I made a video yesterday covering a Chuck Berry song. Posted it here and also on YouTube. Went to my YouTube channel today and the video has been deleted. I didn't get any notification as to why it was deleted, but I assume it was due to copyright violation. No big deal, just curious...
Why are some cover song videos deleted, while other cover songs are seemingly okay? Do I need to state that it's a "Chuck Berry Cover" in the title? Is every cover song technically a copyright violation and some copyright holders are just more vigilant in policing it?
I very obviously don't make music for money, so I have no idea how this works.
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There was a coffee shop in my town that has had open mic since 79’(defunct now), but they posted a video on YouTube of someone doing a cover & next thing you know ASCAP filed a suit against them? The suit caused them to go into bankruptcy & coffee shop is now closed! So much for freedom of expression? Covers are kool, but be careful, there’s a very fine line with copyright infringement, wether it was intentional or not? Good luck
You may have seen I recently posted Your Cheating Heart by Hank Williams. I mentioned his name in the title but not the song title. I often do this if I suspect there may be a legal issue since I think the titles may be flagged more often than an artist's name. Most often it's lawyers for the artist's estate that go after people as opposed to an actual artist. I think it's only happened to me once where you tube pulled something for infringement and I can't now, after hundreds of videos, remember what the heck it was for.
A fjew words on the subject, this is how i do it! NEVER NEVER COPY THE TUNE THE WAY IT WAS INTENDED ,you can use the words cose this is language, as for as i know there is no copy right on words! unless so intended in a book, poem, advertisement, so use the song NOT the TUNE, or USE the TUNE but not the Song ! ,and allways state that its Art & your own tune or composition.
the copyright conserns image & composition (use of chords in the same seqence whit simular rhytmo) hope this helps! i have about thousand video,s on youtube never had a problem, only one case they claimed that i did a copyright infringement ,what i protested (cose it was my own) and no problem eversins!
Hey Roy, Thats funny, I was going to ask you this question. I have about 20 covers I would like to post but haven't just due to copyright concerns. Artists range from Neil Young, Rolling Stones, Muddy Waters, Fleetwood Mac, Lionel Ritchie.... If I post to Soundcloud is the worst that could happen be they take it down or could there be monitary issues?
JRK
Well, I guess that's my same question. Mine is specific to YouTube, but other than listening to your stuff on Soundcloud, I know nothing about it.
I'm gonna keep on truckin' and just make sure I specify in the title that it's a cover of a specific artist. I suspect it's the attribution that is most important if you're just doing a "tribute".
But, if we ever get famous and start making money off our covers, then I guess we'll probably get a registered letter.
Here's the closest to a real answer I found on the google machine:
https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/posting-cover-songs-on-youtube-w...
I say cover the music you like and always tell people to listen to the original artist until they tell you not to.
This is a repy to Road Rash Roy on Monday ! #About Soundcloud i use to be on it,but after a incident whit a co user,she liked my stuff,whitch was oke whit me ,but there is a thing on soundcloud that u can like other players stuf and promote it on your own page (list), after a visit on this other page i see a hole bunch of people i do not indentify whit so i ask for removal of my stuff whitch was not posseble,allmost like a FACEBOOK acount once your on it you cant get of! so i deleted all my stuff but on her page there is still my name and titels but the link dont connects ,because i removed my stuff, a simular event happend to me whit Facebook ,at first when they started i liked the ideer for mailart a fast way to connect to a hole lot of people, but they changed there pollecy so i deleted all my info and wrote 4 letters to the main office for total removal witch to this day still did not happen i still get request from a the Dame of Mailart that says she uploaded a pic or what ever, verry strange so they clame to support the independent smal artist but they cant do a thing for you if other people use your music & and image's in there playlists thats why i prefer YouTube,better control althow the Internet is full of surprises! if a good Hacker get loos on the HTML info who knows what can happen !
i wonder what the thousands of "cover" bands around the world do?? all the high school bands.... its a whole big can of worms ....
on one hand they are playing someones else's music but you could also say they are advertising the original artist?? no idea. never had that problem. only crowds i ever played guitar to were in church many moons ago.
Some are blacklisted , some aint , it depends on who owns the rights , and how they feel about it . and if they put in for an alert on y tube .
Title wording may help also "tribute" , "cover", " my rendition" , yada yada yada.
The video is now back on my channel. Weird. I went ahead and changed the title for proper attribution.
I wonder if it was a "CaliFest" reference that made them take it down? If so, that's hilarious!
Well, I answered my own question with a few keystrokes on google:
https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/posting-cover-songs-on-youtube-w...
I really don't want to get banned from YouTube, but I'm supposed to contact the music publisher to see if it's okay to post a cover of their song?
How does a "real" artist approach this issue? Say, Shane Speal? Of course he has his own material, but he's got loads of "how to play" type videos. Did he have to call Seasick Steve or the owners of Muddy Waters' catalog to get permission to use their stuff?
How do you know? What do you do?