Music Copyrights 101
Downloading music is one of the greatest things about owning a computer. Of course, we want our students to be free to share and even publish their creative work if they want to. That's why it is important to preemptively teach them about how to find and use openly licensed and public domain materials. However, as you can see no ads appear in the videos and the videos are fully accessible on YouTube.
For example, if you post your video on YouTube, you could get a copyright strike against your account or have the audio on your video muted (and yes, that's even if you're just using it as background music in your YouTube videos) Any ad money might be given to the copyright holder, or in a worst case scenario, you could get sued.
Just be aware that Facebook's licence over your music extends to other content forms, including video. If you find your YouTube video on another website without your permission, you'll have to follow their process for requesting the removal of the video. It's tougher to claim Fair Use if your remix is based on an advance or an unreleased track, because copyright law strives to protect the decision-making process of the original author as he decides whether or not to make his work public.
So, make sure you read the fine print Artlist also has new music monthly from some of the world's best indie artists, and it's easy to search for the right song for your video by mood, video theme, genre, and instrument. As a member of the Performing Right Society (PRS) or the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS), you give permission for us to protect your rights and collect royalties on your behalf.
There are a few generalizations regarding the fair use exemption that music instructors should be aware of. First, whenever copying under the fair use exemption, it is important that the copyright notice always appear on the copies. It weighs against fair use if the original work is highly creative (like a song, movie, or TV show), and will weigh toward fair use if the original work is Copyright free music for other users to download for free less creative (like a phone directory, scientific data, or quotes from a historical record).