YouTube Creator Music is a service from YouTube that lets other YouTube creators buy a license to use your music in their video. This feature is included with the annually charged DistroKid Album Extra Social Media Pack.
How it works:
- First, opt-into the Social Media Pack album extra on the DistroKid upload form while uploading your release. You'll see pricing information there; the price is per release ($14.95 per album, or $4.95 per single).
- Once you’ve opted into Social Media Pack, DistroKid will send your release to the YouTube Creator Music Library. This is YouTube’s database where creators can search for your music and buy a license to use it in their video.
- When a YouTube creator buys a license to use your music, the license fee (minus 20%) goes to you. These earnings will be shown in your DistroKid “Bank” tab.
- The License is a non exclusive license. This means you can sell multiple licenses for the same release.
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The License Fee varies based on the subscriber count of the YouTube creator buying the license:
Here's how much creators can pay to use your music (as of this writing, subject to change without notice. See additional deets*):
- If creator has 1,000 to 100,000 subscribers, they pay $9.99 per license
- If creator has 100,000 to 500,000 subscribers, they pay $24.99 per license
- If creator has 500,000 to 5 million subscribers, they pay $39.99 per license
- If creator has more than 5 million subscribers, they pay $74.99 per license
* Additional deets:
- The license fee is split 50-50 with publishers. If you have a publishing administrator, your publishing administrator will collect 50% and DistroKid will collect the other 50%
- If you have a publishing administrator and they have a fees structure for your compositions, the higher of the two license fees will be used.
- If a YouTube creator buys a license to use your music in their video, that video is no longer claimable with Content ID. You get the license fee and they get the rights to collect the ad revenue from the video.
- If a user generated video uses your music that has YouTube Creator Music included on your DistroKid submission, but the video creator does not purchase a license, Content ID will still place a claim on your behalf for that video.
- The License Usage is for a single video only. This means a license is purchased per video and cannot be reused for a different video.
- The License Duration is in perpetuity. This means the license is good for as long as the video is up on YouTube.
- The Territorial Usage for the license is worldwide. This means anyone around the world can buy a license to use your music (this also depends on the feature territorial availability determined by YouTube).
- License fees (what the creator pays) above are as of this writing, to the best of our knowledge, and may change without notice.
For more information about YouTube's Creator Music program from Google/YouTube, click here.
Note: If you have existing releases with Social Media Pack, these releases are not currently included in YouTube Creator Music. You can opt into YouTube Creator Music for previous releases with Content ID by heading to your album page, and navigating to the album extras section. YouTube Creator Music should be listed as a free add-on from your album page under that extras section.
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