without prior arrangements about the monetisation of the video, they can claim all the money the film makes? and If you do want to arrange something, how do you go about this and what are the percentages? also how about two different songs in a video?

[@MeSwanne]

So.. I'm also German and I think, it's okay now! KZbin had trouble with the Gema, which is the big music license holder here, but they managed to reach an agreement, so now music videos are mostly okay, I think!!

[@TheBurgerkrieg]

Just to clarify this Germany situation: in Germany, musicians are represented by an organization known as GEMA, which handles all licensing and payouts for them. Copyright law is not very different from other parts of the world, it's just that GEMA tends to be a bunch of cunts. They once sued a kindergarten because the kids were singing christmas carols in the yard, if you're itching to know what level of cunt they are exactly. If you upload a video on KZbin, Content ID will detect that a song is there and claim it for monetization at a rate agreed upon by KZbin and labels/artists/rights distributors. However, GEMA demanded this rate be the same as radio play for every single click, which is obviously outrageous, but Germany is always way behind on anything Internet. Seeing as a single click doesn't generate a fraction of the amount required to pay for a radio broadcasting license, KZbin had to block all music in Germany to cover their arses, as they'd have been sued by GEMA if they hadn't. To my knowledge, GEMA still tried to sue them because the Content ID System wasn't 100% perfect and songs slipped through on occasion. Recently, out of the blue, KZbin and GEMA seem to have reached an agreement, surprising everyone and much to the dismay of VPN providers. At this point, KZbin copyright is handled the same way as it is in the rest of the world. After this good thing happened, however, VG Wort, the GEMA equivalent for text, has decided to shit all over universities by demanding gigantic fees for professors uploading course material for their students, even if it is in the deep web. But that's a completely different story...

[@EccentricInTexas]

I had no idea it was that complicated.

[@fatinnaisya]

EccentricInTexas i know right xD

[@buckybarnesnoble6275]

i'm glad i wasn't the only one 😂

[@dearcomrade2358]

the quality of your videos, the color correction, your face and your HAIR are so beautiful i feel like crying

[@SharMurt1995]

why is every producer ever named Seth?

[@lawrencebader9399]

Uh. Will there be a test on this?

[@user-my8qj]

Lawrence Bader 🤣🤣

[@inansillum1892]

That Profile Pic

[@eabhac4879]

It's been 14 tessa videos since I've dropped my phone in the frantic effort to watch it....... I dropped it again I have ruined my streak

[@MakeSomething]

Best explanation I've seen on this! Great video! New sub from the VlogBrothers!

[@randomencounters]

This was great. Much more digestable than the way I usually describe it to people. Linking this from now on! Perhaps you could discuss getting at the publishing royalties, as often those royalties kind of get lost in the wind... they're harder to access than the mechanicals.

[@mesbahmohandlarbi3847]

OMG RE

[@colinmccluskey2207]

This was SO HELPFUL!! Thanks so much for explaining it in such simple terms! The circle graphs helped a lot and that definitely cleared up a lot of questions I had about music copyright! Excited to hear we can share your music! I'll definitely be doing that (and of course linking/crediting you) as I love the feel your songs bring to the atmosphere of a video! Thanks so much for all of this!! :D

[@kristiereddoch]

Thank you so much for going over this stuff. I've been a singer/songwriter for a few years now as a fun little side hobby, but I've never really gone anywhere with it because I've always been so intimidated/overwhelmed by how all this stuff works. However, I'm making it a personal goal of mine to try and learn as much as I can about how this all works as well as learning how to record/mix my own stuff so I can hopefully maybe get a small, homemade EP out by the end of 2017. I have a lot of learning to do, but I think I'm finally ready to get serious about getting my art out there and actually making a couple of bucks on the side from something that I've always loved doing. So, thanks for helping me out a little bit with it all! This video came at a great time for me!

