Contents
How does this relate to Envato Elements audio?
What does this mean for me and my YouTube projects?
Why are there ads running on my videos?
How do I know if an item is registered with Content ID?
How to clear a YouTube copyright notice
Tips for clearing claims in advance
What is Content ID?
Content ID is a popular digital fingerprinting system that content creators can use to easily identify and manage their copyrighted content on YouTube. Videos uploaded to YouTube are compared against audio and video files registered with Content ID by content owners, looking for any matches.
When a video is matched to Content ID registered content, a copyright notice will appear on the video, and the content owner may choose to take certain actions, such as:
- Clearing the claim and taking no further action
- Tracking the video’s viewership statistics
- Monetizing the video by running ads against it
- Muting the audio that matches their music
- Or even blocking a whole video from being viewed
What is AdRev?
AdRev (and other companies such as Audiam, TuneCore, etc) are YouTube Partner platforms that use the Content ID system to manage and administer this copyrighted content on behalf of content owners. They, in turn, provide users with various information such as which videos their content is used in, tracking of unauthorized uses, viewership reports, and distribution of any monetization earnings.
How does this relate to Envato Elements audio?
Many online based music composers, including some of those that sell licenses to their music via Elements, have their content digitally fingerprinted via Content ID to help protect against unauthorized uses, and also use these YouTube Partner platforms to administer and manage their content.
We provide license certificates for audio you download on Envato Elements, so should a copyright notice appear on a video containing music that is tracked by Content ID, it can be easily cleared.
What does this mean for me and my YouTube projects?
When a video is uploaded to YouTube that contains licensed, digitally fingerprinted music, a “matched third party content” copyright notice will appear alongside the uploaded video in the YouTube Video Manager (this typically appears shortly after uploading).
A copyright notice does not mean that copyrights have been infringed, and this shouldn’t be confused with a YouTube “copyright strike”. It’s simply a notice to advise that YouTube has detected Content ID registered content within the video and that further information/action is needed.
Hint: Your license file for your audio download allows you to clear potential copyright notices using content ID.
Why are there ads running on my videos?
When unauthorized/unlicensed use of music is found in a YouTube video, it may have monetized ads placed over it by the YouTube Content ID system. Once you’ve used your Elements license certificate to clear any copyright notices on your video, these ads will be removed and you will be able to monetize the video yourself if you wish.
For more tips on quickly and easily clearing these notices, such as how you can upload an unlisted video to clear them in advance, see the “How to clear a YouTube copyright notice” section below.
How do I know if an item is registered with Content ID?
If a track is registered and digitally fingerprinted with Content ID, it will be called out in the item description on the item page, as in the image below:
How to clear a YouTube copyright notice
Clearing a YouTube copyright notice is a very straightforward process. You can remove copyright notices in the following ways:
- Disputing the claim via YouTube’s built-in form.
- If the music is administered via AdRev, using the AdRev Claim Clearance page is the quickest and most direct way to clear a claim. AdRev will send you an email confirmation once it has been cleared.
To clear a claim via YouTube, you simply need to let YouTube know that you have licensed the music and have the rights to use it. Simply choose to "dispute" the claim by clicking the “matched third party content ”copyright notice next to the video in your Video Manager, or on your dedicated copyright notices page. After you click “file a dispute”, select the option "I have a license or written permission from the proper rights holder to use this material".
In the "Reason for dispute" box, copy/paste the contents from your license certificate (accessible via the 'My Downloads' page, or at the point of download). You may also wish to include the statement "A license to use this royalty-free music by [Name of Author] was downloaded from elements.envato.com".
Once you submit the dispute, claims are usually cleared within 24 - 96 hours.
- You may also find it helpful to read YouTube's support article for users affected by copyright claims as well as YouTube’s support article on submitting additional documentation to claim monetization rights.
Tips for clearing claims in advance
Uploading early as an “Unlisted” video
If you’ve licensed digitally fingerprinted audio from Envato Elements, we recommend that you set your YouTube videos to “Unlisted” upon uploading, until all “matched third-party content” notices are cleared.
This will allow suitable time for any copyright notices to be cleared before the video is published, and ensure that you can monetize your video from the moment it goes live without any conflicts. Once the copyright notice has been removed, the video can then be set to “Public” and monetization can be activated on the video.
Whitelisting Channels
If you or your client regularly uses Content ID registered music by a particular author in your YouTube videos, or have used a piece of Content ID registered music in multiple YouTube videos, some YouTube Partner Platforms such as AdRev also support having an entire YouTube channel whitelisted. Whitelisting a channel will prevent any further copyright notices from appearing on future videos that contain music from that specific author.
You will need to contact our support team in order to make this request. You can do so by submitting an enquiry via our Help Centre. When filling in the form, select ‘Other’ under the ‘Tell us more’ option.
Our support team will get in contact with the author to arrange this.
In your message simply provide us with:
- The contents of your purchased License Certificate(s)
- A link to the relevant YouTube channel (this may be your own channel or a client’s channel, for example, if you are producing videos for them)
- Some further information mentioning that you are looking to have your video/channel 'whitelisted'
Please Note: Occasionally, whitelisting a YouTube channel may not be possible if there are existing, uncleared copyright notices from another author/rights-holder on that channel. If so, these must be individually cleared first, before the channel can be whitelisted.