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Interesting YouTube policy

Rich Z

Rich Z

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Any of you creating your own videos for YouTube may not be aware of an interesting YouTube policy that I only found out when I noticed that a couple of my recent videos had been flagged with some sort of copyright issue notice. At first I was taken back quite a bit, because all of my videos have been my own content, taken with my own camcorders and processed on my own computers. So how the heck could there be any sort of copyright infringement? Well, I had been adding in some audio clips that are provided by YouTube, but heck I thought they were being offered free and clear as public domain. When you call up the list of audio clips during editing, you will see this text plainly displayed there: "Ad-free and eligible for monetization". I guess I didn't fully understand what that means because DING DONG! Apparently I was wrong thinking they were actually for *free*.

So here's the scoop. You create your video with your camcorder, download it to your PC, process and edit it with your favorite video editor program, upload it up YouTube, and fill in the blanks to describe your video. Right then and there, you've probably got several hours into this effort. So what the heck, you click on the page that enables "monetization". Which means that commercial ads will be displayed over your video, and if you get any clicks on those ads, revenue is shared with you for those clicks. Sounds just dandy, doesn't it? And heck, there is even an option to add in what looks like a free audio clip to your video to spice it up a little bit.

Well get this. When you choose to include one of those what you thought were free audio clips that YouTube provides, the author of that audio clip (granted apparently MOST, but not ALL of them. But don't hold me to this.) gets the ad click revenue from YOUR video, and NOT you. Even though viewers (note that word) are watching the VIDEO because that is what they came to see on YouTube and why they clicked on YOUR video, and the audio clip is nothing really more than just fluff added to the video viewing experience. By adding in that audio clip, you just basically turned over the revenue generating rights for your video to someone else.

Anyway, so what those copyright notices were that I noticed associated with a few of my videos were pretty much a statement declaring "Sorry bub, the audio clip author is staking a claim on any revenue generated for the video clip you created." Not sure why only a couple had that notice and not all that I applied audio clips to, so there is a bunch I am not understanding about what is going on with this YouTube wrinkle.

OK, so I tried to remove the audio clip from one of my video clips with that notice and YouTube slaps me with a "Sorry, you cannot remove the audio from your video". Excuse me? :angry: That's when I started digging into what the heck was going on. So yeah, I just deleted the video and then re-uploaded it. Don't tell ME what I can and cannot do with MY video! But of course, this time without adding the audio clip. And for good measure I went through all of my videos and noted that all but two were marked as being now owned by the audio authors as far as ad sharing revenue was concerned. Fortunately i was able to delete the rest of those audio tracks without issue.

Anyway, not sure how many of you upload videos to YouTube, but I thought you might want to be made aware of this YouTube policy if you also add in those audio clips. Maybe I'm just dumb and didn't catch it, but I think that more than likely MOST people are not aware of this particular GOTCHA!
 
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/3376882?hl=en

I'm not sure it's a gotcha - it looks more like it's audio the artists are happy for people to use free of charge unless the uploader attempts to make money from it.

As soon as money enters the equation, that changes things in pretty much any venture. If you want to monetize your videos, make absolutely sure you have the commercial rights on all content in that video.
 
Regardless, I offer the premise that no one clicks on any YouTube video solely to listen to the optional add-in music clip on the video. Do any sort of search that you like on YouTube and tell me you can even tell which videos have a third part music clip and which ones don't. Can you even do a search knowing there is a third party music clip you want to listen to and are looking for a video carrying it? People come to YouTube looking for VIDEO content (unless, of course, they are specifically seeking out a commercial song or a specific genre of music), not the add-on music clips being provided through YouTube. Has anyone in the world actually stopped watching a YouTube VIDEO because it did not have a music track? Has any video on YouTube (or the ads within them) gotten more clicks BECAUSE of an attached third party music track? I seriously, SERIOUSLY doubt it.

If a music artist doesn't want their "product" to be on a video clip that earns a few pennies for the developer of the video, then what the heck are they doing on YouTube in the first place. How many videos can you find that are NOT monetized? Find some other way to promote yourself other than leeching off of someone else's work that is actually bringing the people to YouTube. To have it set up such that the monetization still takes place, but then leeches the money to the audio "artist" from the person creating the video that would benefit from people clicking on the VIDEO, and having that choice being nothing at all to do with the music clip selection attached, is nothing more than being, well, a LEECH.

Granted, I don't think this is so much the fault of the music artist's as it likely is the policy of YouTube not being well thought out. And as best I can tell, it is much easier to click on a music clip to add it to your video than to figure out exactly what is going to happen if you do. Anyway, I would like to THINK the music artists aren't part and party to this scam.

I don't make much at all on my YouTube videos, (probably because no one watches them :laugh: ) but regardless, if one or more of my videos does earn a few pennies per month, it sure as hell wouldn't be because of some third party audio clip attached to it. And I think I'm not really sticking my neck out very far to claim that quite likely a LOT of people do not realize this policy and what they are forfeiting when they opt to add in one of those audio clips to their video. If I had ever created a YouTube video that surprisingly went viral and garnered millions of hits only to find out that the afterthought of a music clip I added in actually got all of the monetized revenue instead of me, well, I don't think I would be feeling very happy about that. I REALLY hope that never happens to someone.
 
You engaged in a commercial enterprise without understanding the contracts you were agreeing to. Caveat Emptor.

And there's lots of non-monetized videos out there, but they have low views because as soon as someone gets to a few thousand views, Youtube will contact them and ask them if they want to monetize it. All my videos are non-monetized because nobody watches them. :p I put them up for my own enjoyment. I use copyrighted music that Youtube recognizes, but no one has issued takedowns against me because, again, not monetized.

If you want to make money off your videos, then be sure you have the rights to all the content in the videos.
 
Nova_C said:
You engaged in a commercial enterprise without understanding the contracts you were agreeing to. Caveat Emptor.

And there's lots of non-monetized videos out there, but they have low views because as soon as someone gets to a few thousand views, Youtube will contact them and ask them if they want to monetize it. All my videos are non-monetized because nobody watches them. :p I put them up for my own enjoyment. I use copyrighted music that Youtube recognizes, but no one has issued takedowns against me because, again, not monetized.

If you want to make money off your videos, then be sure you have the rights to all the content in the videos.
Click to expand...

Sigh.... you miss the point. But thank you for your valuable advice.
 
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