[@fayewheeler3331]

thank you for this! so helpful in starting my essay about copyright. you're the only person I actually understand and can explain it in such a fun way

[@arturyeon]

You were right on everything, EXCEPT the German copyright association GEMA has recently found a compromise with KZbin so videos are no longer disabled there. It was a day we didn't expect and never saw coming, but we now live in the same KZbin as you guys. Hooray!

[@tessaviolet]

Awesome!

[@laratahm8124]

YES. I agree. It was the best day ever. Finally!

[@SuperTschakko]

I love how big of a deal it was to us germans

[@GuitarHorse98]

This video is so helpful!! I've been having a hard time wrapping my head around copyright music and this has helped me tons!! Thank you!

[@theaccountforyoutubelol4468]

thank you so much for posting this. i'm really interested in making music for the rest of my life and this was really helpful to teach me the general jist of copyright and has inspired me to go to music schools and stuff a bit so thanks !

[@briannalanzen3749]

Thank you so much for all of the info! I was really interested to find out but a lot of websites had a bunch of fancy technical terms I didn't get- this was super easy to understand!

[@jennessalanza]

This was so helpful! Thank you for making this video!!

[@christinamartin2594]

This was so educational! You're great at explaining things in a simple but interesting way! Please do more of these kind of vids :)

[@itsbaobao1963]

Thanks for everything! I love the fact that you took the time to explain everythign so well!

[@TheRacingWind]

Tessa, you look like you're doing SO good. And that makes me insanely happy to see.

[@mashasiriwangsanti230]

Thank you so much for posting this video and being so clear!! You are amazing!

[@EternalFail]

I would love a follow up video to this! I find this subject fascinating because there's so many parts to it

[@KunamaElgar]

This is all really useful info as I want to start covering songs on youtube soon (including some of yours!). Btw, I love that Hank has been using your music so much in his videos lately.

[@tessaviolet]

ME TOO

[@lilym.8179]

Thanks so much for this information. It really helps hearing from someone who has experience. Copyright issues are so complicated-looking and you helped break things down for us artists :).

[@octavioveliz]

You actually cleared up some stuff for me, thank you! SUBSCRIBED!

[@Cassarilla]

I love this! Super informative and helpful. Thanks for making this video!

[@adamwhite2641]

For extra clarity about the 30 sec thing. I would change it to "mostly false" as the 30 sec idea is about limited use. When critiquing a work, you're not allowed to play the whole thing. So something like 30 seconds is a random standard to adhere too. The idea of limited use is real, it's just an addition to the critique use and not a separate issue on it's own.

This video was so nicely made and explained things in a lovely, clear way. Thank you, wonderfully educating and interesting.

[@unicamentejean182]

This video is awesome!! :) I knew most of the things but is nice the way that you explain it! so clear and cute ^^

[@en3rgygirl595]

This, I needed this video!! Great explanation. :)

[@hannahdanby]

Thank you so much! This was explained so well!! This is very important for me as a singer-songwriter and probably also for others😊

[@elsielansberry8921]

1- Thanks for making this! Yayayay everything makes more sense now! 2- Your hair looks amazing, I love it so much, this length and color looks perf. 3- Will you be doing a house tour in your new place?

[@WaistHighView]

This is all so fascinating! I've known enough about it to just stay away from any music that's not royalty free for my videos, but I always wondered about how it really works when someone uses music as background or just a small part of a video, yet all of the monitisation goes to the song owners. But what I find most interesting are gray-area cases like 'Sail' (or that might be a really unique example? At least on that scale), where I really feel the song got traction specifically because of the video, but then of course the label could claim all of it as it wasn't made with permission. I have no idea how/if it was resolved at the end, but in that case it really felt like the video creators should get more say, or power; though that would probably create more problems. Fascinating anyway!

[@florenciaolhagaray]

the "take it, it's yours" part make me smile, i want her as my big sister so much.

