I guess this has been discussed before but wondering about some street musicians that play and post on youtube copyright songs they play and are monetized, making big YT money.
Slippery slope. Most of the time cover songs are ok, if rights fees are paid. Depending on the song and artist, they can be contested and pulled down, or monetized and money goes to the rights holder. There are lots of different variables in copyrights. I doubt YouTube is paying rights fees for people to air cover songs. But I really don't know.
If you play a video with an original version of a song by the original artist, the money generated will go to the rights holder or you will be given a take down. Depends on the artist.
Because of the worldwide availability of YouTube, I don't really know how the cover song business works. If you play in a bar or club, the bar or club is supposed to pay the performing rights org (BMI, ASCAP etc) fees which then allows the music to be played. Plenty of people play songs on YouTube that are copyrighted and owned by someone else.
In this girl's case I believe she has recorded most of these and probably has a mechanical license to do so and also has permission to perform in public and earn from it. Speculation on my part though.
My wife asked if I had seen the dog bowl. I told her I didn't even know he could.
Understand too that what is legal and what you can get away with are not necessarily the same thing.
Byron Dickens
BIAB. CbB. Mixbus 32C 8 HP Envy. Intel core i7. 16GB RAM W10. Focusrite Scarlett 18i 20. Various instruments played with varying degrees of proficiency.
You can legally upload a cover and make money using this site We are the hits
That's useful.
I did searches for four relatively obscure songs that I love and three of them were recognised.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2026 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
Unless you have purchased the rights, Youtube monitizes your video and remits the income to the copyright owner. You have to show them that YOU have the rights for them to send you the income. If the copyright owner doesn't allow covers, Youtube removes it or doesn't post it in the first place. At least that's how I understand it works.
I posted a video of my farm with a couple of CCM songs as background music.... shortly after it was posted, I got notice of copyright and they monetized the video with commercials. Same deal on some other covers I posted.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
I have purchased the royalty free rights to a significant number of commercial backing tracks which my company uses in video promotional material. Another big and very well known music company apparently owns the company that I purchased the royalty free music rights from.
Some of the music phrases I use may only be seconds long.
Whenever a new video is placed on YouTube, almost immediately I get a challenge that I have violated copyright owned by that big music company. I explain that I have purchased the rights, with proof and the challenge is removed, but this usually takes several days.
What is amazing is how quickly that audio is analyzed. Their reference library and comparison software must incredible.
What is most annoying is that YouTube determine that I am guilty until I prove I am innocent.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
... determine that I am guilty until I prove I am innocent.
My ex-employer did that first bit, except that they made up the accusations, denied the proof of innocence, threatened me via lawyers and accused me (to the police) of harassment when I tried to protest. Very nasty!
Edit: ... so I'm sorry if I'm sometimes fractious as a consequence.
Last edited by Gordon Scott; 07/16/2204:54 AM.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2026 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
You all have made me wonder what I purchased when I buy something from MusicNotes or some other similar product??
...Deb
Deb, google/bing is musicnotes legit and you will find many responses saying yes it is legit. It is the same for other music printing sites. The sites pay the royalties to the proper organizations. If they didn't the music police would be on their butts ASAP.
Waitress "How did you find your steak sir"?
Me "I just looked next to the potatoes and there it was"!
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
So, if I chose to I could play the music I purchased wherever?
Cool!
...Deb
Technically no! If you play at a bar, club, or party house they must pay to have music played at their establishment, otherwise the music police can shut them down. However the music police rarely go after the performer(s) in those instances. They will go after you if you record a cover song, with or without the purchase of sheet music, and try to sell it or post it on-line.
The pay the royalties clause is why PGMusic and many other sites do not allow covers to be played on their sites.
Do not let this scare you. If you are playing is small venues, nursing homes, retirement homes, VA places, etc you have nothing to worry about. I have played out in party houses, bars, clubs, basically you name it and I probably have played there for many years with no problems.
Waitress "How did you find your steak sir"?
Me "I just looked next to the potatoes and there it was"!
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
They are real. I was playing in a house band. Great gig. So one night the club owner came to see us in the dressing room and asked us for copies of set lists. It seems a representative of one of the two big PRO's had showed up, looked at the tunes in the Juke Box, and noticed our gear and wanted to know what songs we were playing on a regular basis. We gave him a whole stack of the set lists that covered several months of 4 sets per night. The PRO wasn't after the band for the money... they were after the venue owner to collect royalty money from him.
