Hi there,
Just wondering if anyone knows anything about posting mashups on youtube? My main concern is getting in trouble due to licensing. I’ve noticed there are a lot of people on youtube who make mashups with a huge amount of followers and everything seems to be fine. I don’t plan on making my mashups available for download, but I just want to make sure I don’t get in trouble for posting them.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers!
HI there @djrasinbran ,
Well, you’re opening the door to a very controversial subject which in fact is not by law and according to YouTube copyright policy, but which became very controversial according to what you can actually see happening on YouTube.
So basically, YouTube Copyright Infringement rules are very clear : you need to have obtained full permission of the original media copyright owner to use other’s creation in your videos or you need to use medias produced under full creative common license and for which the copyright owner allows others to re-upload or re-use their material.
There’s a kind of “acceptable” and tolerated Copyright Infringement which is describe as “Fair Use” or “Fair Dealing”, depending of the country that will status on the infringement, but most of the time, it will end in a case by case investigation and lawyers decision in case of a reported infringement.
But “Fair Use” means to respect a lot of rules and the principle of the “four factors of fair use”
More about “Fair Use” policy here : YouTube Copyright & Fair Use Policies - How YouTube Works
Now, coming back to music and DJ Mashups, it’s not really going to match those “Fair Use” requirements (even if that seems to work for some people & YouTube accounts ! ), but it’s something else and we then come back to the Copyright Owner Infringement rule.
And that’s the problem, because it’s not about making your Mashup available to download or not, it’s not even about trying to monetize them or not, and using written comments like “content not owned” or giving credit to the original artist won’t get you out from the risk to be reported and to see your YouTube account suspended for life !!
So in practice, it’s a bit of a jungle, and you’ll find DJ that made their reputation via YouTube posting mostly Mashups like DJ Earworm in the US and nothing happen to this account, while you find a lot of other’s story like this :
Hi, I’m a DJ and I upload my mixes to Youtube with Full credits but they are still blocked! How can I post my mashups? YouTube Community
It’s good to know that the copyright owner could be the song creator as well as a label or a major like Sony and so on, and when reporting copyright infringement, YouTube will basically ask them if they want to take the video down or if they want to monetize it, and many times they will accept to monetize it of course, especially if the Mashup rework is having success and reaches a huge audience, because this really happens.
So it’s also a matter of business and profit, if Majors and YouTube can benefit from this kind of publications, they will, meaning they will not bother the YouTuber and take the fame and the money ) but if they fill that in the contrary it’s not crediting them or targeting enough audience to generate fame or revenues, they will decide ( or not ) to take the video down, and after several times being warned, YouTube could very well shut down the YouTube account definitely.
So to summarize, though the first rule of copyright infringement is clearly saying that you can’t use media creation from others without getting full permission or using Creative Commons Licensed medias, what you’ll see on YouTube will encourage you to post Mashups videos but in the end you have to know that you are taking the risk to get into copyright infringement and to have your YouTube account suspended for life, so if you rely on it seriously, it’s definitely something to take into account, and in the worse case it could even end up with possible lawsuit.
It’s a bit the same story about re-sampling, except that the Internet made it so easy to access and because of the mass doing it, it’s hard to setup real rules and laws that are just applicable if not on a case by case basis, and that’s basically what’s happening : everybody does it, some gets amazing benefits out of it, some gets into serious problems.
For interesting cultural video about re-sampling and Mashups, it’s worth seeing those 2 videos :
The Amen Drum Break : Video explains the world's most important 6-sec drum loop - YouTube
RIP: a remix manifesto http://vimeo.com/8040182
Now, this is just what I can tell you on this very controversial subject, many will convince you to do it and that there’s no problem with that and it works for them for years, maybe if someone has a rather discouraging but true experience about the other side of things : when it turns to Do Not work, it would be good to hear from those ones too, because in the end it’s like the lottery : few winners, many losers…
Now that’s just my take and what I grabbed out of it : So I invite others to give you feedback on that subject, especially if they have personal experience, good or wrong with it !
Hope this could help.
Hi there,
Thank you very much for this detailed response, that helps out big time!! Sounds like it’s a bit of an “enter at your own risk” type world. Appreciate the response!!
Cheers
That’s exactly it, yes. So if you already have a YouTube account that means to you or an already existing YouTube channel with a lot of content or subscribers, you might want to think about creating a new one to use it for posting Mashups.
And again, the audience is there & demanding, the sub-culture behind is really moving on ( that’s where the R.I.P. video is really interesting ) but still, you can’t predict if you’re going to be safe when starting to do it via social medias.
Cheers
Great advice. I think i will create a new channel, as I don’t want to lose my current one. Thanks again!! 
Hey there !
Following back this discussion about posting Mashups on YouTube, I came around this on the web:
This solution is hold by a company called “Dubset Media” and they are specialized into music licensing and distribution.
Though I have not been into details and pricing and so on, I thought this could be nice to share because it seems to be a legal alternative to mixes & remixes audio work distribution.
Don’t stick to their website of course, there’s plenty of interesting articles on the web if you just google for Dubset Media and MixBand.
Cheers !
Wow that site looks very cool, thanks! I’ll definitely look into it further!
Cheers,
John
Hey John,
Glad you found it interesting 
Well, as I mentioned, I have not been into details, if you decide to subscribe and use this service, maybe it could be nice to provide the S.A community with your experience in the future.
Anyway, hope that could help and I wish you good mashups & remixes then !!
Have a nice week end !
Cheers !
I will certainly do that. Have a great weekend as well!
Cheers