[@TifasKnight]

This is a great explanation, Tessa, and I've been curious about this. It's a lot to digest but thankfully it's a video and not a classroom ergo I can review any part I want over and over again. ^^

[@gabim8105]

This makes something so complicated really easy to understand. Thanks Tessa!

[@knightmare6]

Love ya' even more for taking the time to break this down for people! Hope your move is going great and hope to see you again, should you make it back up to NYC! :D

[@ShaynainShambles]

I can't say I entirely get the nuance of music copyright (because I'm so out of the loop of the music industry...) but this has been immensely informative and helpful. Definitely opened my eyes to a whole slew of layers involved in the details and process of copyright. Thank you for spending the time to explain all of this, Tessa!

[@ellandagrace6752]

Tessa this was SO HELPFUL I've been wanting answers to all these questions for aaages!

[@LikeKristen]

this was such an interesting video! Thank you for sharing. You are so lovely

[@NatalieLight]

LikeKristen hey I love your videos :D

[@Natalion427]

Thank you soooo much for this video! I love to write songs, but I've never uploaded any of my originals to my channel because I've always been told that I needed to register them. This has definitely prompted me to follow through with recording a few💕

[@JiixBooks]

Yaaay thank you so much for this explanation and ahh can't wait to film future art projects and use some of your songs 😱😱

[@DoctorNikkiP]

So helpful to understand copyright more! Thank you for making this!

[@ChrisWilhelmaddafewcharacters]

Telling people to please use and share your music, you're the real MVP

[@lukenatewilson989]

Great video! Thanks so much. Keep up the great work

[@margauxb3591]

Thanks a lot for this info! It's all super useful!

[@crabapplesinc2401]

This was interesting. Why can't we learn about this in school?

[@TheRacingWind]

some classes do teach copyright law; I know I learned about it in my commercial photography class and our choir did some stuff on it too. just depends on courses I guess :)

[@Lily.valkyrie]

If you take some kind of honors art or music class, you have definitely learned about copyright and plagarizim before. (in america, anyways)

[@supervoid2651]

By the time it's been put in the curriculum, it'll be wrong.

[@sapherno11]

Ahhh, very, very informational Tessa, thank you for sharing. I always wondered how copyright worked on youtube and so on, and this explained a lot! And thank you Seth for double checking!

[@itsjosemora]

I love this thanks for the information Tessa!!! Also how great is it that you're allowing people to use your music!!! Definitely will be using a song for a future video!!!! Thank you!!!! 😘🙂

[@TheKpopProf]

i like your explanation, thanks for taking the time. I am an educator who lectures on popular music and sometimes if i make a video (even 1.5 hours) of me explaining music history I get totally harassed by the labels. Now, thanks to your video I am again reassured that what I'm doing is legit.

[@christinasunflower]

Finally I kinda understand everything now haha. Thank you so much for this!

[@harmonyjoy]

Thanks for this Tessa. I've felt very lost trying to figure out the laws around doing covers so this was very helpful.

[@EvanYTMusic]

Really enjoyed this one, great video!! :D (And good luck with moving!)

[@PuddingASMR]

So how do acapella covers work? Would they still get claimed by labels for doing a non instrumental purely vocal version of some older songs or popular new ones?

[@tessaviolet]

+PuddingWhispers legally, yes they could be claimed, will the search engine find them is another question.

[@PuddingASMR]

Tessa Violet ahh of course. Thank you!!! :D

[@HeroofSomething]

I don't even care much for any of the topics but I just click on your videos because your voice is so calming. Just the way you speak eases my mind. I didn't even understand 99% of your video since I don't care about copyright but hey, as long as you speak. I watch!

[@untappedinkwell]

Wow. I love it when I learn things. Thanks Tessa.

[@Prerna2205]

Tessa, make a video about songwriting

[@SharonasHill]

Thankyou so much for this!

[@iagas9]

Your hair is soooo preeeeetty. (Also, this was super informative, and well explained. Thanks. I'm still super jealous of your hair.)

