Learn all about SyncID™ and YouTube Copyright Claims
SyncID™ is a Content ID clearance system for YouTube videos created by Musicbed and offered as an exclusive benefit to our subscribers. Please note: SyncID™ and automatic claim clearance is not covered under our Single Song licenses. SyncID™ provides a smooth, streamlined process to allow you to monetize your YouTube videos while using our music even though our music is all authentic, copyrighted material. Claims from YouTube have been a source of frustration for filmmakers, but now when you receive a claim from YouTube, know that SyncID™ is already working on your behalf! At this time, YouTube is the only platform that SyncID is able to automatically clear copyright claims on. For other social media platforms, check out this article.
Note: A claim on your video is not a negative and has no effect on your video or channel. If you have any questions about a claim, please contact us!
As a rights-managed service, we pride ourselves on the fact that our artists retain the ownership of their music instead of purchasing the ownership of their copyrights like royalty-free music site do. This gives you access to the best and most authentic music available for your projects while still allowing our artists to generate income from their art in the long run. In order to help protect artists’ rights to monetize their craft, YouTube’s content ID system (AdRev) is designed to automatically flag and claim any video uploaded to their platform that contains copyrighted music and ensure that the revenue generated from those videos gets siphoned back to the artist/copyright owner. Our artists have granted us the right to license their music out to you while also passing that monetization off to you (pretty cool of them, huh?).
This is where our SyncID™ technology comes in.
When you upload your video, YouTube’s system is going to recognize the copyrighted track you licensed and place a claim on it. Once that claim exists, our SyncID™ system gets pinged and then goes to work clearing it for you within minutes!
Disclaimer: Sometimes a claim can remain for a little bit longer. More info on that below...
In order for our system to be able to recognize a claim as soon as it appears, you will need to upload your video as either Public or Unlisted. Uploading a video as Private or with a delayed Premiere date/time will block SyncID™ from being able to scan for a claim until after the video is published. And even then, it can cause delays in the clearing process for up to 24 hours from the time it is published. The same rule applies to live videos. Any live video with our music in it will receive a claim and SyncID™ won’t be able to scan and clear it until after the live stream ends and the video has been published for about 24 hours.
It is also very important that you do not dispute any claims you see on the music that you’ve licensed from us. The dispute process will also block SyncID™ from being able to access and clear your claim while it is sent to the artist/copyright holder to review. Instead, if you see a claim that doesn’t clear within a couple of hours of uploading your video, please reach out to us with a link to the video and a screenshot of the claim that shows the claimant and song info and we can look into it for you.
Depending on the level of your subscription, there are a few more things to keep in mind when it comes to SyncID™ and automatic claim clearance:
Personal subscribers:
You will want to make sure that your YouTube channel is linked to your Musicbed account. See how to link your channel HERE
Business, Non-Profit, Wedding, and Enterprise subscribers:
Make sure you log a license for every video you or your clients upload so that you can obtain a SyncID™ key to put in the description of the video. This key is what tells SyncID™ that you have the proper clearance to use our music. If you upload a video with a key in the description and need to take it down and re-upload it, you will need to log the license again to get a fresh SyncID™ key for the most recent upload.
Now no system is perfect. There are times where YouTube’s content ID system might claim the wrong song or a different type of claim might end up on your video. These cases are why we ask that you wait at least an hour or two before sending us a claim that has not automatically cleared. There is a chance that SyncID may have to jump through some hurdles to get your claim cleared and sometimes that can take extra time. If something seems off, just let us know! We are always here to help.
Here is what it looks like behind the scenes when you get a claim on a video:
