Cover Musicians and YouTube's Content ID System
A musician who launched his career on YouTube playing cover versions of video game music explains the music business, the legal issues he navigates, and his concerns about posting cover music on YouTube.
A musician who launched his career on YouTube playing cover versions of video game music explains the music business, the legal issues he navigates, and his concerns about posting cover music on YouTube.
A musician who launched his career on YouTube playing cover versions of video game music explains the music business, the legal issues he navigates, and his concerns about posting cover music on YouTube.
Carlos Eiene
Carlos Eiene is a YouTuber who became popular by posting jazz covers of video game music on his channel insaneintherainmusic. Gamepur named Carlos one of the eight best video game music cover artists on YouTube. His channel had over 400,000 subscribers as of December 9, 2022, and his most viewed video (4.3 million views) is a cover of the Mii Channel theme. Carlos said it was a request from someone commenting on one of his earlier YouTube videos and was right around the time when the track was a popular meme.
Carlos started playing piano when he was in elementary school, and gradually started playing more instruments in high school. He graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 2020, where he majored in Contemporary Writing and Production and minored in Video Game Scoring.
He uploaded his first video on YouTube in 2012, with Angry Aztec from Donkey Kong 64 as his first piano cover. On New Year’s Day, 2022, Carlos uploaded a video explaining that he would discontinue making cover music to instead compose original music, with one of the key reasons being the legal problems associated with posting cover music on YouTube, and the uncertainty arising from YouTube’s Content ID system. He noted that what was originally a passion project had become a job and he didn’t want to handle the complicated issues surrounding music covers. In his video, “I’m Done Being A Content Creator,” Carlos explained in detail his concerns about the legal issues that arise from releasing cover music (at 10:31):
Interview with Carlos
For the development of Carlos’s new album “Insane In The Rain,” he composed and arranged the music himself; he prefers recording the music himself as he thinks it’s the most efficient way to make music. Carlos explained the process, including how he created and recorded the music, and distributes his original music through Bandcamp and Spotify.
We asked Carlos how his Mii Channel theme cover was created and became so popular.
YouTube’s Content ID System
Many YouTubers upload music covers of their favorite songs on YouTube. However, these music covers can get flagged by YouTube’s Content ID system. Introduced in 2007, Content ID was developed and implemented by Google after Google and YouTube were sued by various companies such as Viacom claiming that by allowing users to upload copyrighted materials onto YouTube, YouTube was directly responsible for copyright infringement. In Viacom International Inc v. Youtube Inc, Google argued that the “safe harbor” provision in Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) protected Google from liability. “Section 512 contains limitations on liability - referred to as safe harbors - for four types of online service providers.” The safe harbors shield qualifying online service providers like YouTube from liability for copyright infringement by users uploading content to YouTube if YouTube implements an effective Notice and Takedown system. https://www.copyright.gov/512/ While the district court ruled in favor of YouTube, that decision was later reversed in circuit court, and then the parties settled out of court.
YouTube then created the Content ID system to better comply with Section 512. According to the YouTube help page, “Videos uploaded to YouTube are scanned against a database of audio and visual content that's been submitted to YouTube by copyright owners. When Content ID finds a match, it applies a Content ID claim to the matching video.” The Content ID system then notifies the copyright owner of the potential copyright infringement, and the owner has the choice of asking YouTube to take the video down, to add advertisements to the video with some or all of the ad revenue going to the copyright owner, or to track the video’s viewership statistics. Content ID claims do not result in Copyright Strikes.
When YouTube receives a takedown request from a copyright owner, YouTube takes down the offending video to comply with copyright law. Under Section 512 of the DMCA, YouTube has to follow the guidelines of its Notice and Takedown system. The user then has the option to file a counter-notice. YouTube has a video explaining the process:
For cover artists like Carlos who post cover songs on YouTube, there are two ways they can avoid copyright infringement issues. First, the cover artist can get a mechanical license from the copyright holder to record the cover song and a sync license from the copyright holder that grants the cover artist permission to perform the cover song in a video format. However, sync licenses are difficult to acquire, and may take months for both parties to reach an agreement. But by obtaining those two licenses before uploading the video of their cover songs on YouTube, the cover artist can avoid getting a Content ID claim. Second, the cover artist can do what many cover artists on YouTube do - let YouTube’s Content ID system handle any copyright issues, though this could lead to takedown notices or losing ad revenue.
Carlos explained his experience with YouTube’s Content ID system, the law, and licensing:
Although Carlos has shifted to creating original music, his great video game music covers will remain on YouTube for all to enjoy.