Hi, I do have a membership with Envato, and I use your licensed music on my YouTube channel.
I also purposely carefully choose licensed music without CONTENT ID, just to be extra safe.
Of course that is a limitation.
For a couple of months, a company named Elite Alliance Music has kept striking our videos on YouTube with false claims, today as many as 5.
No Content ID is now pointless…
I wrote the artist @alexbird and he was nice enough to contact them, but they just keep making false claims, and also removing other ones (also licensed). they actually suddenly increased their claims.
they also let most claims lapse rather than responding, literally hijacking revenues for an entire month (Escrow)
It is ridiculous that I have to spend hours responding to false claims, especially because they keep striking the same channel, the same songs, the same artist.
It is a waste of my time, it is bad for your reputation, and it is bad for the artist.
As I am sure you know, Artilist has implemented a way to avoid this mess, therefore I stopped using your service, which is a shame, as I spend money for it.
It Artlist found a solution, and Jamendo has had a solution for a long time (they provide an ID to add to the tags of the video), I surely hope that you are following in their path.
By the way, writing to ELITE does not bring any results, as they just ignore you.
We are all being held hostages of this unprofessional, and understaffed company.
It is hurting your reputation, and the artist’s reputation, and making us all waste time.
This should be unacceptable for any decent company that cares about their customers.
These are just some of the latest disputes. Only today we got 5!
All Envato, all licensed, mostly the same author alexbird, but also @RobertSlump and @Synthezx (his songs have been target by Elite Alliance for months now.
Using music that is not registered with ContentID is certainly not “extra safe”, quite the opposite. Those non registered tracks are often targeted by fraudsters. You always want to get your music from professional authors who do register with ContentID, as this is industry standard.
From your screenshots though, it doesn’t look like they are fraudulent claims. The way YouTube is set up, using copyrighted material generates copyright claims. The license you get from Envato is the key to lift such claims. When you provide a valid license code, the claim is then lifted. This is the normal process of using copyrighted material on YouTube.
The link provided by @ki-themes is a useful guide you should definitely have a look at.
Hey Atellani, there are many wrong statements in your post.
1 The tracks you mentioned are reported as Content ID registered on Envato. AlexBird forgot to put the ContentID banner on AudioJungle item pages and he should fix this asap @alexbird , however the metadata are correctly filled with Content ID info so his items should never come up in results if you exclude Content ID items from your search (in both AudioJungle and Elements).
Same for Robert Slump, even if he might have the tracks registered with a different title.
So you should have known before using these tracks that they were registered with Elite Alliance.
Also, it seems difficult to ignore the Content ID reminder when you download a track:
2 You talk about getting strikes, but those are not strikes, rather claims that prevent you from monetizing the channel. They don’t impact the health of your channel like a strike would do.
3 You say that a company named Elite Alliance Music is placing false claims, but Elite Alliance and other Content ID platforms are doing it on behalf of composers and like Purple Fog wrote, it’s industry standard today.
Your licenses are there to lift those claims and start monetizing.
Now, if Elite Alliance is slow at releasing claims or it doesn’t even respond, that’s an issue and you do right complaining to the author. If the author doesn’t answer either you should report the situation to Envato Support.
4 (Personal Opinion) You’re on Envato forum, so advertising a competitor praising it using false issues that are more lack of knowledge on your end is not the best thing to do (/Personal Opinion)
I think you are missing the point here.
If I use Content ID songs (On Envato), since they have no ID protection on the platform, I will most likely get a strike to begin with.
Most importantly, perhaps you are not aware that other platforms have solutions in place. “competitor I should not name” does that by whitelisting your channel, and “competitor I should not name” does so by issuing a personalized ID code that you add to the tags. These are just two samples.
Getting daily strikes on videos that are months and months old is a waste of time.
Getting the same songs by the same artist get hit by a strike several times, and on a daily basis is just idiotic.
There are obviously ways to fix this, as other platforms have done.
if @alexbird made a mistake, that is not my mistake (last time I checked).
The fact that Envato/@alexbird is fixing it now is a small consolation, as some of those songs were used months and months ago when the ID was not enforced.
These strikes are retroactive, and obviously, Envato DOES NOT offer any kind of protection for us, as other platforms I should not name do (as kindly suggested by you at point 4).
I started using the content ID filter several months ago, so at the time I used those songs, no content ID was in place. I do not understand why you are trying to pin this on me. It is really odd.
OK, wrong choice of word, it does not change the substance: waste of time, aggravation, funds being held for a month because Elite Alliance, in many instances, just sits on the claim for the maximum time (30 days).
I suspect that if Envato held your wages for an extra month because they needed to check on something. you would not be happy, and if they also tied that to you using your own time (and money) to file documentation that nobody checked, you would be double frustrated.
I will say it again: other platforms HAVE FIXED the issue. Some did so a long time ago (Should not name competitor), others recently (also nameless competitor).
I am 100% sure you know exactly what I am referring to.|
Does Envato have a solution for this???
Because of this, I stopped using your music, and I switched to “nameless competitor”, and “other nameless competitor” a few days ago.
