How to upload mixes to Youtube without receiving copyright strikes

There is nothing more irritating than spending countless hours preparing and recording a DJ mix for Youtube to find out that the video has received a copyright strike. A copyright strike means that the copyright owner of the music has requested the song be removed from Youtube. The result for the uploader is an immediate removal of video from Youtube and a three month ban on uploading other videos.

There are two important steps to consider to avoid copyright strikes. Firstly, prepare the music in the mix prior to recording and uploading the video. Once you know what you want to play, record a rough draft of the mix, and upload the draft to Youtube to test for copyright strikes. It’s important to upload to an account that you don’t want to receive a strike on, so use a separate account to your primary account. Leave this video up for a few days to see if any strikes come through. You’ll notice that a selection of the tracks are identified by Youtube’s content ID system. Approximately 1/6th of the tracks I upload are identified by this technology and it enables the copyright holders to monetise the videos instead of blocking them. They are then attributed the ad revenue from the videos as they should be as the content owners. 

Secondly, be aware that certain music attracts strikes. In particular, newer commercial releases and older music on the traditional major labels e.g. Universal, Emi, Polydor etc. Lesser known, independent music on the other hand rarely triggers a strike and as a large part of vinyl record digging culture revolves around finding records from the past that might not be that well known, strikes are therefore less common. As these artists might not have the commercial infrastructure in place to enable copyright content ID, it’s important that their art be visible to fans of their work. For me, it’s therefore important to always credit the artist and post any potential links to where someone can buy their work, either physically or digitally.