All Your Videos Are Belong To Us

I’ve been exploring the wonderful world of adding music to Youtube videos. As an old duffer with a TON of nasty experiences to draw upon for, uh, inspiration– I know that many, many (most? all?) offers of “free stuff” are rackets.

So I approached the many “royalty free” music providers with a large chunk of salt nearby. I started to think about the real dangers inherent in such a service, and I realized just how this could work. The key thing is that the “royalty free” music is offered with a “buy in” option. You can subscribe, or pay a one-time fee for the perpetual use of the music.

Now, when you offer something “free” AND offer the same thing for “pay” I have to wonder what’s going on. So I did some digging and found that music that it available on a “royalty free” basis is just that– free of the requirement for “royalty” payments, which are like “per play” fees that may be just a few cents but can add up over time. But these very same “royalty free” tunes are not offered “for free” IF you are using them for “commercial purposes.” These purposes include using them in a monetized Youtube video. When you do that, you owe the originator the “one time” fee you were supposed to pay. If you put the music in a video when you are a fledgling Youtube channel, and then, later on, you turn into Mr. Beast and you begin raking in the millions, the company that “gave” you the “royalty free” music can demand those millions because you are using their music.

Music that has “no copyright” is very fishy. EVERYTHING is copyrighted. EVERYTHING. So “no copyright” is a fib, right there. What they should say is “we won’t use our copyright to take your money” which sounds a WHOLE lot less reassuring.

So there you have it. “No copyright, no royalty” music is free ONLY for non-commercial use, and if you use it for something that goes viral, and you get paid, then they can turn around and use the Youtube rules to claim your money.

The exception to this rule SEEMS to be Youtube’s own music, which they ASSURE you will not be used to swipe your money. We’ll see…

3 Replies to “All Your Videos Are Belong To Us”

    1. Many, many strange and wonderful things are happening. I’ve finally started to let go of Microsoft forever. I’m using Linux on my “daily driver” and have my video/editing stuff set up on there. It’s been quite a lengthy ride.

      I tend to be a “long prep time” person. I recall a teacher giving a writing assignment to the class when I was about twelve years old. It was a “write this here and now” kind of assignment. I spent half the time planning what I was going to write, and then half the time writing it. She was really concerned during the twenty minutes that I was planning. All the other kids just dived in and wrote whatever stuff was burned into their phosphors after the power went out.

      I asked her, “How can I write something unless I plan it first?”

      But I think she was really worried that I might be on some kind of strike. Independent thinking is what our public schools were built to stamp out. You can think, yes, but it had better be what EVERYBODY thinks.

      On my Youtube channel, I’ll be not only talking about, but actually doing things that I thought up on my own and have no permission from anybody to do. That’s dangerous. It might cause people to get ideas.

      But I can’t do it any other way. It’s impossible for me. We’ll see where this takes us.

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