WHAT ARE INVALID REFERENCES?

Please refer to this article.



WHAT DO THE VARIOUS INVALID REFERENCE CATEGORIES MEAN?

  • Sampled media: Contains sampled media from 3rd parties. Embedded third-party content in the reference used under fair use or fair dealing principles, or licensed non-exclusively from a third party (e.g. embedded clips of commercials, trailers, viral videos or other non-exclusive content).
  • Open licenses: Content released under Creative Commons or similar free/open licenses. This also includes public domain footage, recordings, or compositions.
  • Other media: Sounds/looks like other media, sound effects, or visual effects. Refers to karaoke recordings, remasters, sound-alike recordings, insufficiently distinct remixes, sped up or slowed down recordings, sound effects, soundbeds, or production loops. Also can refer to video gameplay footage not provided by the game’s publisher or to content creation software templates. 
  • Questionable ownership: Non-exclusively owned material, or content so widely licensed that no entity has exclusive rights. YouTube is concerned you may not possess sufficient rights to enable this as a reference.
  • Mixed compilation: Contains a mixed compilation or combination of intellectual property. You must provide individual references for intellectual property. Common invalid examples are compilations, continuous DJ mixes, mashups, countdown lists, and full album sound recordings. You must separate these into individual components.
  • Video game soundtrack: Contains a soundtrack recording from a video game.
  • Distinctness: Maybe not sufficiently distinct. There is a good chance this reference is not sufficiently distinct for Content ID or may not be exclusively owned; it has been flagged in an attempt to prevent bad claims.
  • Potentially invalid/other: YouTube has identified a potential issue with your recording that requires you to review all the criteria for Content ID and verify whether your recording qualifies as appropriate.




WHAT IS THE CONSEQUENCE OF HAVING ONE OF YOUR SOUND RECORDINGS MARKED AS INVALID?


If one of your sound recordings (or a segment from one of these) is marked as invalid, YouTube will exclude it from Content ID and your sound recording will not claim any videos (and generate the associated royalties) that contain the whatever portion of your recording has been marked as invalid.


WHAT TO DO IF ONE OF YOUR SOUND RECORDINGS IS MARKED AS INVALID

  1. Please review the list of invalid criteria in this article (same link as above) to determine whether your sound recordings matches any of these.
  2. If you determine that your recording matches any of the invalid criteria:
    1. Respond on your Content ID Dashboard with "Exclude reference".
    2. Make sure you fully understand the invalid criteria and that you do not continue to distribute invalid content to YouTube Content ID (or any other UGC DSP). When the content is inappropriate for a UGC DSP you must remove those DSPs from the distribution list. 
    3. Note that repeatedly distributing inappropriate content to UGC DSP will lead to those DSPs being blocked from your account, or the termination of your account.
  3. If you determine that your recording does NOT match any of the invalid criteria, please email [email protected] with the following:
    1. The Issue ID from your Content ID Dashboard
    2. The reason why you believe that YouTube is mistaken in considering your sound recording invalid.