Monetization Rights for Indie Artists

Monetization Rights for Indie Artists.

Sometimes a client demands certain kind of music that is tailor-made for a specific requirement. Creating custom music is an interesting and specific skill. I have written about this in detail in my blog Custom Sync Royalty for Indie Artists. The predisposition of songwriters and electronic music producers makes them really good at it. A good publisher is often able to get this kind of assignment for you, from a sync agent.

Find parties willing to give you assignments, to maximize revenue earned from custom sync. Working with a dedicated publisher is highly recommend, or you may connect with multiple non-exclusive synch publishers. To have a decent sized catalogue of your music is an added advantage, but more important is expressing eagerness for this kind of opportunities to your publisher. Let your publisher know that you can rapidly deliver quality music in a professional manner. Synch publishers mostly prefer working with people whose association will connect them with a pool of writers, artist managers etc. as this is more beneficial for them than just connecting with artists. This means that synch publishing field can be more beneficial for artists associated with a label.

YouTube Monetization

Out of the billions of videos that YouTube has accumulated, many use copyrighted music. If indie artists, writers or sound recording owners of that music can keep track of the videos using their work, they can receive royalties for views of those videos. This process of earning money from your work being used on YouTube is called YouTube monetization and it follows a simple process. The ad system on YouTube places ads on videos. More than half of the revenue that the advertisers pay to YouTube is then given to artists or copyright holders as royalty of their content. As I have written in my blog Sync Royalty for Indie Artists, you can make money from synching through monetization of YouTube videos, by using your existing catalogue and by creating custom music. The monetization of YouTube videos is actually a form of leveraging existing music, but quite different in application.

Ideally, the person who uploads a video on YouTube using music that is not his own, should get permission from the copyright owner of the musical composition and performing artist or label. He should also take a ‘sync license’ from the publisher. Songwriters and publishers are also entitled for ‘public performance’ royalty of the repertoire, apart from sync royalty from YouTube views. Most major labels have a deal with YouTube for this and collect these royalties directly or via their PRS’.

However, in practice, uploaders rarely seek these licenses. Most of the thousands of videos on YouTube that use copyrighted content without permission pass intolerance under the ‘fair use’ policy, making monetization of those videos difficult for copyright owners. If you are the copyright owner of a composition or master, make an effort to initiate monetization of videos in which it has been used. You will require permission from the other copyright owners, including the video uploader who has copyright to the video, to start monetizing your work.

YouTube has the feature of Content ID, in which rights holders can automatically find matches, if any, of their work, if it has been upload on YouTube, and find out where copyrighted content has been used. Sign up to YouTube’s own Content ID platform for YouTube monetization. There are also some external services which specialize in YouTube monetization. For a cut of your revenue they tap in to the Content ID system through their own deals with YouTube. Certain ‘YouTube Networks’ aggregate niche based YouTube channels and help them optimize and monetize their content, and attract traffic. With collective power for negotiation, the advantages to networks is that they offer better ad revenue rates.

The video uploader will get an inquiry by YouTube, once your music has been matched up, asking if they have received permission to use your content. In case they haven’t, which is most likely, they can either take the video down or allow monetization and keep the video.

In my next blog I am going to write about maximizing income from music sampling. Please share your experiences in the comments section and I will add them in my future blogs.

If you need help in creating and maintaining a website, HyperEffects can help you connect with your target audience efficiently. HyperEffects is one stop for your website, marketing and cyber development requirements. It helps you to create a website to display your talent or sell your indie music or indie art.