copyright on soundcloud/youtube ?

[GolanTrevize]

Apparently thousands of more or less advanced guitar players publish their interpretations of standards on youtube, soundcloud et other platforms. This is a perfect situation for learning guitar, listening to ways others approach a song or sometimes simple streaming. I could learn more from these in a few weeks, than from years of rehearsing in the eighties.
But one question remains and I could not find a satisfactory answer: how is the copyright-situation for these clips?
Is really all of it plain copyright infringement? What do I have to do, if I want publish a simple darn that dream on soundcloud without risking to pay thousands of dollars?

[AllanAllen]

According to a Rick Beato video I saw, If you get enough hits to make money YouTube will flag the video and you can select to pay your $0.00001 per view to the copyright holder or delete the video. It's all automated, don't worry about it. Even those unofficial posts of songs/albums have the cash going to the right owner.

[ThatRhythmMan]

It’s doubtful that you will have enough listens for it to become monetized anyway. On the off chance that it does, it will get a copyright claim and that will be all there is to it on YouTube. The money will go to copyright holders. On SoundCloud, it’s extremely unlikely that will ever come up.

[GolanTrevize]

Well my motivation lies not so much in being seen or making money. More to return a little from things I learned on the one hand, to share licks or concepts with friends living at the other end of the planet, to educate my children, or simply to link some demo-songs to band websites I'm maintaining.

As far as I found out, none of that is possible (in Germany), because I would have to pay 240€ at least for every website I'd like to use, if I correctly understood the terms of Gema.

So - sharing licks in a secure manner does not seem to be possible. Everything seems to depend on not being noticed on youtube or soundcloud by the wrong persons. Strange times we live in .... - I ask myself what Mozart would have written, not being allowed to "steal" ideas from Bach...

Thanks anyway for the answers

[Jack E Blue]

Well my motivation lies not so much in being seen or making money. More to return a little from things I learned on the one hand, to share licks or concepts with friends living at the other end of the planet, to educate my children, or simply to link some demo-songs to band websites I'm maintaining.

As far as I found out, none of that is possible (in Germany), because I would have to pay 240€ at least for every website I'd like to use, if I correctly understood the terms of Gema.

So - sharing licks in a secure manner does not seem to be possible. Everything seems to depend on not being noticed on youtube or soundcloud by the wrong persons. Strange times we live in .... - I ask myself what Mozart would have written, not being allowed to "steal" ideas from Bach...

Thanks anyway for the answers

Is that 240 euros per year? per song? per play? How does Sandra Sherman deal with this? I know she's in Austria, not Germany, but it's still the EU and probably has similar laws.

[GolanTrevize]

in Germany its 240€ per year for 72000 clicks. It's the smallest package. I think it's supposed to work for the website, that is provided to them, no a song.

[BWV]

Try to upload an arrangement of Hotel California and find out

It seems random, I have several Burt Bacharach arrangements and recording of Henze pieces (one with the score) on my tiny, 12 follower channel. Got a copyright claim on one Bacharach tune and one Henze piece, but not the others. Never going to make any money so its no issue

[grahambop]

My youtube and soundcloud pages are basically just a load of old jazz standards I have recorded. In 12 years I have never had a copyright claim on any of them. Even if you do, they generally just put adverts on it, or worst case scenario, demand that you remove it, as far as I know.

Are you trying to monetise it somehow? (I am not.)

Youtube did offer to monetise my Blue Bossa video but it would have meant them putting adverts on it, I said no thanks.

[Bflat233]

My youtube and soundcloud pages are basically just a load of old jazz standards I have recorded. In 12 years I have never had a copyright claim on any of them.

This topic has been on my mind today ... and I was thinking I would reach out to you for an answer, and here you are! Seriously - I found your Soundcloud page after looking for a cover of Poinciana. Once there, I see you've pushed out many standards over the years via Soundcloud. It's good to know you've not had any issues.

For what it is worth, ReverbNation removed my cover of Sunny from my page without explanation. Searching through the FAQ, I read that such actions are typically the result of a copyright concern.

By the way - love your cover of Poinciana!

