PSA: SongFreedom.com have updated their T's and C's

[Danny O'Neill]

They have recently been bought out buy Tracks Inc but the T's and C's have changed and its a big impact for us non US folks.

First up, ALL premium tracks are now $35 each vs the old $10 each. You can now licence Ed Sheeran and others but it comes at a price.

Their T's and C's are updated BUT they conflict with itself. One part says premium tracks are $35, another $59. One part says all tracks are cleared for worldwide usage, another says premium is not.

The key takeaways I found are:

* Premium tracks are US only. I am waiting for them to confirm what this actually means.
* Premium tracks CANNOT be hosted on Vimeo. Just all the major social media platforms and YouTube.

[Paul R Johnson]

If you licence an Ed Shearan track for up to 5 copies - which might be enough for a wedding video, you can do it vial PRS, and clear MCPS and PPL rights for fifteen pounds, up to 25 minutes of it. Is this no good for your usage?

[Danny O'Neill]

That doesn’t include online usage. Only applies to physical copies.

[Danny O'Neill]

Got some answers from their support but it doesnt clear much up.

Basically, their support site still says UK folk can use any files on any hosting platform. The restrictions are all buried in the small print. No mention of restrictions at time of purchase either.

Support havent answered yet if the restrictions apply retrospectivley and suddenly we may have a load of illegal videos. I've asked how they communicated these changes as this is a biggie. What if vimeo suddenly decide that they will act on copyright infringements and pull my videos with premium tracks that are now in violation? For me that would be an immediate account termination which is super frustrating as we've spent the past 2 years removing all violations and ensuring we have permission to use all songs.

[David Barnett]

I had an awful experience with Songfreedom & Vimeo & took a turn on them both. I don't mind paying $59 bucks for legit Ed Sheeran/Maroon 5/Gaga/Taylor songs, but the license is worthless. Vimeo randomly runs crawlers and will take down your videos asap, leaving your website with 'Video not available' messages (my Vimeo account is tied to a generic yahoo email & I didn't see the DMCA takedown email till I viewed my site). I contacted Vimeo & to their credit, once I emailed them the crappy Songfreedom license they restored it. But it is not a method I want to use going forward, and they said I couldn't proactively email all my licenses over upfront, that its a periodic crawl. I moved all my wedding videos to Youtube.

Back to songfreedom, I upload the songs to YT & reference I have licensing when they state they will show ads on them. I try to dispute it with YT saying I have a license, they say go back to who the license is with or something. I reach back to songfreedom, and they say 'Even tho its licensed, the artist still can choose to earn revenue via ads'


So I ask you, what's the point of a $59 license when you can just buy the song for $.99 cents off Amazon & upload it to youtube also? (Not saying I do that, but I moved to another song website, buy lesser known songs, and stuck with YT as Vimeo kinda burned me with the past videos). Plus, you only get 3 strikes before the ban your entire account, I had 2 strikes (although they removed them). My fear is IF they struck 3 videos, could my entire account be restored or was I left SOL. Again, I played it safe & bad as it looks stuck with YT for the past year. I'm not sure I'm continuing much with weddings but its more of a placeholder for now while I'm in limbo. Again, rethink Songfreedoms worthless licenses, are you really paying for rights, or are you paying to make yourself feel safe at what you're doing? You've been warned.

[Danny O'Neill]

I emailed songfreedom with a load of questions.

One thing they came back with is that Vimeo is in dispute with rights holders who want the same deal as YouTube (the ability to put ads on your videos and claim the revenue, even if you are licenced). So Vimeo arent allowed to host any videos wtih pretty much most commercial music.

YouTube has the ad problem which as a pro business is a no no. Cant have ads, potentially for a competitor running before they view my video on my web page. If I have a licence or not, doesnt make much odds to them. A licence just means they cant sue me.

Still, the music industry likes to pretend the internet doesnt exist.