anyone post original songs on Youtube?

axisus

Just wondering if anyone posts originals, and how you cover yourself (if at all!) over potential theft of your material?

DulcetJones

There is no compensation for plays on youtube, if you want to get some extra exposure you can post a video knowing this up front.  I don't know how youtube has gotten away with this to date, there is a small undercurrent complaining about it from within the music industry but it hasn't made any headway yet.  I have a few songs there just for the exposure.  They do have a provision for getting you some money if somebody else uses all or part of one of your videos in their video but you have to be all signed up and they have to be willing to pay up(and I bet it's probably not much) .  If somebody posts a song of yours without your permission you can get it removed.  For theft, there have been some software programs around that allow one to grab the audio and save it as an mp3, I don't know where that is at the moment.  There are those who feel that youtube should be at least paying artists the same paltry sum sites like Spotify pay  but that's such a small amount of money no one is into fighting for it, or so it seems.  

axisus

useful info, but I'm thinking more in terms of if someone takes your song and then claims that they wrote it. There was a big case about 8 years ago where some tw*t claimed that he wrote one of Andy McKee's songs. It all escalated, went to court, got ugly and ultimately he was exposed as a fraud. We don't all have A McK's (limited) fame to help in such a scenario!

DulcetJones

If you're writing music that's good enough for someone to try to steal and claim they wrote it you are probably in a big enough league to fight it effectively.  It's usually after a song has become an established hit and is obviously making money that things like this occur,  Properly registering your music with the copyright office of the country you live in will give you the most protection according the legal honchos.   I write such weird instrumental music that I'm not worried about someone stealing the copyright, but if anyone ever tried I'm prepared to put up an effective fight.  So far, none of my songs have made enough money to attract that kind of attention..... 

vasselmeyer

Burn your songs onto a CD or onto a USB stick and send it to yourself recorded delivery. Just store the package. It's then dated and unopened and you can prove prior knowledge of the song.

DulcetJones

vasselmeyer said:

Burn your songs onto a CD or onto a USB stick and send it to yourself recorded delivery. Just store the package. It's then dated and unopened and you can prove prior knowledge of the song.

I was going to mention this, it's referred to a s "personal copyright", I didn't mention it because I have been told by numerous legal types that it wouldn't hold up in court.  I have no idea why, it sounds like a good idea to me but none of the "experts" have been able to explain to me why it won't work. 

PolarityMan

yup, dont worry about it to be honest. I've got stacks of reaper demo files and stuff so if anyone plagiarised me i reckon i could prove copyright ownership but tbh I think that would be in the "good problems to have" pile.

GuyBoden

Took all of my songs off youtube/soundcloud etc after I heard something that sounded very similar. No big problem, I understand that Musicians copy, it's a big part of our game.

hugbot

As I understand it the "poor mans copyright" mailing it to yourself thing is a myth.

Fretwired

hugbot said:

As I understand it the "poor mans copyright" mailing it to yourself thing is a myth.

Not according to the music publishers association ..

http://www.mpaonline.org.uk/content/how-do-i-protect-my-music

DulcetJones

Fretwired said:

hugbot said:

As I understand it the "poor mans copyright" mailing it to yourself thing is a myth.

Not according to the music publishers association ..

http://www.mpaonline.org.uk/content/how-do-i-protect-my-music

This the first article I've seen that actually says this will work, although no one in my past ever suggested that step 2.:" 2. Lodge a copy of the work (on paper or on tape) with your bank or solicitor and obtain a dated receipt." was part of the process.  I have wondered in the past if the nay sayers were in fact lawyers that just wanted to scare everybody into paying them to do this for you.   So, if I was writing potential money making pop songs I would probably want to do this.

mellowsun

I have some original tracks on YouTube but tbh they get so few views I'm hardly worried about theft. The covers get more views. I mainly put original stuff on Youtube so if I forget how to play it I've got a visual record