
Why YouTube Still Reigns King For Creators
I’m a musician who makes videos on YouTube.
I’ve been meaning to give TikTok a shot for a while now with my videos. I’ve hesitated because everything on it just seems so horribly cheesy. It comes off like people are trying desperately to go ‘viral’ and become overnight millionaires with their silly dance or magic routines. But my main point is trying to reach as many frustrated musicians as possible, so I might have to get over myself and join in on the fun.
If I can stomach life on tour for twenty years with smelly dudes, how bad can it be?
What the hell…
So the other day I posted a music tutorial on ‘Blinding Lights,’ the song by The Weeknd, but after waiting around for a while and not even knowing if I’d done it right, I finally saw it up….. but……TikTok removed the sound.
Yeah. That won’t work. I can’t help people without any sound. Shit.
On one hand, I get it. That song is a copyright. They’re trying to protect the artist from being ripped off and losing money. TikTok’s stance is the same as Instagram & Facebook. They don’t allow it. In a way, they’re also trying to protect me, the songwriter.
On the other hand, they should AT LEAST BE AS SMART AS YOUTUBE and allow creators to use copyrighted material. YES, YOUTUBE ALLOWS IT. YouTube does it by forcing a short advertisement at the beginning of your video, which gives the owner of the copyright the ability to make money off your video.
Content ID is so damn smart. Everybody wins with it. You get to use any song you want, your video stays up, you get the credit for all the views, and the songwriters and publishers make the money. A total win-win. Why the other platforms haven’t adopted this is because they don’t want to be forced into adding advertising on their platforms like YouTube does. It’s a small price to pay (waiting 5 seconds to skip an ad) where everybody gets what they want.
I really like how you talk about YouTube and content ID. I think it’s really smart too, and can’t wait for other sites to adopt their technology.
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