How do I correctly site licensed music

[Steve Wolla]

Got a question regarding the use of licensed music that I use in my productions. I currently shoot primarily industrial video for manufacturing operations.
Recently I put out a demo reel, and used a piece of licensed music that I bought from Smart Sound a few years ago, in that demo. I posted it to my You Tube page and within a day someone had filed a complaint that I was using their copyrighted music (!!!). I am contesting that with You Tube now and emailing Smart Sound about it as well.
I need to post another "sampler" I shot for a specific client. This video is not to be sold, it is just a "demonstrator" of the similar types of work that I have done. This time I thought it best to properly site the music used so there could be no question that it was obtained and is being used legally. Is there a "best practice" to use in crediting music, even when it comes from a vendor such as Smart Sound?
Any advice you would have would be greatly appreciated.

[Jody Arnott]

You say someone filed a complaint, what did it say? I ask because YouTube automatically scans all uploaded videos, and if any kind of commercial music is found (whether you've licensed it or not) it will warn you with a message in your video manager saying "Matched third party content".

If that's what you're getting, it's not a complaint, just YouTube advising you that it found commercial music.

As for citing music, even if you've put "Music used with permission..." in your description, anyone could do that, so it doesn't mean much. Either way, there are a heap of different ways to do it, but I usually use something like:

Music used with permission: Coldplay. "Clocks". A Rush of Blood to the Head. Capitol Records, 2002.

Band. "Song name". Album title. Label, year of release.

[Chris Medico]

I have the same trouble with YouTube when using SmartSound music. If you follow the dispute process you should be fine. I sent them the name and ID of the track I was using as well as a copy of the license info from the software.

Make a note of that track and know that it will likely get flagged if you use it on a YouTube video again.

[Steve Wolla]

Thanks so much for your responses. I contacted Smart Sound and they apparently help resolve these types of complaints. So I am going to email details to them and they can hopefully take care of it.

Seems they work with some composers who may sell the same music to multiple royalty-free music vendors. I was dinged by one of those "other" vendors.

It was just so frustrating because I am very careful about using only music that I have purchased the license to use....... on my last production I credited the source of the music etc. so hopefully this won't happen again.
SW

[Mark Williams]

When I use licensed music on Youtube I also have the same problem. Listing the composer, song title, license company, receipt number in the video narrative seems to do no good. I have about 12 videos disputed for three months that have not been cleared. They don't make it easy to " do the right thing".

[Steve Wolla]

Mark, thanks for the input, that's an incredible story.
I see you are also on Vimeo. In your experience, is Vimeo better in this regard, than YouTube? Having 12 videos disputed fot a 3 month period must be more than just a little aggravating.
When it happened to me, I thought at first that it might be an attempt to pay the complaining firm for the "rights" to use what I had already purchased from Smart Sound. I no longer believe that.

[Mark Williams]

I have not had any problems on Vimeo.

[Steve Wolla]

It sounds like Vimeo may be less of a hassle to work with than YouTube. When the goal is to have a "channel" that can be liked to your website for the purpose of playing samples or demos of your work, does You Tube have any advantages over a Vimeo account? This crap about getting dinged for using licensed music seems like it could get really old, really fast.

[Mark Williams]

I have a Vimeo plus account and that is what I use on my website. It allows some customization such as appearance and being able to embed a video in HD by default. I am happy with Vimeo.

[Bob Hart]

Here's a little bit of a different story.

A while back, I posted a little clip of an actors workshop exercise I shot. I used a track from Joen Baez and in the clip description made a little plea for the audio not to be banned. I also described in my end title the source of the music track.

It played sweet for a while, until the youtube robot finally gleaned copyright material beneath the ambience track and automated an audio block.

The rights holders for the music had the apparent good grace to cause the clip to be restored without any further prompting from me, so as a piece of compensatory cross-promotion in turn, - Joan Baez, - you rock and thanks.

SCENE EXERCISE. HI SIS. - YouTube

[Steve Wolla]

Bob, thanks for that, it was good to hear of your success there.

Mark, thanks so much for that input, I may just start up a Vimeo account and see if that is less hassle than YouTube.

[Tim Lewis]

My projects are very low budget and often I am adding music as an extra without specific client instruction. I have found there is a good amount of free (as in beer) royalty free music available on the internet. I have several bookmarks dedicated to these sources.

One of the best is MusOpen. It has a range of classical pieces by various performers. If one sticks to the more professional recitals, one can get very good music for use with videos. You can also donate to their project for a bit of "quid pro quo".

[Marcus Durham]

Originally Posted by Mark Williams

When I use licensed music on Youtube I also have the same problem. Listing the composer, song title, license company, receipt number in the video narrative seems to do no good. I have about 12 videos disputed for three months that have not been cleared. They don't make it easy to " do the right thing".

They really don't, and we've had to change a track on a video as Youtube persistently misidentified it. The track in question was a library track by the Apollo Orchestra sold via stock music site, which was being misidentified as being owned by a major record label.

We were on a deadline so had to change the track and left it in the hands of the library.