get your youtube music monetized
Hey what’s up?! My name is Isaac.
I’m a full time producer for Chris Moon - the hit songwriter who discovered Prince.
Yes, that Prince, with over TEN MILLION Monthly Listeners on Spotify.
I find it interesting, anytime I tell people I work in the music industry they tend to ask the same consistent questions…
Are you famous!?
Do you have a verified Youtube account??
Are you rich!!??
No, no, and no! Lol!
Even Chris Moon, a world renowned songwriter has less than 100 subscribers.
This got me thinking…
How would an artist leverage the power of YouTube ad revenue, before they reach that magical number of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time?
Show YouTube Who's Boss (With Content ID)
I feel like most artists are demotivated to even bother and burn out quickly because they know the work won’t pay off for a while.
In fact, there’s even a long stretch of time, YouTube starts fully monetizing your content and keeping 100% of the ad money lol!
They play dirty! So...let’s fight back within their own rules!
This is where Youtube content ID comes into play...especially as an artist.
Now, it seems like common sense, but for some reason nobody talks about this...
Put one of your songs in content id using a music distro. Content ID services take 30% or more of your revenue.
Even Distrokid, with it’s literal paid add-on, takes 20% of your content ID.
Lame!! ^
I personally use Boost Collective.
We are an entirely free unlimited music distribution platform, with no hidden fees, have Content ID publishing, and you get free music promotion:
Regardless how you get your music into content ID; just get it in there.
The logic is pre simple here.
Now you just have to use the music you own in content id...in your videos.
You will get a warning, saying this video can’t be monetized.
Uh-oh! The catch is, unlike a content claim for a song you do not own...this ad split now goes to your music distro.
Aka you, the music copyright holder.
Now, I am unsure exactly when this kicks in.
From my testing across several channels, YouTube doesn’t force ads to be run on your videos until you hit 100 views.
It does not matter how many subscribers you have.
YouTube is automation heavy, as there is just so much content. At the time of writing, I strongly believe they start forcing ads after 100 views for a video.
In this instance, Youtube has no idea he owns the music.
It’s automated system simply knows, “oh, some user used a copyrighted audio, we better send the split to them, before taking it for ourselves.”
The process is identical if you use a song from a major artist, who’se label gets the money before getting it to them.
You are just cutting through a lot of middle men and red tape this way.
Forget needing 1,000 subscribers.
Forget needing 4,000 hours of watch time.
The Beauty Of YouTube Content ID
It’s a two step process.
- Get a song in content ID
- Use that song in your videos
As a smaller artist, you can also ask friends and family to use your music (in content id) for their own videos.
Imagine if ten friends got their family to use a song in family photo montages, or any other random posting.
It’s content ID, you get the ad split! Even if they are not in the Youtube Partner program.
You can even take it a step further…
Maybe you make explicit rap, and can’t really get your song into mee maws vacation footage.
Trust me, I understand. Here is the beauty of content ID…
Remove your vocals, keep the same structure and chords throughout the song...
It will still get claimed.
Remix your song to be a pop cover, or even hire a producer to do it for you.
Put *that version* in content id.
Same process. Simple huh?
You can take it EVEN further! Whaaaaaa??
You’re a producer, every company in every industry uses music.
You can use this method to get a photographer to pay you $200 for a custom song they can use in their videos.
You can even tell them you’ll take $100 if you get a 30% split of all the content id claims.
You can re-structure however you wish.
Imagine having 100 songs, with 100 people, all posting them in 10 videos a month that only get 100 views.
That’s 10,000 views a month going to your productions.
This is the kind of thinking Chris Moon utilized to get millions of monthly listeners, with less than 100 subscribers.
The sky isn’t even the limit. Space isn’t the limit.
The limit is thinking there is a limit at all.
Good luck!
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