I have made a video and wish to add a soundtrack. I've seen this done many times on youtube and the likes.
I want to put the video on youtube for my mates (who are in the video) to see.
However, how do I go about adding the soundtrack without upsetting the owners of said audio? Do I need to write to them to ask permission?
Yes, I'm new at this and couldn't find anything useful on this on the youtube help section. sorry.
In theory you should ask. In practice nothing will happen if you don't.
1) Put it on Vimeo instead
2) There is no 2.
Youtube's copyright policy is very simple just now, if they think a track might be copyrighted they will remove it, and if you appeal then they will most likely not even bother to respond. It's pretty frustrating.
Frinstance... I did a video and used California Dreamin' as the soundtrack. After about 30 minutes, they muted the soundtrack. You then get offered the choice of choosing a song from their approved list, which funnilly enough included the exact same song- just a fractionally different edit with 2 seconds of silence at the start, which screwed up the cuts completely.
So, I appealed, on the basis that obviously the song itself was allowed, and it was the same version, just with a different CD conversion. No response whatsoever, even for something so simple and clearcut.
So. Vimeo.
I'm sure I read somewhere that if you credit it in the titles, or decription, somewhere it's ok, and also if you edit the original, ie it's not the complete track or you mix it a bit, this is ok too as it's then not the original track, something like that? Also I remember something about if a radio DJ talks over part of a track they pay less royalties for playing it as it's not the complete track they've played?
But, I've got vids on vimeo with soundtracks and no problems there.
I'm sure I read somewhere that if you credit it in the titles, or decription, somewhere it's ok, and also if you edit the original, ie it's not the complete track or you mix it a bit, this is ok too as it's then not the original track, something like that? Also I remember something about if a radio DJ talks over part of a track they pay less royalties for playing it as it's not the complete track they've played?
Basically, none of that is true. It is all wrong.
Legally you have to have permission to use the music.
Practically, you're never going to get sued for it, although you might get your video taken down. Everyone sticks things on vimeo at the moment, and they don't check. Youtube do check. At some point I imagine everyone's vimeo videos will all go down suddenly due to this, but for now it is probably the best bet.
Frinstance... I did a video and used California Dreamin' as the soundtrack. After about 30 minutes, they muted the soundtrack. You then get offered the choice of choosing a song from their approved list, which funnilly enough included the exact same song- just a fractionally different edit with 2 seconds of silence at the start, which screwed up the cuts completely.
Is there some way to listen to their approved songs (or perhaps rip the approved song off a youtube vid), so that you can re-cut your video to fit?
Joe
In theory I suppose I could, though it'd be a lot of work and I think actually might be an offence if I'm downloading the song without permission 😉 But the point I was making is that their process just doesn't work, it takes down material which you're allowed to use and the appeals process is a joke. A mate of mine had the soundtrack removed from a video, when he wrote and recorded the song himself, same situation- he appealed, they ignored him.