My interpretation is “commercial” is whenever money exchanges hands. If there is a budget for the creation of the video, or compensation to contributors to the video, or the video is produced to promote a fund-raising entity, then I see that as a commercial use. I’ve created low-budget YouTube Partner and Non-profit license tiers to make these types of uses very affordable. If your use is in a grey area, or you have special considerations, feel free to contact me. We’ll work something out!
The “matched third party content” notification happens because the YouTube Content ID system has found an occurrence of my music and it is not smart enough to know if it was licensed, and/or abiding by the CC-BYNC license that I allow. Fear not. It’s quickly remedied.
If you purchased a license and are having issues with a third party claim, please drop me a line and I will help as quickly as possible.
If you are using my music under the guidelines of a Creative Commons BY-NC License, you can do one of two things in this situation:
1. Disregard. You are NOT penalized by a matched third party claim. If your channel has less than 1000 subscribers and less that 4000 watch hours in the last year, monetization is disabled and NO advertisements will run. Practically speaking, though the notification might sound alarming, it usually has no effect on your video. (Vimeo is also a good alternative if you just want to post a video without the fuss of Content ID.)
2. Dispute the claim.
1) Go to the video manager page.
2) Click the “matched third party content” blue hyperlink next to the video.
3) Click “Dispute”.
4) Scroll down and select the 5th click option “I have a license or written permission from the proper rights holder to use this material” and Click “Continue”.
5) Click “I am sure that I have a license or written permission, and I want to dispute this claim” and click “Continue”
5) In the “Please explain briefly section” state your type of use. If it is commercial please provide your invoice number from soundofpicture.com. If it is non-commercial please state it conforms to a CC-BYNC gratis license. (See above for more about what is commercial.)
6) Click the “I have a good faith belief…” box and enter your name.
7) Click continue.
8) Click “Submit Dispute” on the following page, and confirm the dispute by clicking “OK” on the pop up window.
The claim is usually resolved within one working day.
My most preferred attribution style is:
“Song name(s)”
Podington Bear
soundofpicture.com
…But I’m not super picky.
Is credit required with a commercial license? No. …But if you have room somewhere it is appreciated.
The Library is composed of high quality 320kbps MP3 files. If your edit is going straight to the internet you should have no loss of quality with these files. If you want to use lossless files in your production, they can be downloaded from my lossless archive.
I’ve tried to expand my offerings for “clickable” licenses, but there’s always something that doesn’t quite match. I’m happy to negotiate and draft licenses for your individual needs. Drop me a line.
Please estimate how many hours you expect to work on the project and multiply that number by your hourly wage. That is your budget. (In a nutshell: I trust you to pay what you think is fair.)
Yes! I have sessions for 95% of my compositions. I can make simple edits (remove something, or change length) for an additional $20. I can send you stems for an additional $50 . I can also give you a quote on remixing and composing to picture (i.e. adding musical layers to underscore and enhance the arc of your edit.) Drop me a line.
Yes! If your film was made without any money changing hands you may submit it to festivals using a Creative Commons BYNC License.
Yes! For certain programming I will offer gratis master and sync licenses when cue sheets are reported to Performance Royalty Organizations. I am an ASCAP writer (Chad Crouch) and publisher (Victrola Dog).
Like I said, at the top, when money gets moved around to make a production happen, that is the definition of commerce. Is it commercial with a capital C? No. But on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being a Super Bowl spot, maybe it’s a 2. Bearing that in mind I’ve tried to scale the Podcast & Non-com Radio License pricing accordingly. Music makes productions A LOT better. It’s worth a little money, and I’d be grateful if you saw it that way too.