# Copyright on YouTube. How to monetize.



## Aceituna (Mar 31, 2020)

I want to start uploading compositions on YouTube, and I have doubts about copyright.
Looking for information, I found services like Identifyy, Audiam, Adrev, which apparently deal with rights management (monetization) on YouTube.
How do they work?
What is the best service?
On the other hand, I was about to sign up for Distrokid.
Does Distrokid deal with monetization on YouTube?
How does it work about it?.
Thanks for your help.


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## Nate Johnson (Apr 12, 2020)

Pretty sure Distrokid can handle YT monetization, but its a secondary service with a separate fee if I recall correctly. Check out their website.


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## d.healey (Apr 12, 2020)

Are you looking for a service that will monitor YouTube to see if people are using your music without permission?


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## David Chappell (Apr 12, 2020)

Aceituna said:


> How do they work?


You upload your MP3s to their websites to get included in their system. Their system scans youtube for videos using your music; if it finds any, it places adverts on those videos, you get the money from those adverts.


Aceituna said:


> What is the best service?


Completely depends, mainly in terms of the % cut those services take. Services that take lower % cuts are generally more selective about who they'll allow to sign up, or may be invitation only.


Aceituna said:


> Does Distrokid deal with monetization on YouTube?
> How does it work about it?.


They can do, I believe they charge $5 per track per year and take a 20% cut of ad revenue.


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## AlexRuger (Apr 13, 2020)

What's confusing to me with all of this is:

Distrokid can scan the entirety of YouTube and make sure that if someone is using my music, I get a cut. Cool, great, love it. I'm not convinced that would actually pay for itself, considering it's a separate payment, but the concept works.

But what if I upload my music to my own channel with the album artwork as the "video?" Since it's my content, I'd presumably go about monetizing it myself as anyone would for their own channel. Would Distrokid pay me for the usage on my own channel like it would on any other channel?

Furthermore, what if I score a YouTube series? Does Distrokid pay me for that? Implied in Distrokid's model is that people are kind of just using my music willy-nilly without my knowledge. If it's music that's supposed to be there, do I get paid? This scenario is basically broadcast royalties that BMI and ASCAP collect. Except, now I have to pay for it.

Which raises the question: do BMI and ASCAP collect YouTube royalties? If so, why would I pay Distrokid to do this at all?

I've emailed BMI and Distrokid about this and gotten no answer. I'm currently working on a documentary series that will likely end up having a huge viewership so I'm a bit annoyed that I can't just send BMI and cue sheet and call it a day. Or maybe I can and they just haven't told me that that's the case, which is a super great way to treat their composers.


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## Ivanko NYC (Apr 15, 2020)

AlexRuger said:


> But what if I upload my music to my own channel with the album artwork as the "video?" Since it's my content, I'd presumably go about monetizing it myself as anyone would for their own channel. Would Distrokid pay me for the usage on my own channel like it would on any other channel?



As far as I understand, if you upload the tracks to youtube by yourself, you will be able to collect 100% of the revenue, but you'd need to meet these criteria to even start monetizing your content on youtube:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/72851?hl=en (you need over 1000 subscribers and over 4000 of watch-hours on your channel over the last 12 months)

If your music is distributed to youtube by a service like distrokid, they will take their cut but those plays could be monetized even if your channel does not meet the criteria.


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## rgames (Apr 15, 2020)

My experience based on having a YT channel for a few years now:

I use CDBaby and get YT payments from them every few weeks (not much). I also get quarterly YT royalties from ASCAP (also not much).

When I upload something to my channel that is handled through CDBaby, I get a "copyright claim" notice but it goes away after a couple days. Presumably this is because I contacted CDBaby when I first started the channel and asked them to *not* monetize the videos on my YT channel. You can "whitelist" your channel that way so that there are no ads placed on it if you own the copyright.

For me, my channel is basically an advertisement. So I don't want ads on top of my ads. And my channel is so small (3700 subs right now) that I wouldn't make any significant money off it anyway. So offering it up for free is the much better option as far as I can tell.

From what I've gathered, unless you're doing a gear porn channel you're lucky to get about $1 per 1000 views. Not really worth it for me because my videos only get a few thousand views. Better to just have an ad-free experience for people who visit. When you first start a channel I think it's more about building a brand. Then you can monetize that brand later on.

So, bottom line, I wouldn't worry too much about YT monetization for a channel that's about the music (i.e. not gear) unless you have 100k+ subscribers and are getting 100k+ views per video.

Once you get to that point then I think it makes sense to worry about monetization.

EDIT: also, my strong suspicion is that people who make meaningful money from YT do so through sponsorships, not ad revenues. So building that brand doesn't need to pay off just in YT ad revenues.

rgames


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## Kyle Preston (Apr 16, 2020)

AlexRuger said:


> But what if I upload my music to my own channel with the album artwork as the "video?" Since it's my content, I'd presumably go about monetizing it myself as anyone would for their own channel. Would Distrokid pay me for the usage on my own channel like it would on any other channel?




Any reputable distributor (including Distrokid) will let you whitelist any channel or video on YouTube. I can also say that none of the good ones auto-enroll you in Content ID unless you opt in.

Unless you're U2, Drake or Zimmer, trusting an algorithm to competently identify your work to pay you enough fractions of a penny and make it worth pissing off any one who dares share your music with their audience is not a good strategy for YouTube. You're better off earning your money through streaming if making money with your music on the internet is your goal. 



AlexRuger said:


> Which raises the question: do BMI and ASCAP collect YouTube royalties? If so, why would I pay Distrokid to do this at all?




Not YouTube but YouTube Music yes. You need a publishing administrator, for example, _Songtrust, _to collect mechanicals from YouTube, Spotify, Apple etc. These are different payments than AdRev from YouTube. That is why IF, you decide to go the Content ID route, you would give your distributor a cut of your profits.


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