[@Fruity_Cutie]

This is VERY interesting and well-explained. Thank you!

[@pjk302]

Hey Tessa! Solid video and explanation on copyrights. Just a few quick comments (points): first, the reason that songwriters (publishing) is 9% while performers (master) is 91% is because during the time frame that those aspects of the copyright laws were established, the mainstream (pop) music genre model was performers would record/produce songs not written by themselves-generally between 8-to-12 songs. And generally, performers only produced a record every other year due to spending most of their time performing the material on that record-ideally it would be best to produce an album every year but not always possible. And for the songwriter, who were not performing their songs, could in theory write several songs every year to sell and receive royalties-could possibly write and sell about 50-to-100 songs a year ideally (most would not be a hit or make much money at all-quantity over quality), while the performer was only receiving royalties from a much, limited set of songs per year (the 8-to-12 songs), so this created the 91-to-9 percent break down on a given song. And everyone one had to share with the label regardless-though there were a few artists who broke such business model. Now true, the Internet and technology has dramatically changed the music industry and the ability to get material out to an audience, so therefore allowing more opportunities both good and bad for songwriters to perform their own material, though again, if you look at the mainstream (pop) music genre, you will still find artists like Selena Gomez who primarily record and perform someone else’s song. Okay, the second point is sad but true. Please, Tessa, and all songwriter out there, please copyright your material-you can make a collection of your own songs and do a single copyright of that collection rather than copyright every single song. Now why, well, if you copyright your song (or collection of songs) that copyright last 70 years, then you must renew the copyright over them. If you do not copyright them, then someone could after 3-to-5 years (it varies depending on multiple of factors) in general take over the publishing rights of your song by copyright the song themselves-which they will even credit you as the original songwriter and performer of that song (or collection of songs) which means you will lose that possible 9 percent of royalties, and if they get someone else to perform that song, you could lose in part of the 91 percent, and there is little you can do about it-there are some legal battles; there are so many variables with these particular situations to cover in a simple comment. Just simply google “artist losing publishing rights”, and you might be surprised which artist fell under this situation. So, it always in your best interest to copyright your songs. A possible step to help you case is to create a CD of your songs then certify mail it to yourself and keep sealed which the certified date on that certified mail reflects the date of ownership-unless someone could prove ownership with an earlier date. You can do this with your lyrics before you record them by written them out and certified mailing them to yourself. But overall, you video was solid. And to be fully honest with you, there needs to be major overhaul of the copyright laws due to the Internet, streaming, syncing, whatever you want to call it has dramatically the music business model, and the current copyright laws simply have not kept up with the times. Sorry for the very long comment, but hopefully, someone might find it useful. And again, please, Tessa, copyright your material. ;)

[@Aiewqat]

Omg I've just realized I used to watch your very first videos when your channel was called meekakitty!! You've changed so much-in a positive way. It's great to see such amazing progress keep it up :)

[@NkesePOfficial]

Thank you so much for this!!! You're the only one I've found to explain this so clearly. I had no idea why my acapella cover videos were being copyright claimed. Now I know that Publishing basically owns the lyrics and composition of the songs so they are gonna want their cut, especially if you're making money from the cover... and to avoid drama its best to just allow them to monetize your videos and share the revenue with them. At least that's what I got from what you said :p. Thanks alot anyway :) You rock!

[@natalief2508]

THIS HELPS SO MUCH THANK YOU

[@RustyClantonOfficial]

Yes I needed this again!

[@Queerbbby]

haha rusty shouldnt you know all that jazz by now? :)

[@gemofgems]

I'm so happy you made this video, because I was going to ask about this exactly. I'm planning a fanvideo using On My Own, because I love the song and it works perfectly with the TV show I'm pairing it with.

