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How Does Music Services Collect Royalties on YouTube?

Music Services identifies uses of your music on YouTube, claims the videos containing it, and collects the resulting revenue.

What We Collect

  • Sound recording royalties — worldwide
  • Publishing synchronization royalties — United States and Canada only

Coverage differs by royalty type. Sound recording collection is worldwide. Publishing sync collection on YouTube is limited to the US and Canada.

How We Find Your Music:

Sound recordings

When we receive your sound recordings, we submit them to YouTube's Content ID system. Content ID creates a digital fingerprint of each recording and scans uploaded videos for audio that matches it.

Compositions

For compositions, we use the information you provide to search YouTube by song title, songwriter, and other fields. Compositions are also matched through ISRC.

What Happens When We Find a Match

When we identify a video containing your music, we place a claim on it. The video is then monetized, and the revenue it generates is collected on your behalf.

In short, Content ID finds and claims videos containing unlicensed uses of your music so that you get paid for that use.