How I Make Money from YouTube Without Making Videos

You might think this is a bait title, but I’m actually making money from YouTube without making videos or even having a YouTube channel.

Here’s how.

I have several stock music tracks currently selling in music libraries. On top of that, all my tracks are protected with Content ID.

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about Content ID:

“Content ID is a digital fingerprinting system developed by Google which is used to easily identify and manage copyrighted content on YouTube.”

Content ID Lets Composers Make Money On YouTube

If someone uses my music on YouTube without a license, YouTube issues a copyright claim on the video with that track.

The copyright claim can be disputed and released only if it was a mistake, to begin with, or if the video owner presents the license. This license is granted by the stock music library when someone purchases the music track.

If no license is declared, the video creator won’t be able to monetize that video. Instead, the company that administers the rights holder will receive the ad revenue generated by that video on their behalf.

They then distribute it to the rights holder (songwriter/composer).

What this means for video creators:

• They don’t receive a dime from videos that contain a sound recording for which they don’t have a license.
• On the other side, they don’t need to worry because it won’t affect their channel like a copyright strike would.

Now, let’s look at the numbers.

How much did I earn from YouTube ads without making videos?

In January 2020, I received an unexpected and surprising email.

HAAWK Inc. is a rights management company specializing in copyright management, monetization, music distribution, sync licensing, and many other things related to music copyrights and royalties.

They offer a full-service YouTube Content ID and Facebook/Instagram rights management administration. This means my music is protected on these three platforms.

Identifyy is their self-service music rights management platform. Whenever I compose a new track, I upload it to their catalog, generating a unique fingerprint. Then, this will be matched to the billions of YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram videos to check for possible misusage of my music.

So when I received that email, I went straight to Identifyy to see what happened.

In the third quarter of 2020, almost 5 million views were reported on YouTube for videos containing my music.

These views generated $1,304.06. My cut was 70%, which is $912.84.

As you can see, in the previous quarter, my earnings were less than $10, hence my surprise.

How did the videos with my music go viral?

Diving more into the platform, I found that one of my piano ballads was used in a Thai television series with 13 episodes.

As you all probably know, today, when something is aired on TV, someone immediately uploads it to YouTube.

Besides, famous Asian YouTube channels started commenting on the series, including footage and music.

With these videos going viral, my music reached millions of people. And it was just a soft piano piece I recorded in my room. How awesome is that?

Those who produced the series are licensed to use my music, but the video creators who upload it to YouTube don’t. This is where Content ID comes in handy.

Thinking about using Content ID?

If you’re a music producer and put your music online, especially on YouTube, you’d better consider protecting it with Content ID.

If your track ends up in the background of a viral video and is used repeatedly on different channels (by people who don’t own the license), you get paid for the ads shown in the video.

The cool thing is that it doesn’t matter if the channel is eligible for monetization or not. Once a copyright claim is issued, ads will start to show.

Why Video Creators Should Approve Content ID

On the other side of the spectrum, some video creators are not very fond of Content ID. They say it’s a hassle to dispute the claims.

While I can relate to that, I also believe Content ID guarantees another level of security for video creators.

Imagine this:

1. You are a video creator and buy a non-protected track from a royalty-free music library. You upload a video containing that track to YouTube. There are no copyright claims.
2. Someone with bad intentions (or to make money by stealing others) buys that same track and registers it with a Content ID. He used different artist and track names.
3. You receive a copyright claim, and when you try to dispute it, your license doesn’t match the data of the newly protected track. The copyright management system won’t release the claim, and ads will be shown on your video. None of the revenue is for you but the thief.

I know this might seem an obscure strategy, but it actually happened to a composer I know. His clients received copyright claims, and he couldn’t do anything about it, even after complaining to the copyright management companies.

When a composer protects his tracks with Content ID, everyone who uses them can rest assured there will be no future problems.

Are you a musician or content creator? How do you feel about Content ID? Let me know in the comments down below.