DMCA and music on Twitch is heavily misunderstood the amount of misinformation about what you can
and can't do is terrifying and the amount of misinformation or downright lies being spread
especially in the small stream of space is actually setting you up and thousands of
other streamers to put their entire Channel at risk literally years of your hard work growing
your channel and you're risking it all because bootyman69 on Twitter said just delete your vods
forehead and you believed them So today we're not only going to break down dmca in a way anyone can
understand disprove a bunch of terrible myths putting you at risk and hopefully give you a
bunch of safe to use music that doesn't sound like low quality midi tracks or the same repetitive
music you hear in everyone else's streams and videos already we need to briefly explain what
dmca is for you the viewer and really important that we need to set one of the biggest myths
straight you see fear-mongering content creators have lied or misled you a little bit for their
own gain essentially there is a huge myth in our space that dmca and copyright strikes are things
done by twitch that is a twitch system and it's actually twitch's fault often you'll hear dmca
and how twitch is a predatory system who forced you all to delete every clip and to get banned on
your own stream and every time there is a wave of copyright strikes everyone grabs their pitchforks
marches to social media and harasses the twitch social staff who who have nothing to do with the
policy team and in reality dmca is Digital Millennium Copyright Act it is part of the
US copyright law and it relates to the process of removing content from the internet if you are the
legal right holder twitch had almost nothing to do with issuing dmca takedowns for when streamers use
music or copyrighted materials that they aren't allowed to use you see twitch falls under a system
called Safe Harbor which I will not get into too much because truly you don't need to understand
the intense legal rules of it but essentially the copyright strikes actually come from the
copyright holders who own the rights to whatever it is you're using without their permission and
really you only need to learn one single rule to make your entire stream safe which I will tell you
that rule in a second and you will probably need some options for music which I'll also give you in
a second as well but first what is the main step that twitch actually takes in this process well
when a streamer or you for example plays music or uses copyrighted material they don't own and if
twitch's automatic systems detect it which they do have well then they will mute the VOD for you the
streamer's safety if you receive a muted VOD you know to instantly stop using the music or content
because you don't have the rights to it and twitch is concerned about the use of it don't worry too
much if you do get muted though well no that's not true you should worry a bit but don't worry a lot
because a muted VOD isn't a copyright strike if you continue however to use the music or content
that you don't have the rights to well the owner might issue copyright strikes and you like many
other streamers will probably get caught up in having them issued against your account luckily
twitch added a new tool to see if you've received strikes or not which I'll show you where to find
that tool later in the video so stay tuned LJ LJ LJ that's why I have my audio split so the music
I use illegally is only when live and it doesn't show up in my VOD after the stream this means I
get away scot-free oh really yeah yeah well I'll cover that later too because you're in for a bit
of a surprise on that one before we move on why does all of this actually matter look I am trying
to tell you guys without getting too deep into the legal mumbo jumbo that you cannot repeat again you
cannot use Music you do not own the rights to use and having the rights doesn't mean paying
for Spotify Premium or buying a CD that's just you buying the music to use for yourself not to
use in your stream you need to use Music you have proper permission from the rights holder to use in
your content this means either any of the services we'll mention later in this video or other trusted
Services because shock and horror just because a playlist on YouTube or Spotify says copyright free
doesn't mean it actually is most of those aren't and they don't even own the music they're using
before we go any further I'm excited to say this video is in fact sponsored you see I get asked
all the time about the music I use on this channel my side Channel and on my streams and these days
I really only use epidemic sound and I love it so much they have over 35 000 songs across every
single genre and no matter what type of music you as a Creator like to use I promise you they
will have something that fits you and your content and most importantly is safe to use and completely
okay to be monetized across all platforms I love how easy it is to find new music as well every
three to six months I like to refresh my entire stream by adding new songs getting rid of old
ones so I just go to episode hit browse and I sort by different genres popularity new releases and
it takes no time at all I don't just use their normal tracks either I also have circus music
epic battle music and I have even sneaky music that I'll switch to with a hotkey on my stream
deck or other tool depending on what I'm doing in the Stream hey if I'm going up against a big boss
you know I need some epic battle music to help me get through it a lot that's not my best moment but
RJ I want to keep risking my channel by playing whatever I want look I know you love Kanye West
Billy but what is the point of working so hard to grow your stream only to lose it overnight
when record labels learn what twitch actually is which is happening faster and faster every
year and then they choose to strike everyone into the ground again and to help you start using the
right types of music we're offering you a 30-day free trial for epidemic sound with the link in the
description you can use that right now to try their servers for 30 days and realize just how
amazing it is the best part about this is though I will also cover a few other free services soon
and I still wanted to show you where you can actually check the twitch copyright tools but
first it's important to show you how to credit artists which is really hard to do because every
artist actually requests Credit in a different way for example epidemic sound is actually really
easy it just asks you to connect your username to your epidemic account and that is it but for
services like chillhop they require a panel and a link in the description or your stream's about
section because everyone is different there's no rule of thumb when it comes to crediting it
