Content ID & Copyright Claims

Content ID is YouTube's automated rights-detection system. It scans uploaded videos against a database of registered audio and flags matches. If a video uses a registered song, YouTube can demonetise it, redirect its revenue to whoever registered the track, or block it, depending on that rights holder's settings.

Most distributors can register your music with Content ID on your behalf, sometimes under the name "social monetisation", and often without making it obvious they have done it.

Every track page carries a status in the bar above the title.

Content ID in yellow means the artist has told us the track is registered. A "Content ID restricted" badge also sits beside the track title, linking back to this page.

Licence ready in green means the track is ready to buy and download right now, with no Content ID restriction declared against it.

Worth knowing: not every artist realises their distributor has registered their music. It is often switched on by default, sometimes under a different name, and nobody tells them. So if a claim ever turns up on a track marked licence ready, send it to us. We will work with the artist and their distributor to get your channel whitelisted so it does not happen again.

A Content ID registration does not stop you licensing the track and does not make your licence any less valid. It means an automated system may flag your video before it knows you have paid for the music.

If that happens, the claim has to be released by the artist or their distributor. We cannot release it ourselves. Larger stock libraries can, because they own the Content ID registrations for their own catalogues and hold the tooling to clear them. Our artists own their masters, which is the point of Tracksynk, and it means the registration sits with them rather than with us.

When you licence a registered track, we prompt the artist to clear it with their Content ID provider at the moment of sale, and remind them if they have not confirmed within 72 hours. You get a confirmation email once they have.

If a claim appears anyway, send us the YouTube claim ID and a link to your video. We will chase the artist and, where needed, their distributor. How quickly it resolves depends on them, so we will not promise a turnaround we do not control. If your project cannot absorb that risk, choose a track without the yellow Content ID status.

Log in to your distributor and look for a "Content ID" or "social monetisation" toggle. TuneCore, DistroKid and CD Baby all have one. If you cannot find it, email their support and ask directly whether your releases are registered.

Most distributors let you switch it off. Tracks without a registration licence more smoothly here, because nothing has to be cleared after the sale and buyers are not weighing your track against a warning label.

Content ID is not always the wrong call, and we are not going to pretend otherwise while asking you to switch it off.

If your music gets used widely on YouTube by other people without asking, Content ID collects revenue from those uses that you would otherwise never see. If that is your situation, keeping it on may earn you more than the sync licences you would gain by removing it.

If your music is not being widely used on YouTube, Content ID is collecting close to nothing while making your catalogue harder to licence. That is the common case, and the one worth acting on.

We put the two side by side, what Content ID actually pays against what one instant licence pays, in Content ID vs sync licensing.