In another band.... before I had been hired to play guitar with them, the lead singer/artist had recorded a pop song that was a cover of a hit from several years back. He had it pressed into 45 RPM and was selling them as well as playing the song at his gigs. The music police informed him that he didn't buy the rights to the song and therefore....cease and desist all sales of product immediately. So he had a big box of unsellable vinyl. As it turned out, the copyright owner was refusing all attempts to buy the license needed. Something about the song being tied up in legal limbo and well..... no you can't use it currently. Wasn't any of my business and as long as I was paid for the gigs.... I was good. He gave me a copy of the record....I think I still have it around here somewhere. It's not very good. Maybe that's why they told him to stop selling it.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
As of this spring YT reserves the right to monetize your uploads if they so choose and even if you are not a YT partner. And you receive ZERO income. And only as a partner can you receive the income and if you choose turn off the ads. Being a partner requires 5,000 followers and around a zillion plays.
So...they monetized our most popular songs. Great ... now our friends and family can watch a prostate or gut ad before seeing our vid.
I was so POed I opened a subscription account to Vimeo and uploaded all our work there. It's a great site and offers higher quality streaming and after the above I do not mind paying for it.
Bud
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
As of this spring YT reserves the right to monetize your uploads if they so choose and even if you are not a YT partner. And you receive ZERO income. And only as a partner can you receive the income and if you choose turn off the ads. Being a partner requires 5,000 followers and around a zillion plays.
So...they monetized our most popular songs. Great ... now our friends and family can watch a prostate or gut ad before seeing our vid.
I was so POed I opened a subscription account to Vimeo and uploaded all our work there. It's a great site and offers higher quality streaming and after the above I do not mind paying for it.
Bud
YouTube is not a great company to us normal musicians. If you have over a billion views like Taylor Swift, who indeed has several videos in the billion view club, you make a fortune from the ad revenue. Otherwise you just pad the YouTube pocket. Granted it takes a lot, a whole lot, of views to earn ad revenue. The advertisers are paying for eyes and clicks not 1000 views by friends and family.
My wife asked if I had seen the dog bowl. I told her I didn't even know he could.
I'm hardly a YT expert but I am a pretty astute observer. I'm now spending a good 90% of what used to be "TV time" on YT and I have a bunch of favorite creators that I've followed for 3-4 years and watched them grow from literally a part time fun thing in their bedroom to a full time literal network making big money. How do I know they're making big money? They explain it in detail and you can see it in their lifestyle. Just one example LegitStreetCars. I'm a long time car guy and I've been buying 10-12 year old Mercedes with high miles for years. Keep them for 4 or 5 years, sell them, buy another one.
The LegitStreetCars guy was a MB tech for over ten years. Then he went to work for the City of Chicago as a foreman working on all the city heavy equipment. He started posting basic how to vids maybe 4 years ago. Things like how to change the cabin filters, how to buff the fading off the headlights, things like that. He would buy an old Benz for himself, fix it up keep it for whatever time then sell it and he would post vids of all the details. Over the years his channel grew and grew and I noticed his small suburban house garage was getting more sophisticated. He made a big deal of the fact he could afford to buy a lift and some other expensive stuff. He started getting sponsors, mostly car related stuff. He would begin traveling to buy special old Benz's like a 2002 AMG and he would tell us that it's getting harder to do all his car vids with a full time job and he's doing well financially with YT.
Then he made a big announcement last year. He got his 10 years in with the city, his pension vested and he quit and he's now full time on YT. He talked about how he was making about 110K with the city plus bene's. He's making more than that now on YT. How do I know this? He bought, not rented, a building that used to be a detail shop and turned it into his shop with 4 lifts. It all for his channel, he's not working as a repair shop to the public. He's explained all this in detail over the last year. Could this be a slick scam to get viewers? Maybe but I doubt it because he's now doing things like he bought a classic 65 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud for $26,000 and he made a series of vids fixing it all up with zero knowledge about how to work on a Rolls. I find that interesting, YMMV. He says it all due to YT.
I've watched other people doing other subject matter do the same thing. One guy I've watched for years has 2 channels going now. I'm a vet and he's been military commentator for years on YT and the Ukraine War has just exploded his main channel called Speak the Truth. In just the last month he now has a formal studio with a cameraman, he brings in guests like a former Marine who went to Ukraine to fight as a volunteer. He was in combat for 4 months until he caught something and got very sick and had to leave. Very interesting video of him describing his experience over there and he's going back as soon as he recovers. That's not for everyone, he's talking real down and dirty combat. The creator has hired a professional journalist in Ukraine with his own cameraman to create an hour long documentary. He's another one who quit his full time job.
This is just two of about a dozen examples I can cite. In the music and movie field there are tons of "Reaction" vids. They are done by young people reacting to mostly classic music of the 60's and 70's along with movie reactions. The problem is when it comes to music it's all over the place. One guy I really like just quit because he's saying 90% of his vids have been blocked by YT and Rick Beato has talked about that too. Yet there's another guy who's been reacting for several years to the same music and he hasn't said anything about having problems with YT and his vids are all up. By reacting I mean they play the original music either off an album or a live concert then discuss and react to it. Same with movies. One girl reacted to Terminator, played many clips from the movie and commented about it. One guy says he has to quit while the other keeps on chugging along. When it comes to using copyrighted material for anything, it can be a problem but most other subjects are basically good on YT.