an artist that you're using so instead what I like to do is I try to find a page about
how to credit and I follow that or because again there's no real standard sometimes they might call
it a Creative Commons page or a licensing page where they explain how to credit them where you
can use it and where to go from there everyone is different and you just have to do your best
to follow their guidelines personally though I won't use Music unless I have found a section on
licensing or Creative Commons beforehand because as I mentioned earlier just because something says
copyright free doesn't mean it is the love of God please stop trusting random Spotify radio stations
or YouTube playlists most YouTube playlists out there that say copyright free I find are just
using epidemic sound music and then not telling you guys that they're using someone else's music
but what about getting permission from artists well that said I've also emailed artists in the
past to get express permission from them and I do use some music from Independent Artists who I've
spoken to but it is very important to know even this is risky for example I have one artist who
I reached out to and got full express permission to use their music written down in an email I did
it all by the book we're good to go but a month later they signed with a record label that didn't
sign off and agree on this and all their music was suddenly no longer allowed and was actually
getting muted on Twitch and I couldn't use it anymore despite the fact that I had a one-to-one
with that artist a record label wasn't okay with it so be aware that receiving permission doesn't
actually always mean you get the rights to use it because sadly it's a lot more complicated than
that speaking of complicated how do we check if we get copyright strikes on Twitch and what happens
if we do well if you want to find out if you have a copyright strike head to your Twitch dashboard
which is located inside your profile picture and then click on create a dashboard on the
left you'll see content click that and then click copyright claims but uh this will tell you if you
have any current claims or strikes fun fact if you get three claims here well then twitch will delete
your channel but before you get upset YouTube has the exact same three strike policy and this
is very standard which brings me to the next myth splitting your audio through live music doesn't
appear in your VOD this logic is really funny to me because up until last year when the largest
amount of strikes in dmca takedowns in twitch history happened most streamers had the logic
of I can play whatever I want it's live content baby record labels don't know about it and I have
in court yet I just can't put the music in YouTube videos because YouTube actually detects it there
and as you can imagine the logic didn't hold up leading to a lot of streamers receiving hundreds
of strikes overnight a lot of them being banned and the rest having to delete every single VOD
or clip they had of their stream and now following the exact same logic streamers are saying if they
split their tracks so it doesn't appear in their VOD they'll be safe because they believe right
holders won't be able to detect the music while they're live especially because several large
creators in this space people who run agencies who work with record labels who are in the thick of
this industry have said that smart record labels have started using live detection to find people
on Twitch who are doing these things and honestly it's only going to get more advanced as we go
forward the logic of I haven't been caught yet so it's fine is honestly idiotic and it is the same
logic that led to a wave of strikes last year and the same logic people who speed in cars use
there are amazing creators out there spreading this logic telling people to do this and weirdly
I hope they are correct and they never get caught but knowing how brutal the music industry is and
how mainstream live streaming is becoming I don't feel confident in these people which
is why you need to use music that is safe so what are my top services to use for music well let me
rattle them off quickly and I will link them in the description as well first of course epidemic
sound I don't need to pitch it again it is the best of the best it is professional Quality Music
it doesn't sound like all the other services and while it is paid technically it does have
that 30-day free trial it is fairly affordable for new creators and Incredibly easy to use
not a single Creator I know who has started using epidemic has regretted it or canceled it with them
second you all know them already most likely but I have to shout them out is chillhop probably the
most extensive library of Lo-Fi they've been a go-to free service for years long before all this
gmca drama actually started happening with twitch they do require panel and description crediting
for their music but they make it so easy and clear for you with their how to set up and credit page
but I really love chillhop because they have these giant hour-long mixes of Lo-Fi that perfectly sit
behind your content and just add the right Vibe but of course because they are so well known it
can be a little bit samey since everyone uses them already third recommendation look I know most of
you are Gamers so what happens when old school video game tracks get remixed professionally
game jobs baby all your favorite game tracks remixed into Lo-Fi EDM and more while also
being safe to use with credit that's amazing of course though it is incredibly high quality and
it's free it's very nostalgic which means it's used by a lot of creators already I don't think
that's really a problem for most of you though you'll just love it fourth if we're talking
about being used by a lot of creators well we have to talk about no copyright sound these
guys have been on the internet since before you were born practically and every single Call of
Duty Montage or League of Legends video has used their music already seriously these were the ogs
for gaming video music if you go to their Channel and saw by most popular I promise you'll recognize
one of the top tracks great service does require credit but it's free to use very well known for a
very good reason and finally I really don't need to recommend them because most of you who watch
this channel would have heard of it already it's stream Beats by Harris Heller I again don't need
to say anything here if you're a streamer you know Harris you've heard stream beats you'll be fine
I think it's really important to say that music can go a long way to help your content be more
engaging but at its core you need to practice and become more confident and more entertaining
which is actually easy if you know the right steps so click here and watch this
video it'll help you do just that and grow as a content creator I'll see you guys next week