See the infographic in this post or read Is It Safe to Use Free Music in Corporate Marketing Videos? Is it safe to use “copyright free” music in promotional business videos?įor any business related video projects you should treat “copyright free” music as any other free music, that is, with extreme caution. In theory, that means that any YouTuber can use these music tracks in their videos without getting any copyright claims. In today’s YouTube lingo, “copyright free” usually refers to a freely downloadable piece of music that isn’t tracked by YouTube’s Content ID system, either directly or via a technology partner like AdRev. Furthermore, many legal systems expressly forbid the authors to surrender the rights automatically.

Is “copyright free” music really copyright free?Īs a matter of fact, “copyright-free” is a misnomer, because regardless of how the music is distributed and licensed, the creator retains his or her copyright on the material until it expires (usually many years after either the author death or the date of publication). Trying to avoid their channels compromised by copyright violations, many YouTube video makers are looking to use background music that isn’t tracked by the Content ID system and, thus, won’t trigger the copyright claims.

Repeated offenders can get their channels shut down with little chance of appeal. As a result, your video may display third-party ads, or in some cases get muted or even removed for good. If you use copyrighted / commercial music in your videos, YouTube will detect it and issue a copyright claim against your video. YouTube employs a robust technology, called Content ID, to prevent unauthorized use of copyrighted music in uploaded videos. Mostly, due to the desire to obtain free background music for their videos and not get punished by YouTube for it.

Why so many YouTubers are looking for copyright free music? While it may seem that free “no copyright” music is no-brainer, let’s see what “copyright free” really means and if it is indeed such a good choice for small business marketing videos.

Download youtube royalty free music