[@707Bubby]

really helpful, I feel like other people have tried to explain it and it never really made sense because they were not really talking about what is actually legal they were just talking about what youtube allows. Im an animator and so I need sound in my videos so its helpful to really understand how it basically works because I typically avoid all songs and stick to sound libraries and making my own sounds because copyright scares me

[@DevonRegular]

this was a great intro! it cleared some things I thought was true, which is great! and it's lovely you want people to use your music!

[@AtlasBishop]

This was so fascinating and helpful. Thanks, Tessa!

[@JimmySlaughter]

I took a media law and ethics class in college, and it was the most difficult course I've ever had. There are just too many little nuances and intricacies to know, with regards to copyright. I'm at the point where I'm just trying to compose and record my own music for any video I post, just so that I have 100% claim to it, and will greatly reduce the odds of it getting taken down. Of course, I don't have a big channel, so demonetization isn't going to affect me much anyway.

[@michaelaanne5014]

Oh my gosh I had a quiz on this in music production today thank u for this lesson

[@daniellaprovencio9128]

you have explained this very well! Thank u!!

[@sarahgrace6394]

woah i just asked a question about this on shawna's channel! I didn't know the rules about using other people's songs and she answered but this totally clears things up!

[@HerenuiC]

Thank you so much, this was so informative !

[@HarleyQuinn-fy6ll]

Wow such a great and informative video. I'm not a music maker but I think this concerns everyone. And it's so great of you to let people use your music (but link where the music is coming from) :)

[@UnderMyMakeup]

I was just thinking about this today. thanks!

[@saturnaut5871]

I always got copyrighted bruh even tho I searched on yt "Non copyrighted songs" and still get copyrighted omg and I hate this one "Partially Blocked" 😤😰😭

[@tiffanychen6177]

helpful! i was always curious about how this stuff works.

[@SelfExplanaTori]

I've always wondered so much about this!

[@NivaPradhan]

Thank you so much for this video. It was definitely very useful.

[@CammiMcDermott]

this is great!! thanks so much for sharing. please make a follow up vid if there's any more! as a musician i love learning about this

[@Willia]

The pink and green tones of this video make me feel alive. (Also that video was incredibly helpful, thanks!)

[@beckythevampireslaye]

Thank you for explaining all this! Very informative!

[@MeganAshley]

This helped me so so so much thank you for this!

[@cometconfetti]

This is very informative and helpful. Especially for someone who is just starting out on youtube and is super confused about what kind of music is ok to use. Thank you.

[@mollym.518]

Ever since I started watching KZbin (probably 2009) I've wondered about this but never quite knew how to ask about it. Thanks Tessa!

[@jasonhuntley7078]

Hey thanks for this I found it very interesting and educational, copyrights on KZbin have been bothering me for quite some time now and I think I have a better understanding on it after watching this. Haha guess I just won't be adding music to my videos, umm are there certain songs that are free to use without worry of monetize or copyrights sorry if you already explained this and I just didn't catch on to it! Thanks again this was very helpful!!! ^_^ good luck on your move!

[@edengallagher1044]

When you paused momentarily after "this is my last videoo"

[@tylerbeaumont]

I got an ad for a copyright scam on this video. Thanks for making everyone aware Tess!

[@oowatwat]

so informative! loved this!

[@heyitssho]

Tessa! Thank you for teaching me new things! :) I enjoyed this video.

[@kayleelives]

Thank you so much for explaining this omg

[@sydnellia]

thank you for making this!

[@Teshia]

Thank you! I've been trying to understand this for a year...

[@starinaramiz5086]

Thank so much for this information!

[@pinekun]

This is extremely informative and useful. Thank you for explaining!

[@miarooski]

I love her eyes. I don’t really even know really what color they are, when they are looking at the camera, that are the prettiest blue, and when she is looking up or down, they are the most beautiful olive green. Also, the emotion that comes through her eyes shows you she has so much kindness and love in her.

[@macsorfi5815]

Madam you explained it very clear and easy to understand... tks