What Content ID does when it matches music
Content ID is YouTube's matching system. Rights holders give YouTube reference files of the music they own, and YouTube compares uploaded videos against them. When part of your video matches, the video gets a copyright claim.
The rights holder sets a policy for what happens next. According to YouTube, they can:
- Monetize the video: run ads against it, and in some cases share the revenue with you.
- Block the video so it can't be watched.
- Track the video's viewing statistics and leave it alone.
These policies can differ by country. A song can be monetized in one region and blocked in another, so a video can look fine to you and still be unavailable somewhere else.
A claim is not a copyright strike
YouTube treats these as two different things. A claim affects the video, and YouTube says it usually doesn't affect your channel or account. A copyright strike comes from a valid legal copyright removal request, and it does count against the channel: YouTube says channels that get three strikes in 90 days are subject to termination.
Content ID itself produces claims, not strikes. A strike needs a removal request from the rights holder. This page is mostly about claims.
Claims on Shorts
Shorts are checked too. YouTube's help pages say a Short longer than one minute with an active Content ID claim of any type is blocked, whatever policy the rights holder chose, though YouTube says this carries no penalty for your channel. Under one minute, the usual claim policies apply. To use a popular song in a Short, add it from the Shorts audio library inside the YouTube app, which sets how many seconds of it you can use. YouTube has changed its Shorts rules several times since three-minute Shorts arrived, so check the current help page before you post a long Short with music in it.
How our YouTube copyright checker maps to Content ID
Nobody outside YouTube can query Content ID, so no tool can tell you for certain whether your upload will be claimed. What we can tell you is which recording is in your file. That's the input Content ID works from.
Each match is placed in one of three levels:
- High risk. The clip matched a commercially released recording. Commercial releases are what labels and distributors typically register with Content ID, so a claim is likely if you upload this to YouTube. When our recognition provider has rights-claim data for the track, the report lists the rights owners, and a policy of monetize, block or track is always High risk.
- Check license. The clip matched production-library music, the kind sold by stock music libraries. These tracks are usually licensable, and some libraries register them with Content ID and clear the claims for people who hold a licence. Read the licence terms before you post.
- No match. Nothing in the catalogue matched. That doesn't mean the music is free to use. See how to tell if a song is copyrighted for what to check next.
Every match comes with the title, artist, label or rights holder, ISRC and links so you can listen and compare. The accuracy page shows how often recognition got it right in our own test, and what makes it miss.
The free check covers one 12-second clip. If you put music in more than one place, a full scan checks the whole soundtrack in 12-second segments and gives you a timestamp for each match. Those timestamps are what you need for the fixes below.
Check before you upload
- Check every song you didn't make yourself. Music in the background counts: a café speaker, a car radio, a track playing at an event.
- Fix High risk matches in your editor, where it costs you nothing. Cut the section, replace the track, or lower it under your voice and accept it may still match.
- Keep the licence for any library or licensed track. If a claim appears later, the licence is what lets you dispute it.
- Run YouTube Studio's Checks step as well when you upload. It looks for copyrighted content once the video is in Studio. YouTube says those results aren't final, and a claim can still arrive later.
What to do if your video is already claimed
You don't have to delete the video. YouTube Studio's editor gives you three ways to remove claimed music, and YouTube says a successful edit releases the claim automatically:
- Trim out segment cuts the claimed part out of the video.
- Replace song swaps the claimed track for one from the YouTube Audio Library.
- Erase song removes only the claimed song and tries to keep your voice. Its other mode, Mute all sound in the claimed segments, silences everything in that part, which is more reliable but loses your audio too.
You can also dispute the claim. Do that only if you actually have the rights: a licence that covers this use, music you made, or a clear fair use case. YouTube says to dispute only if you're confident you have all the necessary rights. If the claimant rejects your dispute, the claim stays. If you appeal and they reject the appeal too, YouTube says they can submit a copyright removal request, and a valid one removes the video and gives your channel a strike. If the claim is valid and you can live with it, leaving it is also an option.
Using the YouTube Audio Library
The Audio Library, inside YouTube Studio, has royalty-free music and sound effects you can use in your videos, and YouTube says its music won't receive a Content ID claim. Some tracks are under a Creative Commons licence and require you to credit the artist in your video description. The library shows which ones. If you want a different style, the "Check license" level above covers stock libraries: they work too, as long as your licence matches how you use the track.
Other platforms
YouTube isn't the only place a song gets caught. The TikTok copyright checker covers muted sounds and TikTok's Commercial Music Library, and the copyright detector page covers Instagram Reels, Facebook and how audio fingerprinting works.