Who runs it
CopyrightChecker (copyrightchecker.org) is operated by JINYAN LLC, a limited liability company organized in Wyoming, USA. JINYAN LLC is the business that sells the paid scans, signs the Terms of Service and answers support email.
We are not a law firm, a record label, a collecting society or a partner of YouTube, TikTok or Meta. We don't issue claims, and we can't remove one.
Why it exists
Background music is the most common reason a creator's video gets a copyright claim. A song playing in a café, a track under a montage, the radio in the car: on YouTube, Content ID can match any of these and send the video's ad revenue to the rights holder, or block it in some countries. On TikTok and Instagram, audio can be muted.
Most creators find out after they publish, when the video is already out and the revenue or reach is already gone. Fixing it afterwards means trimming, muting or re-uploading. We built CopyrightChecker so you can find out before you post, while changing the soundtrack is still cheap.
What it does
You drop in the video or audio file you're about to upload. We identify the recorded music in it and report:
- the song, artist, album and release year
- the label or rights holder, and the ISRC when the catalogue has one
- links so you can listen and compare
- a risk level: High risk for a commercially released recording, Check license for production-library music that is usually licensable, and No match when nothing in the catalogue matched
The free check looks at one 12-second clip. A paid full scan covers the whole soundtrack in 12-second segments, with a timestamp for every match, so you know exactly what to cut or replace. The pricing page has the details.
How it works
Your browser does the first step. For a free check it cuts a 12-second clip from your file and uploads only that clip. For a full scan it extracts the soundtrack as audio and uploads that. Your video itself never leaves your device.
We send the audio to a music recognition service, ACRCloud, which compares an audio fingerprint of it against its catalogue of commercial recordings. If ACRCloud can't answer, we fall back to AudD. The audio fingerprinting explainer covers how this works in plain words, and the accuracy page shows what happened when we tested it.
What we keep, and what we don't
- Free check clips are passed to the recognition service and not stored. We keep a one-way fingerprint for 30 days so a repeat check of the same clip doesn't need the audio again.
- Full-scan audio is deleted when the scan finishes, and in any case within about 24 hours.
- Results (which songs were found, and where) stay in your account until you delete them or close the account.
- Payments are processed by Stripe. We never see your card number.
The Privacy Policy is the full version.
What a report is, and isn't
A report is an automated estimate of what recording is in your file and what platforms commonly do with that kind of recording. It is not legal advice and not a licence. A match doesn't prove infringement, and No match doesn't mean a song is free to use. For a legal opinion on your situation, talk to a lawyer. If you're unsure whether a song is protected at all, start with how to tell if a song is copyrighted.
Contact
Email support@copyrightchecker.org for support, refunds, data requests or anything else. Write from the address on your account if your question is about a purchase or a report. Refunds follow the Refund Policy.