Music for videos

deuter · Jan 26, 2016

Given this is the first time really that Iam making videos, embedding music from artist like Michael Jackson and uploading to YouTube is that ok ?

Would I be breaching any piracy laws ?

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chessman · Jan 26, 2016

You'd maybe get away with it for a while. YouTube would be the first to pull it on infringement of copyright grounds in addition to any other busy-bodies who enjoy sticking their oar in. That's the reality these days. Too many people with not enough to do to while their days away lol.
I had this same dilemma a few days back. Ended up downloading some free music from www.freemusicarchive.org
Some was a bit too electronic but there was some good stuff in between. You have to listen to the samples.
Good luck

chessman · Jan 26, 2016

Tip: if you don't want to make the same mistake I did, search for music at least the length of your video lol
Else it'll end prematurely, or you'll have to loop the track which isn't ideal.
I searched for tracks over 9 minutes long as my video was 8.30.

msinger · Jan 26, 2016

deuter, there are lots of places to find royalty free music. Here are a few:

deuter · Jan 26, 2016

msinger said:
deuter, there are lots of places to find royalty free music. Here are a few:

Free Music Archive

Incompetech: Royalty-Free Music

Purple Planet Royalty Free Music

Royalty Free Music by Bensound | Creative Commons Music

Royalty Free Music Library from PremiumBeat.com

Royalty Free Music, Sound Effects, Production Music, Loops, and more - AudioBlocks

Great post, thank you very much

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4wd · Jan 26, 2016

The great majority of popular tracks all that will happen is youtube mention the copyright and adverts for the tune may appear.
That's it.
You can't monetise it but you may as well forget that as you would rarely make more than $0.10 on a video anyway.
Very occasionally audio will be blocked or blocked in some countries - usually Germany.
If that happens switch to one of their own ghastly tunes.
It's kind of annoying you can't check out the status before rendering and uploading with what you would like to use.

There's a slight risk of future changes - this happened a few years ago when almost everything was muted for a few weeks.
I had a video from in a vehicle and the radio was on - you could just about make out the tune and they even muted that for a while.

It's still often best to avoid anything very 'current' - more likely to be blocked - but also popular music tends to be rather personal and your choice might not have wider appeal or even be downright embarrassing a year or two later.
Best to look out for more timeless classical sounding pieces which often suit aerial scenes anyway.

happydays · Jan 26, 2016

What I have done as well is to hook up with a local musician - he enjoys recording his stuff and gives me the MP4 files for free to add to the clips - it was his suggestion. Bloody brilliant!

Like this

rene van der meer · Jan 26, 2016

deuter said:
Great post, thank you very much

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Here are some more:
SoundCloud – Hear the world’s sounds
Free for Commercial Use
Royalty Free Music
http://www.freesound.org/
Free Music Archive

If I am correct, if the track is short, less than 30 seconds, it is also royalty free. So you are fine if you mix short tracks.

msinger · Jan 26, 2016

rene van der meer said:
If I am correct, if the track is short, less than 30 seconds, it is also royalty free. So you are fine if you mix short tracks.

Got a link to a credible source that backs this up?

rene van der meer · Jan 26, 2016

msinger said:
Got a link to a credible source that backs this up?

msinger, I am sorry but couldn't find a link.
On the other hand, It doesn't seem sense to sue someone for a very short piece of music.
Especially if you are not posting commercially, like the most of us, I suspect the companies that own the rights will be very forgiving.

sdharris · Jan 26, 2016

Youtube has a great resource for checking whether copyrighted popular music can be used and you'd be surprised just what tracks you can use provided you are happy for ads from the copyright owners to be appear and not all videos can be played in all countries, Germany is probably the worst.

It is tricky to access but use their Audio Library which is available in your video manager within Youtube under the Create link on the left hand side - YouTube.

From there you can search by track or artist and it'll tell you whether it will be monetised, whether it is allowed and in what countries.

Obviously just heed the warning on Youtube that copyright owners can change their policy as someone else pointed out on this thread. And you will receive an email from Youtube explaining the copyright owner is asserting their right to monetise but nothing to worry about.

I also use soundcloud.com as you can find some great tracks on there but be careful as not all tracks can be used royalty free.

In terms of the 30 second thing, I actually found that 15 second instagram shorts are fine, but 30 seconds will always get picked up. I would always recommend using the Youtube audio library above to check.

msinger · Jan 26, 2016

Stealing is stealing. You cannot go into your local grocery store and take just a few sips of soda -- even if you are deathly thirsty

ELHEAPO · Jan 26, 2016

happydays said:
What I have done as well is to hook up with a local musician - he enjoys recording his stuff and gives me the MP4 files for free to add to the clips - it was his suggestion. Bloody brilliant!

Like this

That is a great idea combining 2 different artists work!!