I see thousands of covers on YouTube. Are those illegal?

One of the prevailing misconceptions about YouTube is that it's perfectly legal to record a cover and put it on YouTube for the world to see. The reality is slightly more complicated than that.

Any time you use a song that someone else owns the copyright to, you will need permission. This goes for any platform, including YouTube. However, not every content creator on YouTube has reached out to the copyright holder and negotiated a license, and this has led to a murky understand of "how to do things right". In some cases, the videos you see have gone under the radar of the publishers who police this action, or the rights holders have claimed monetization on the video and decided to leave it up.

YouTube has made significant improvements by obtaining licensing for public performance and blanket agreements with publishers, but that usually only covers one side of the permission needed and is not a guarantee of protection for you as a creator.

If you have a video project that includes someone else's copyrighted music, reach out to our team today for a free consultation to see if Custom Licensing is the right fit for you.

Learn More...