YouTube aims to promote original, creative work and considers the practice of embedding sound recordings gratuitously into popular 3rd party videos as a violation of Content ID. 


Should one of your assets violate YouTube Content ID's Monetization Guidelines, YouTube requires us to take down your asset and forever ban it from Content ID.


The general principle to respecting Content ID's Monetization Guidelines is: don't be a parasite.

  • Do not deceive YouTube's audience and use popular videos as click-bait: your music should have artistic or entertainment purpose in the video it is used in. There should be a fit between the video and your music.
  • The use of your music in videos should mainly come from organic sources rather than be a deliberate campaign orchestrated by you. You may create some videos in order to promote your music, however the majority of videos should remain true user generated content (UGC).


Examples of unauthorized usage of YouTube Content ID: 
(Please note that this is not exhaustive list; it is only meant to provide a few examples)

  1. Inserting your sound recording into a Simpsons episode or a motivational speaker's video.
  2. Creating a compilation video with famous musician's songs and inserting your sound recording as an uncredited intro or outro. In such cases your music brings no additional value to the video: you are only exploiting 
  3. Overlaying your music on a scene from a popular movie.
  4. Using misleading thumbnails and/or titles and/or logos such as the VEVO logo to get users to click on your video.
  5. Videos where the video title, or the thumbnail, or both, make reference to popular 3rd party content not owned by you.


How to promote your music without violating Content ID's Monetization Guidelines:

If you do create some compilation videos to help YouTube's audience discover your music by associating it to other content, make sure that:

  • The content you use fits your music.
  • You clearly identify your music in the video's title and/or credits so that you are not deceiving YouTube's audience about the content of the video— this is very IMPORTANT.
  • You do not create multiple very similar videos. Do not pollute YouTube with a dozen copies or close variants of the same video content.