I just wish YT has been around 30 years ago. I have many ideas for a channel but it's too late for me now. People can complain about big tech, corporate greed and all that rot but to me YT is one of the greatest opportunities there is for an individual with some personality who likes to talk to really do something they like and make money doing it. Just not using somebody else's copyrighted material.
Band-in-a-Box® 2026 Mac Special Offers Extended Until May 31st!
Good news- we've extended our Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac® special offers until May 31, 2026!
Band-in-a-Box® 2026 is packed with major new features, enhancements, and an incredible lineup of new content! The program now sports a sleek, modern GUI redesign across the entire interface, including updated toolbars, refreshed windows, smoother workflows, a new dark mode option, and more. The brand-new side toolbar provides quicker access to key windows, while the new Multi-View feature lets you arrange multiple windows as layered panels without overlap, creating a flexible, clutter-free workspace. We have an amazing new “AI-Notes” feature. This transcribes polyphonic audio into MIDI so you can view it in notation or play it back as MIDI. You can transcribe an entire track (all pitched instruments and drums) or focus on individual parts like drums, bass, guitars/piano, or vocals. There's an amazing collection of new content too, including 202 RealTracks, new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two RealDrums Stems sets, and much more!
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202 New RealTracks Released with Band-in-a-Box 2026!
With Band-in-a-Box® 2026, we've released 202 incredible new RealTracks (in sets 468-488) in a variety of genres—featuring your most requested styles!
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Rock & Pop (Sets 476–482):
Our new rock & pop RealTracks bring a powerful mix of requested favorites, fresh genres, and modern chart-inspired styles! We have more of our popular “Producer Layered Acoustic Guitars (15)” featuring Band-in-a-Box favorite Brent Mason. We’ve continued our much-requested disco styles (10), and added new Celtic guitar (5) with a more basic, accessible approach than our previous Drop-D or DADGAD offerings. There are also highly requested yacht rock styles (17), inspired by the smooth, polished soft-rock sound of the late ’70s and early ’80s — laid-back grooves, silky electric pianos, warm textures, elegant harmonic movement, and pristine production aesthetics. Fans of heavier styles will love our new glam metal (13), capturing the flashy, high-energy sound of ’80s arena-ready guitar rock. We also have a set of rootsy modern-folk rock (18), with a warm, organic sound combining contemporary folk textures and driving acoustic strumming. And we’ve added lots of new modern pop styles (16) — the kinds of sounds you’re hearing on the radio today, featuring exciting new drums, synths, and cutting-edge RealTracks arrangements.
Country, & Americana (Sets 483–488):
Our new country & Americana RealTracks deliver a rich collection of acoustic, electric, and roots-inspired styles! We have new country pop (9) with legendary guitarist Brent Mason. There is also a potpourri (14) of bouzouki, guitars, banjo, and more, perfect for adding texture and character to contemporary acoustic arrangements. We’ve added funky country guitar (5) with PG favorite Brent Mason, along with classic pedal steel styles (5) featuring steel great Doug Jernigan. There are more country songwriter styles (8) that provide intimate, rootsy foundations for storytelling and modern Americana writing. Finally, we have “background soloing” acoustic guitar (12) with Brent Mason — simpler, but still very tasty acoustic lines designed to sit beautifully behind vocals or act as a subtle standalone solo part.
And, if you are looking for more, the 2026 49-PAK (for $49) includes an impressive collection of 20 bonus RealTracks, featuring exciting and inspiring additions to add to your RealTracks library. You'll get new country-rhythm guitar styles from PG Music favorites Johnny Hiland and Brent Mason, along with modern-pop grooves that capture today’s radio-ready sound! There are also new indie-folk styles with guitar, bass, 6-string bass used as a high-chording instrument, acoustic guitar, and banjo. Plus, dedicated "cymbal fills" RealDrums provide an added layer that work very well with low-key folky styles with other percussion.
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MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
MIDI SuperTracks Set 46: Piano & Organ
Instrumental Studies Set 24: Groovin' Blues Soloing
Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
Playable RealTracks Set 5
RealDrums Stems Set 9: Cool Brushes
SynthMaster Sounds Set 1 (with audio demos)
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FLAC Files (lossless audio files) for the 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums
MIDI Styles Set 93: Look Ma! More MIDI 16: SynthMaster
MIDI SuperTracks Set 47: More SynthMaster
Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
Artist Performance Set 20: Songs with Vocals 10
RealDrums Stems Set 10: Groovin' Sticks
SynthMaster Sounds & Styles Set 2 (sounds & styles with audio demos)
XPro & Xtra Styles PAK Sets On Sale Now - Until May 15, 2026!
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