YouTube Shorts creators can now use licenced music for up to a minute

In its latest attempt to get TikTok producers to migrate to YouTube Shorts, YouTube announced today that short-term video makers would soon be able to use up to a minute of copyrighted music in their Shorts. The new restriction is a huge increase above the previous 15-second limit for any licenced music.

According to YouTube, short-form makers would be permitted to utilise licenced music for 30 to 60 seconds “for most songs.” However, certain songs will continue to be limited to 15 seconds, with licencing agreements dictating which tunes fall into which slot. In the YouTube app’s audio selector, creators may instantly check how much time each song permits. The expanded song-length choices will be available for iOS and Android starting today and will remain for “a few weeks.”

As the popularity of user-created videos has grown over the last decade, aggressive DMCA takedown requests have become a burden for streamers across all platforms. Record companies often automate their copyright enforcement, resulting in exaggerated allegations. For example, artists’ films have been tagged for containing a few seconds of copyrighted audio from a passing car’s sound. Some cops have even used the DMCA to their advantage, blaring Taylor Swift songs to discourage onlookers from sharing legitimately filmed films.

The song-limit increase is YouTube’s latest effort to get TikTok producers (and hence viewers and ad money) to switch to Shorts. The firm introduced an ad-revenue-sharing scheme in September, giving qualifying artists a 45 per cent share of ad income regardless of whether they employ music. Following strong criticism of its prior “static pool of money” strategy, TikTok established a similar sharing scheme earlier this year.

YouTube’s aggressive strategy looks to be paying off, with Shorts receiving monthly views from over 1.5 billion logged-in users. TikTok has 1 billion monthly users as of September 2021. Given YouTube’s general dominance in the video market, those figures very certainly include users who were already on YouTube consuming other material. TikTok’s figures, on the other hand, obviously include those searching for its particular short-form videos – an audience that YouTube and other media behemoths like Meta continue to pursue.