10:34
Why copyright claims land on DJ mixes
On YouTube this video is called WHY You Might Be Getting Copyright Issues on DJ Music Mixes Videos Explained
What this lesson teaches
Ten minutes from somebody who has been posting DJ content since 2006 and has been through all of it. His own caveat is the right one: he knows a bit, not the internal workings, and it changes all the time.
The tiers
The genuinely useful structure in this lesson. There is not one outcome, there are several, and knowing which one you are looking at tells you what to do.
1. Nothing happens. The track plays, the video stays as you uploaded it, start to finish.
2. Adverts appear that you did not place. The system has identified the music and the rights holder has chosen to take revenue rather than block it.
And his view of that is worth hearing, because most DJs resent it: he has no problem with it at all. It means the producer and the artist get a small amount based on the views. The music gets heard and somebody gets paid, which is the arrangement working.
3. Blocked in certain countries. Sometimes alongside adverts elsewhere, which is odd to look at but is simply different rights holders in different territories.
4. Blocked outright. Occasionally within ten minutes of uploading. Two likely reasons: the label is about to release that track and does not want it circulating, or the artist has a blanket policy against their music appearing at all.
5. A strike. The serious one, covered below.
Strikes, and what they used to mean
Under the system he describes: one strike, two strikes, and at the third the channel came down - not deleted, but offline until you resolved them.
It happened to him twice, and he describes it as quite scary. Years of work behind one more claim.
How he got out of it - and this is the method
He rang the rights holders. Found the person involved, and said: my name is Johnathan, I teach DJing, I used your music and I have a strike - and I am not doing this so people can download your tracks, it is for demonstration and tutorial purposes.
Both times they agreed, contacted the platform, and asked for the strike to be removed. The channel was reinstated.
That is worth knowing because almost nobody tries it. The claim came from a company with a person in it, and a polite, specific explanation of what you were actually doing can work where a form-filled dispute does not.
And he does not get away with it either
A fair point he makes pre-emptively, for anybody assuming a big channel is exempt: he still gets issues to this day. On live streams he watches the notifications and, after about an hour, gets the warning that he is playing copyrighted music and the stream may be blocked. Talking over it or playing something anonymous makes it go away - and it comes back.
Occasionally a stream is simply stopped, and he restarts it.
The warning worth taking away
The most important thing in the lesson, and it catches people out.
An old video is not safe. He has had notifications about videos uploaded three, four, even twelve years earlier - adverts placed, or a claim raised, long after the fact.
So do not assume that something which has sat there for a decade has been cleared. The matching runs against the whole archive, and policies change: he has also had notices telling him a track no longer has an issue.
Monetisation and the green light
The colour code is useful: a red dollar sign on a video means it cannot be monetised, grey means it can, and green means it is.
And the rule: reaching the subscriber threshold lets you monetise your own content. It does not let you monetise a mix of other people's records.
Unless - and this is the route from the previous lesson - the rights holder has given you a green light, told the platform, and you hold up your end by crediting the tracks and linking to the label in the description. Which is why, as he says, you hear him naming the artist and label so often: he likes the music, it is good for him, and it is good for them.
The simplest rule
His own, and it is the right one to end on: if in doubt, don't play it.
And do not assume a set of old records is safe because it is old. A deep house set from the nineties is as likely to be claimed as anything released last week.
Contents of the video
0:00 Copyright issues on YouTube
Right, ladies and gentlemen, my name's Jonathan Ellaskins, The DJ Tutor. And in this video I'm going to talk about copyright issues on YouTube. Now, I know a little bit but I do not know the internal workings. And even if I did know the internal workings they're changing all the time so you've got to keep on top of everything. Digressing slightly, but I remember posting loads of videos on Facebook many years ago with loads of music in it. And of course, I ended up getting blocked or taken off or going to the Facebook prison for a couple of days and whatnot. And then more recently now, I've had a couple of notifications saying there is no longer any copyright issues with so-and-so track. And when I look at it, it's from a video I probably uploaded three or four years ago. So this is it. Things change.
Now, my Ellaskins channel has been going on since I think 2006-2007 so it's a great deal of time. Now back in the day what would happen was this if you played copyrighted music and you got a strike and I will talk about this in slightly greater detail then that was one strike if you've got another one that was two if you've got a third your channel was taken down. Now it wasn't deleted and got rid of, it was still there but it was up to you then to try and get rid of one two three of those copyright issues. Now this happened to me twice okay and it was quite scary. Now I had to then contact literally phone around to try and find People or the person involved with the copyright infringement, whatever, and basically say, listen, my name is Jonathan Ellaskins. I'm a DJ tutor on YouTube and I've used your music and I've got a copyright strike. And I'll be honest with you, you know, I'm not there to take the piss and to play your track so people can download them. It's just for demonstration and tutorial purposes only. Luckily...
