Copyright violations are very common on the Internet. Many YouTubers use copyrighted music in their videos and frequently don’t realize the consequences.
YouTube is very strict about Copyright and can take your video down or even suspend your account for copyright infringement. Therefore, exercise caution when using music in your YouTube videos.
Here are 3 ways you can legally use copyrighted music in your YouTube videos:
1. Use work that is available within the public domain
Copyrighted work lose their copyright protection over a certain period of time and fall under the public domain. Thus, music within the public domain is free for everyone to use. In the US, any song or musical work published in 1922 or before is in the public domain.
For more information on public domain music, visit The Public Domain Information Project website. The website has curated a list of musical works that have lost copyright protection over time. However, do not solely depend on the information provided by the website. Do your own research to confirm that a song is with a copyright date of 1922 or earlier. Additionally, if you are not from the US, check your country’s copyright laws to determine the usage of public domain music.
2. Obtain a license or permission from the owner of the copyrighted content
You need to obtain a license to use music that is not within the public domain. Stanford University Libraries have highlighted a five-step process to get permission for using copyrighted works.
- Determine if a copyrighted work requires permission.
- Identify the original owner of the content.
- Identify the rights needed.
- Contact the owner and negotiate payment
- Get the permission agreement in writing
Be vigilant of the copyright conditions for the song you are using. This is because, some recordings have both, a copyright for the song and for the recording of the song itself. Thus, you will be required to obtain two licenses to use the song.
3. You can reuse music from YouTube videos with a Creative Commons license
Some YouTubers obtain the Creative Commons license to make their work available for reuse by others. YouTube allows such users to mark their videos with a CC BY license. People can can use these videos for commercial and non-commercial purposes via the YouTube Video Editor. When you make a YouTube video using Creative Commons content, the source video’s title will be automatically attributed under the video player. Below are the steps to find Creative Commons content on YouTube:
Step 1: Perform a search
Step 2: Click on the “Filters” option
Step 3: Select “Creative Commons” under “Features”.
Step 4: All the videos displayed in the search will have a Creative Commons license.
Copyright violation is punishable by law. The best way to avoid copyright infringement is to create original content. Nonetheless, be very aware of the ways to legally use copyrighted music on YouTube. Follow the above tips to to avoid getting penalized for copyright infringement.
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Manasa Boggaram is a writer and has a strong passion for music, positive news and constructive journalism. When she is not researching story ideas or writing blog posts, she spends her time reading books, discovering new music and eating lots of street food.
The last tip about using the filter on YouTube was SUPER helpful! Thank you 🙂
So, if I am understanding this correctly, as long as I find the music under the creative commons license and post the artist info, I can use it legally?
Dear Sir, I’m a retired musician and I want to create music angments of top forty songs from the 60 – 80 for high schools musicians. Some of the titles I want to use are ” Living for the city Stevie Wonder” My Girl the tempentions” Percy sledge When A man Loves a Woman’ etc.
If there is a one somebody that can get me set up please let me know.
Anthony Dorsey
Hi!
Yes! This is correct.
I dont think so, dowloaded one and re-upload on youtube as background music and tagged its a partially blocked.
Hi, what is the next step once you’ve found the creative commons video? How do you then get that music onto your video?
How about recording your own version of a song and playing it on YouTube? My church has a CCLI number, does that apply?
Wait so if I just get the Creative Commons and put credit to that artist it’s fine to use and I don’t have to do the hard contact stuff?
I have a question about creative Commons works – I want to use a song that I like in a YouTube video of mine (I wouldn’t monetize the video), but the song is copyrighted. However, there is a nightcore-style remix of it on YouTube that is marked as Creative Commons, and the only difference between the remix and original is that it’s pitched up and sped up. I could easily take the creative commons version, and pitch/slow it down so it sounds like the original, but would that no longer be using the creative commons sound even though I started with that?
Did you ever find out the answer to your question? I have the same concern
I have a question so if I wanna use do it for love by P-Holla for a intro. How exactly do i do it? Like do i just search under Creative common and then I put credit of the original person who made the song. And another question how do I credit the person because I’m going to upload videos through Imovie. Please help this whole copyright thing is starting to make me freak out because I don’t want to be copyrighted.
Hi everyone,
I know is not easy to find No Copyright Music.
But I creat a channel so poeple can use my no copy richt music on you tube.
This is the channel and feel free to use the music!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGzAW7isPWZ8B6brHupL5EQ
I have a question so if I wanna use do it for love by P-Holla for a intro. How exactly do i do it? Like do i just search under Creative common and then I put credit of the original person who made the song. And another question how do I credit the person because I’m going to upload videos through Imovie. Please help this whole copyright thing is starting to make me freak out because I don’t want to be copyrighted.
Can I use “Youtube Music” and put a song in my youtube video? Or would I get copyrighted? I’m trying to understand this!
Danke!
Yes u can search from music library and u can keep in ur YouTube videos. There will be not copy strike on ur videos
Hi how can I post a dance video using jayz dirt off your shoulder and still get paid? Use a filter? IDK when I try to post it’s blocked
Ty
I can cast songs of T-series music old song.on my you tube channel.any license want and license want than how to get pls answer me..
As it has been confirmed in the post so yes
I can cast songs of T-series music old song.on my you tube channel.any license want and license want than how to get pls answer me..
I have a question, so if we got the video from creative commons, do we still have to contact the owner of the song? do we have to pay? and if we have to contact, how do we do that tho
I would like to use a variety of world music I purchased on my utube channel… Can you advise me how I can legally go about doing that? All specific answers or advice is welcome…cheers claudia
https://youtu.be/V5Y7oCNyraU does this video need to be published as audio
So i discovered a song I would like to use on my youtube channel and followed the instructions you gave on creative commons licence and found it on there although sang by another artist but the original artist did have other songs on that list.
So does this mean I have to copy from the cover version or can I copy the track from the original artist in the orginal and best version. please clarify