I do prefer Envato, but I cannot live with the hassle, and others clearly thought that it was important to solve the issue.
Licenses should be the last resort. If companies like Elite Alliance use automation, then automation should be used on the other side (you). Right now you delegate the work to people that are paying for the service.
By the way, the licenses (TXT) do not even have a matching name to the song, or the author, which is extra clumsy let alone when the names are completely different between the claim and the licensed song!
that is just extra time WE have to waste. If only there was a solution for that…Wait, there is a solution, you just do not have it!
You know perfectly that Elite Alliance does not respond, as you perfectly know that they often let their frivolous claims lapse, and that is, guess what… EXTRA TIME lost by us.
Making the same claim with the same author, on the same song, on the same channel is also EXTRA frustrating, as they could whitelist the channel, but they do not do so (why should they, right?).
This way, if they are lucky, they make extra money.
What you call false issues are actually not false at all, and you are also FULLY aware that “competitors I should not name” have solutions.
Perhaps you should address why you do not mention what Envato plans to implement, and when, so they can get up to speed with other “nameless” competitors.
I do not mind taking this in a private conversation, you have my email address, whereas talking to you directly (or even Elite Alliance) is quite complicated, and as you know Elite does not even answer. @alexbird was helpful, but after he did help, Elite Alliance just bombarded the channel with claims of his songs (retaliation I would guess).
I suggested he add his catalog to other “competitors I should not name”, so they would offer downward protection to other services like Envato as a proxy. I hope he does that.
P.S. I did address this very topic in a private chat with one of your reps before coming here, but when it got to this topic, the answers just stopped. I am also suggesting solutions, and this forum is the last resort, after months of frustration. Perhaps you should consider the suggestions (which are free)
You seem to be confused about what a strike is. What you are getting are copyright notices. They are merely stating that you are using copyrighted material. They are not strikes (those imply you did something bad).
When you use tracks that are not registered with ContentID, you have to understand that those are not protected and thus exposed to fraudulent claiming, which is a real hassle to deal with.
The Jamendo solution sounds interesting. Did not know something like this could work. I’ll check it out.
Sorry if this wasn’t clear but I am not with Elite Alliance, I use Haawk Identifyy and I’m very happy about their support. So when I ask about how is it going with E.A. I’m genuinely curious.
Honestly, the behaviour you are describing is not acceptable. Holding a claim 30 days to be resolved seems unreal and this should be investigated. And this is not the first time I read about Elite Alliance complaints here in the forums.
With identifyy the majority of the claims are resolved in the very same day and they easily whitelist a channel if there aren’t any pending copyright issues.
By the way, as I was writing you, we got hit yet again, and yet again the song is marked as “No content ID”.
Just another suggestion, perhaps rather than making us have to deal with these problems that should not be ours, you should amend your contracts with songwriters, so they cannot change their mind about what they want to do after people paid to use their songs.
this song was downloaded (and licensed) in July. It gets a “claim” two months later!
Obviously, I used my time to counterclaim it, but again the name of the author and the name of the song are completely different, so imagine the fun! Another free suggestion you can use is to amend the contract, and force to avoid them changing names. After all they do not change the name of actors or title of the movies after they are released, correct?
If I did not keep a meticulous record of the video, it could take me hours to figure this one out!
See how messed up this one is…
You’re right on this one. The track still shows as Not registered. There are a few reasons:
The author registered and didn’t care to properly fill the metadata. It should be reported to Envato support so they can take actions against the author.
The author is not the actual composer and he stole the track from someone else who had the track registered, and uploaded it to AJ. Even in this case the author should be reported to Envato support.
The author didn’t actually register the track with Content ID, HOWEVER, he made heavy use of premade material, like loops or sample based riffs and that triggered someone else’s track which was instead registered. in this case the track should be disabled because track based on prefab material are not allowed.
It seems that this particular case must be reported to Envato support so they can investigate better.
And the reason why I’m actively answering to this thread even if I’m not involved in any of these claims is because, like every other author here, I want happy customers so if I can help or give insights I’m happy to do it
Your last example is exactly the kind of shenanigans you expose yourself to when choosing non-protected music.
Here the claimant clearly is not the author. So it could be one of the three options suggested by @lucafrancini, or as a fourth option it could be that fraudsters targeted this non-protected track and abusively registered it in their name.
these are mostly suggestions/peculations, but it does not answer the most important topic:
are you working on a permanent solution?
Besides, it never happened before with “other nameless platforms”, and it still puts more work on our shoulders!
I gave you suggestions and examples of solutions, that should be the main topic.
I’m working at making music, making sure nobody uses it without a license so I can earn. It’s not my job building the perfect platform.
The idea of a one tag phrase - passpartout is a good way to have it easily spread across every pirate site. Imo it’s better a an individual purchase code connected to every single account.
If youtube allows for a personalized passcode to be appended somewhere in the video metadata that would be a great option to consider.
Wait, are you allowed to talk about the competition (E.A. vs Haawk vs identifyy)???
I am still waiting on suggestions for a practical solution that does not give us a load of (free) work.
so if I can help or give insights I’m happy to do it