Copyright issues on YouTube for bass covers

No idea, I uploaded a couple of versions of a cover song (Rolling Stone's "Sister Morphine") a couple of years ago with worries about copyright stuff, but I haven't ever had any issues with it. Maybe just because of obscurity - nobody watches my videos anyway.

 

(links in my sig at the end)

 

I’ve often wondered if videos are removed from some channels and not others because that particular channel is monetized. Mine is not and I’ve never had anything removed. I get copyright notices, but all my videos have remained.

 

Monetization is part of it, as is the artist in question. Certain artists like Prince, Led Zeppelin, and The Beatles are notorious for taking down any material of theirs that gets posted. Rick Beato has talked about it a few times. If you don’t know him you should check him out.

 

Hell, Lee Sklar had a few of his videos of James Taylor tunes removed and he played on the recordings.

 

That he played on those originally is irrelevant; it’s the call of the label or publishing.

 

In the Sklar/Taylor case, I got the impression from James' response that even he himself could have posted and got hit with a copyright ban!
Seems like it's essentially down to money...if you've a popular channel and the potential to monetize it, that seems to attract YouTube's little algorithm a lot quicker.
Also, some artists' publishers just seem more aggressive...Van Morrison for one.

 

Playing a recorded song in a public space is considered a performance and the owner of the song is entitled to royalties for any performance.

YouTube counts as a public place, just like the venue your cover band might play at.

In the venue owner's case, they pay a blanket fee to the rights holding organizations and everyone considers bygones bygones.

In YouTube's case they've put the ball in the license holder's court: either collect royalties by redirecting some percentage (up to and including 100%) of the ad revenue generated by the performance to them instead of the person performing it (i.e. you), or to withhold/withdraw the license to perform altogether, at their discretion.

Likely, since you're not generating any ad revenue, they've automatically defaulted to option 2.

It's a ******** system, but that's the way it works.

Try putting a subtle modulation like a phaser or filter sweep on the backing track, (or even a pitch/tempo shift if you can still play to it) if you want to try and hide from the algorithm. Or use a MIDI performance version instead. Note that you will still be in violation of the law, these are just techniques to try and keep the fuzz off your trail.

Fair Use does allow for performance for non-monetized educational purposes. So if you show a closeup on your fretting hand and rebrand the performance as a "lesson" you might be able to convince a human that you're in the clear. But from what I understand you'll have to fight your way through a lot of robots before a human will even hear your case.

 

I never understood why people feel the need to record themselves playing bass along to a piece of music and then post it on social media.

 

It's happening more and more frequently. I can no longer post videos of my bands covering famous tunes. I now shell out a few $$ per year and use Vimeo.

 

Because other people like to watch?

 

I guess some do, yes.

 

$99 out of 100, says this is true.*

* My percentage sign was recently sold in a yard sale.

 

"Some"

As in "millions"?

e.g.:

 

As a matter of... record? Lol!

One of my band's is a little more in limbo, than the other. Drummer stated he'd like a few video/audio recordings of the more difficult songs we play... mainly for posterity, to show others how much time we had put into these songs... I don't mind doing this. Still playing music, right? Obviously, there's some pride there, too.

I have no idea who 'others' are, but if the videos capture my good side, I want a copy.

 

You may be the numbers person on this. I most certainly am not.

 

Well ok then; If the video is made to demonstrate how a certain piece of equipment performs in a certain context, it may indeed benefit those interested in that particular piece of equipment.
Even more so, if a shot is included showing the settings that gets one the tone in question.