Will my video get a copyright claim?

Simon

Simon

Last updated on Aug 23, 2026

Yes, and this is worth understanding before you publish, because the word "claim" alarms people who have not met one before.

A claim is not a strike

They are two completely different things.

A copyright strike is a penalty. Three of them and YouTube can remove your channel.

A Content ID claim is just YouTube's automatic system noticing that a video contains music somebody else owns. It carries no penalty at all. Nothing happens to your channel, the video stays up and public, and viewers see no difference.

What the claim actually does

The advertising on that video is shared. You are a rights holder in your own video and you keep a share of it; our share is what pays for the music. That is the only effect, and it is the trade: you get real music for nothing, and the track earns its keep through the claim rather than through a fee you pay.

How that split falls is decided by YouTube's Content ID system, not by us. It depends on things like how much of the video uses the music and whether anyone else has claimed it.

If you want to keep the ad revenue

That is what Songfindr is for. Buy a licence for the track and you can have the claim released on your video, usually within about three days, so all of it stays with you. You link your channel, tell us which video uses the track, and we clear that video. Unlisted videos count too, so you can clear one before you publish it.

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