Licensing Music for YouTube Videos
Understanding YouTube’s publisher agreements, Content ID system, and how to verify if a song is covered.
HFA does not issue licenses for users on YouTube or any other online video service. However, YouTube has entered into a license agreement with many music publishers for when YouTube users upload videos that contain those music publishers’ songs.
This license enables YouTube users to legally include musical compositions in their user-generated content, as long as the user complies with the monetization process.
For more information on YouTube's content ID system, please click here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2797370?hl=en.
For information on whether a particular publisher has a license agreement with YouTube, please contact the publisher directly. You can locate publisher contact information by using the public search function at the following websites:
- https://www.ascap.com/repertory
- https://repertoire.bmi.com
- https://www.sesac.com/#/repertory/search
- http://www.copyright.gov