Need advice on basic issues: Published materials, royalties and Youtube Content ID

Envato Authors AudioJungle
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Hi everyone,
I am very new here on Audio Jungle and I need help to figure out some very simple issues about published materials, Youtube content ID and royalties. I am sure that the answers must be somewhere in the forum, but as a beginner, I find it difficult to use this forum to search for such basic subjects.

I had thought that Audio Jungle was a royalty-free platform where you create music exclusively. After I joined, I saw that people add published materials and collect royalties through their PRO’s.

I am here as a PRO affiliated composer (with PRS) but none of the tracks I uploaded to AJ so far are published or registered with PRS. Simply because I don’t know what to do. So far all I have done is bounce the track from Logic and upload to AJ.

I have several albums specifically written for licensing and they are published by Tunecore and a few other labels specialised in sync. These tracks are registered with PRS with all tunecodes and ISWC numbers. My question here is; can I upload and sell licenses of these tracks here on AJ?

And the Youtube Content ID is another thing that I have no idea of.

I know a lot of people here know and apply these basic things. So can I ask your step-by-step to-do-list when writing and uploading a new track. Do you publish the track with a publisher first? Do you register the track with PRO without a publisher? What do you do regarding Youtube Content ID thing? etc etc

Any comment and advise will illuminate me since i feel a little lost. Thank you very very much!

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PRO registered music is indeed allowed on AJ.

Most authors register their track without a publisher or act as their own publisher. There was an unresolved debate on wether authors would lose the publisher’s share of royalties, if no publisher was designated. This may depend on your PRO’s policies.

this depends on two factors:

  • Is this music available for licensing on an online platform/marketplace? If it is, then this would breach your exclusivity agreement. If not, then there’s nothing preventing you from uploading on AJ, from Envato’s side.
  • Is your agreement with those publishers allows you to distribute the music elsewhere? If yes, then go ahead!

As for Youtube ContentID, in my opinion this is a must. Unfortunately, it seems the biggest ContentID third-party, Adrev, is not accepting “royalty-free” music authors any longer, so you will need to find an alternative, or lie to Adrev and try to pass through anyway.

2 Likes
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Thanks very much PurpleFogSound for your descriptive reply.

I opened an account on Adrev and managed to register a track which is not registered with my PRO. I checked the FAQ and also found out there that it is not necessary to register the tracks with PRO. I am not sure if I’m on the right path since you said ‘Adrev, is not accepting “royalty-free” music authors any longer’

Apparently Adrev pays me directly for unauthorised Youtube use, and I heard that PRO’s don’t collect royalties for online use (please correct me if I’m wrong) so what is the benefit of registering the tracks with PROs?

I will receive money either for unauthorised use of my tracks through Adrev or from licence sales through AJ. Then where do royalties stand in this picture?

Thanks very much

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If you already have a track registered with them, that’s great. It means you got through.

Adrev collects ad revenues on unauthorized (uncleared claims is closer to the truth) use of your music on Youtube.

PROs have a role to play as AJ is not all about YouTube (there are plenty of broadcast licenses being sold), and some PROs do collect royalties for online use (though this is probably still pretty new).

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Now everything is very clear! Thank you so much