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Background music for flying videos

This is likely to be a problem from now on…

Both Youtube and Vimeo are now using a 3rd party service to identify copyright music, and they throw the video out.

Last time it happened to me, it was with a flying video I did as a quick test to show a friend how to do something with Sony Vegas, and the sound track I used was the Gerry & Pacemakers “you will never walk alone” (yeah, shows my age ). Vimeo chucked it out immediately but Youtube didn’t.

I didn’t spend much time on it but google hits suggest that changing the speed of the sound track by a few % prevent it being recognised, without it sounding obviously wrong. Another suggestion was not having any (or any copyrighted) music in the first 30 seconds of the video.

My feeling is that there is no way they can object to “old classics” even though any performance of these must itself be copyright – because the individual performances of say Also sprach Zarathustra will be so similar to the others.

But any “pop” stuff is going to be a no-go.

I wonder if this will drive people to do self hosting. That needs a fast server (which won’t be free) and some code to present the client device with a standard sort of video player, and to deal with the many possible client devices.

If you don’t have the player code and just put an .mp4 file on a website, it will play allright but – with most client devices – nothing will show until the whole file has been downloaded, which is a hassle.

Of course you will still breach somebody’s copyright but you can always take the video down if you get the DMCA takedown notice or whatever…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Well, first of all, I think it’s pretty damn high time that YouTube stopped people stealing – because this is exactly what copyright violation is, no ifs or buts. Vimeo have been much more proactive on that front.

If you want to use music for free (or almost free), then you can do one of the following:
- buy/license it from one of the many RF music portals
- get it from one of the equally many composers (do a Google search) who let you use their music FOC with a mention of their name (and link if possible) in the video or in the accompanying text on YouTube or Vimeo.

The best background music for flying videos is the engine sound. It comes for free and violates nobody’s copyright (until now).

EDDS - Stuttgart

@172driver

If you want to use music for free (or almost free), then you can do one of the following:
- buy/license it from one of the many RF music portals
- get it from one of the equally many composers (do a Google search) who let you use their music FOC with a mention of their name (and link if possible) in the video or in the accompanying text on YouTube or Vimeo.

Wouldn’t then YouTube or Vimeo’s correlation engine still identify the song and remove the video despite the fact you had paid a license ?

Last Edited by Nestor at 03 Jan 23:11
LFLY, France

Wouldn’t then YouTube or Vimeo’s correlation engine still identify the song and remove the video despite the fact you had paid a license ?

Yes they still remove it, and there have been lots of complaints about that. You cannot use a copyright song even if the performer has given you permission.

Out of interest, is it even possible to purchase the right to use a well known song? I would assume that the payment would be related to the audience size – a bit like the license to have music at work is related to how many people work there.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

@172driver: the whole concept of intellectual property is, at least regarding works of art and entertainment, a concept of the 19th century. We see only its last death throes. The correct mentality about these creations is that they should be created for the public good, not for the artist’s material benefit.

@what next: totally agreed.

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

@Jan Olieslagers: I suppose then you work for free then and live in a world devoid of art – music, paintings, literature. Sounds like a pretty sad and empty life to me, but hey, each to his own.

Wouldn’t then YouTube or Vimeo’s correlation engine still identify the song and remove the video despite the fact you had paid a license ?

Vimeo doesn’t. You can specify a composer in the metadata fields for your video and that works. I don’t know the back end to this, perhaps this is checked against a database (to avoid people making up names), and spot checked manually? No idea how YouTube handles this.

@Peter: yes, of course you can license music!

At the contrary, I play my bit of music and have even contributed a few small compositions – they are marked “Comp. traditional, arrgt. my name” which I was told to be the best formula to avoid copyright issues.
And the most beautiful single piece of decoration in my house is a lithoprint (1/1!) given freely by the artist. Art is for sharing, not for sale (just like sex).

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

Surely all that would happen is that a trivial workaround would be to specify the artist name in the metadata. Vimeo and YouTube will not be able to check if you have permission unless there is a central database.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

If you want to use copyright music in the UK you must contact the PRS, other EU states have society’s for the collection of fees due on copyright music.

Using music copyright music for other other than domestic perposes is theft and should be treated as such, musicians work hard to write music and should receive payment for their work.

There is a famous tale in the music business about the American composer Burt Bacharach who was dining in a restaurant that played one of his songs as background music. The restaurant not have a music licence ( in the USA from BMI or ASCAP) so he refused to pay for the meal saying " you have not paid me for my music so I will not pay you for your food".

Last Edited by A_and_C at 04 Jan 11:08
49 Posts
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