2:47 I don't get away with it because I still get issues to this day
Both times they agreed, they got rid of the copyright issue or what happened is they contacted YouTube and they said right we want Ellaskins DJ Tutor to not have the strike against him for that said track that he played and my channel was reinstated. Now what has happened more... no actually let's go back to that point okay because this is quite important. And it does involve YouTube Now as well and how the algorithms work and so on. And if you think for one second that you think, oh Jonathan, how come you get away with it and we don't? Well I don't get away with it because I still get issues to this day. So there are many tiers. To copyright infringement issues. Now, first of all, you could play a track and there's no issue at all. In other words, the track is played, you use it on your video and the video starts as it should, how you started it, and finishes how you finish that video because that's quite important. The next one is you play some copyrighted music and all of a sudden you'll look and you'll think...
There's adverts on it. I didn't put the adverts on. That's because they found you're playing copyrighted music and the companies probably said, all right, we're not really that bothered, but if they're going to play our tracks, we need to get some kind of revenue, so we'll put adverts on it. Now, I haven't got a problem with that. I think that's great because what it means is the company, the producer, the artist will get a tiny amount of money based on the amount of clicks on that video. Now, the next one is, let's say, hold on, that's that. And then the next one is your video could be blocked in certain countries. That's right. So and I've had that happen to me where the videos on this adverts, but it's actually blocked in certain countries, which is a bit bizarre, but there you go. The next one is when your video is basically just
That's it. That does happen to me still where, you know, all of a sudden I've uploaded a video and within 10 minutes of it being uploaded, it's like, oh, it's blocked. It's because potentially you're playing tracks that the company wants to release in the near future and it doesn't want anyone to play them. Or there could be an artist who's basically said any of my music on YouTube, take it off. I don't want it on. I think Madonna and Prince could be one or two of them. I'm not sure, but things change. So this is what happens. So when I do a live stream, for example, I'm always watching underneath the window where I can see what I'm doing. And more often than not, after about an hour, they're saying, heads up, you're playing copyrighted music, your video may be temporary blocked.
5:25 Channel, long time, subscribers
If I start talking or I play some mundane house beat, that disappears but sure enough it will come back again. On the odd occasion when I've done a live stream, it's just your video is stopped, that's it. But then I restart it and off we go again. So far with my channel, I don't believe, hopefully in the near future, it won't be taken down. Now again, your channel My channel can be taken down, but we would have to maybe start doing something a little bit controversial to do with colour, race, creed, politicians, jab jibs and all this that and the other. That's the next level and of course we don't want to go down those roads. So really, my advice to you is that if you do have a new channel with only a few subscribers, it's very likely that your channel or your video will be blocked because of copyright issues. Whereas if you've got a channel that has been around for a very long time and you're always giving content, maybe, I don't know, maybe YouTube's gone, well we'll let them get away with it because they've been there for such a long time.
Also, digressing slightly, but look at your subscriber count because if you've got, say for example, 927 subscribers, well once you get to a thousand, you can monetize your channel. Now this is great, okay? This is great. What it basically means is that you can personally put adverts on your videos of your video is 100% yours okay that's really important so you cannot now all of a sudden think i've got thousands subscribers i can do a wicked mix using other people's music and i can monetize it no you can't because if you try all they'll say is no can't be monetized and when you go into your settings you'll see the dollar sign that's red and it basically says that says you can't monetize it If it's grey, it means you can and once it goes to green, you are now monetising that video. On the other hand, if you're using copyrighted music but you know the artist or you know the company and they give you what's known as the green light, then you can monetise your mixes, that music because...
8:08 I think that's fair, okay?
The company has said to YouTube, right, we give a green light for that channel to use our music. That's happened for me with Hospital Records, with Lenny Fontana and a few other people, okay? So, but there you see what happens is that I've got an agreement with them that I will put all the information on the tracks I'm playing including links to their websites In the description. Now I think that's fair, okay? And you know when you hear me a lot of the time saying here's a new one by Lenny Fontana, well it's because A, I like his music, B, it's good for me and C, it's good for him. So it's a win-win really. Now the only other way of not having copyright issues or you still could but then you can get away with it is by producing your own music.
There you go. If you can produce a new sound, a new melody and it's 100% yours, then no one in his dog can do anything because it's your content. Okay? So I hope that's a help. And again, just keep on keeping on. I've just got a pussycat here that has jumped on me. Anyway... Any more information you need, just search around the web because on YouTube as well there's loads of videos explaining the ins and outs of copyright, copyright infringement and so on. But if in doubt, don't play it. And if you think you can get away with playing a deep house set from the 90s, then think again because the way the system works and it's happened to me is... All of a sudden, I'll have a notification saying, heads up, we're just letting you know we're putting adverts on that video because there's a copyright issue on a certain track. And I look at the video and it was uploaded 12 years ago. Alright? So don't think if it's an old video you get away with it. Because at any time in the future, you can get a copyright strike or some issue on a video with music in you uploaded in 2010.
Alright, or 11 or 12 or 13. Anyway, thank you for watching. Practice and enjoy. Thank you.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
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