[Little Jay]

I publish my songs on streaming media thru DistroKid (pro account à $80 a year but they have cheaper options). This automatically secures the copyright for that song. In theory it gives you the possibility to check on infringement and take legal action, but you would have to do it yourself..... impossible of course. They do offer a (paid, $7.50 per song) option to check for you if someone else posts videos with your song under it (I think that only concerns the original recording, I don’t think they can spot someone covering it). It works, the guy who put out our videoclip with the song under it got a warning and YouTube puts an advertisement to the song and if there already is, re-routes the revenue to you, the original artist.

It did not make me a billionaire yet, but I have still hope!

I once posted a video of my old 1956 record player playing on facebook and fb muted the sound because It was playing an Elvis Presley song, which Sony owns the rights to and forbids the use.

[grahambop]

This topic has been on my mind today ... and I was thinking I would reach out to you for an answer, and here you are! Seriously - I found your Soundcloud page after looking for a cover of Poinciana. Once there, I see you've pushed out many standards over the years via Soundcloud. It's good to know you've not had any issues.

For what it is worth, ReverbNation removed my cover of Sunny from my page without explanation. Searching through the FAQ, I read that such actions are typically the result of a copyright concern.

By the way - love your cover of Poinciana!

Thanks, I think that was done for the ‘practical standards’ thread.

[Groeneog]

Learning from fellow players' interpretations of standards is pure gold, right? As for the copyright dilemma, it's a tricky road to navigate. I stumbled upon a similar concern when I wanted to share my rendition of "Darn That Dream" on SoundCloud. After some research and a bit of hesitation, I found clarity. It turns out, as long as you're not using any copyrighted material (like backing tracks), and you're putting your own spin on it, you're usually in the clear. Of course, it's always good to double-check with the platform's guidelines and maybe consult a legal expert if you're unsure. Oh, and by the way, if you're looking to boost your SoundCloud presence, there's this neat service called Just a moment... that might help you get your music out there even more.

[frabarmus]

It’s doubtful that you will have enough listens for it to become monetized anyway. On the off chance that it does, it will get a copyright claim and that will be all there is to it on YouTube.

How many listens does it take for it to be monetised and copyright claimed?

[ThatRhythmMan]

How many listens does it take for it to be monetised and copyright claimed?

Monetization on YouTube requires:

1. Get 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months, or
2. Get 1,000 subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Litterick]

Learning from fellow players' interpretations of standards is pure gold, right? As for the copyright dilemma, it's a tricky road to navigate. I stumbled upon a similar concern when I wanted to share my rendition of "Darn That Dream" on SoundCloud. After some research and a bit of hesitation, I found clarity. It turns out, as long as you're not using any copyrighted material (like backing tracks), and you're putting your own spin on it, you're usually in the clear. Of course, it's always good to double-check with the platform's guidelines and maybe consult a legal expert if you're unsure.

The US Copyright Office publishes a useful guide, What Musicians Should Know about Copyright. In particular, the guide emphasises, "A sound recording and the music, lyrics, words, or other content included in the recording are separate copyright-protected works. These works are subject to different rules and are commonly owned and licensed separately."

The copyright law of the United States grants authors exclusive rights to make and sell copies of their works, to create derivative works, and to perform or display their works publicly. These exclusive rights expire seventy years after the author's death or ninety-five years after publication.

Darn that Dream was written by Jimmy Van Heusen (Edward Chester Babcock), who died in 1990.

[RJVB]

I ask myself what Mozart would have written, not being allowed to "steal" ideas from Bach...

You know JSB himself stole from (pardon, improved upon) numerous sources of inspiration, right?

As to Mozart, as far as I remember we owe him the score of Allegri's Miserere Mei the original of which was jealously guarded by the Vatican or order squatting the Sixtine chapel. Until young Amadeus heard it, maybe went back once or twice and rewrote the entire piece from memory. Imagine doing that nowadays, it would probably be considered counterfeit...

[Alter]

Copyright claim is not a problem on YouTube, it just means that if there is money to be made they will go to the copyright owner, and that YouTube can decide whether or not to run ads on the video. You can have a huge channel with all videos having copyrighted music no problem.

It's copyright strikes that close your channel if you get three of them. So don't copy entire videos from other channels, stuff like that.

A copyright claim can be the result of scanning when you post the video, of just the title you use, or it can be a cash grab by a company that has nothing whatsoever to do with the songs copyright. I've had all of that happen, and when I think that the claim is not valid (like a claim on a Bach piece or a South American company claiming a Standard) i dispute it, it has always worked so far.