Hey everyone, today I am gonna share my 2 years' experience of earning with YouTube Content ID aka the infamous Copy-Claim method. This thread will help you save time and beware of some scams floating around. If you don't know what's Copy-Claim method already, there are several threads present in BHW explaining the method in detail.
Warning, it is gonna be a long read.
It all began in Oct 2020, when I received a sponsorship mail from Ambial.co explaining the method in detail. They gave me their own beat to use in videos and promised the minimum payout to be $50. Being a rookie and burdened with a demonetized channel, I immediately took the offer. But boy was I wrong! Their CPM was horrible and being a small channel with third-world audience, it took me more than three months to reach the minimum criteria. When it was time to finally get some money, they hit me with a mail stating that their policy has changed, and they could only pay me if I am already monetized. Thus, I was scammed for the first time on Internet. I received similar mails from Astronaud and Socialryse but I decided to ignore them.
Later I stared to observe and notice pattern of other channels using the same method. So, I started trying every distributor these channels use have one by one. First one to get my attention was Yo2Zing as it was free, and it was the worst. They gave their own beats and most of them won't get recognized with YouTube system. If any beats get recognized, they get immediately deleted after few days. I left working on it after a month. I also failed with Syfonix which also works in the same way, and I would suggest avoiding them too. Later, I moved to more famous distributors.
The first genuine distributor I tried was RouteNote. I got several beats made through Fiverr and dumped them YouTube Content ID through RouteNote. First payment arrived in 3 months, and I started earning small amounts monthly. Everything was going fine until I reached $1k in total and all my beats were immediately removed from system and payment was frozen. I had similar experience with CdBaby & iMusician.
Almost a year passed, and I was able to generate small amount of income through this method. I then moved to more costly ones i.e., TuneCore and Distrokid. With TuneCore one of my videos went insanely viral generating over 15 million views and $10k in revenue. As expected, I was banned but the angels at TuneCore paid me complete amount. I have been able to fund my complete college expenses with that money. I tried making a second account with VPN, but this time I was banned before at the time of withdrawing payment leaving $770 stuck in the account.
With Distrokid, they caught me immediately and I left it within months. I also tried getting in Amuse and Audiam but they never accepted my beats. AdRev is also a popular option, but they stopped accepting new artists.
What worked finally? As I stated I was observing other channels trying this method and I finally made a small list of channels who were still using this method successfully after two years. One thing that I noticed was common in all of those channels was the distributor they were using were private distributor that had no sign-up option in their website, basically, you cannot join unless they invite you or you have referral from someone already working with them.
In May 2022, fortunately I was contacted by a platinum certified music producer of one such private website. The method is free, and I get pre-approved beats to use in my videos. I have been successfully using this method ever since six months without getting any beats banned and paid every month. I have been able to generate more than thousand dollars till now and using that money to grow my cash-cow channel side by side. I hope the method stays long enough until my YPP channel blows out. If interested, I will further document my Copy-Claim journey in this thread.
TL;DR
1. Amabial, Astronaud, Socialryse,Yo2Zing & Syfonix: SCAM ALERT!
2. RouteNote: Bans once you reach $1k
3. TuneCore, CdBaby, iMusician, Distrokid: Bans within months.
4. Audiam, Amuse, Adrev: Doesn't accept unless you are an established musician.
5. Solution: Join a Private Distributor that doesn't have sign-in option in website.
Warning, it is gonna be a long read.
It all began in Oct 2020, when I received a sponsorship mail from Ambial.co explaining the method in detail. They gave me their own beat to use in videos and promised the minimum payout to be $50. Being a rookie and burdened with a demonetized channel, I immediately took the offer. But boy was I wrong! Their CPM was horrible and being a small channel with third-world audience, it took me more than three months to reach the minimum criteria. When it was time to finally get some money, they hit me with a mail stating that their policy has changed, and they could only pay me if I am already monetized. Thus, I was scammed for the first time on Internet. I received similar mails from Astronaud and Socialryse but I decided to ignore them.
Later I stared to observe and notice pattern of other channels using the same method. So, I started trying every distributor these channels use have one by one. First one to get my attention was Yo2Zing as it was free, and it was the worst. They gave their own beats and most of them won't get recognized with YouTube system. If any beats get recognized, they get immediately deleted after few days. I left working on it after a month. I also failed with Syfonix which also works in the same way, and I would suggest avoiding them too. Later, I moved to more famous distributors.
The first genuine distributor I tried was RouteNote. I got several beats made through Fiverr and dumped them YouTube Content ID through RouteNote. First payment arrived in 3 months, and I started earning small amounts monthly. Everything was going fine until I reached $1k in total and all my beats were immediately removed from system and payment was frozen. I had similar experience with CdBaby & iMusician.
Almost a year passed, and I was able to generate small amount of income through this method. I then moved to more costly ones i.e., TuneCore and Distrokid. With TuneCore one of my videos went insanely viral generating over 15 million views and $10k in revenue. As expected, I was banned but the angels at TuneCore paid me complete amount. I have been able to fund my complete college expenses with that money. I tried making a second account with VPN, but this time I was banned before at the time of withdrawing payment leaving $770 stuck in the account.
With Distrokid, they caught me immediately and I left it within months. I also tried getting in Amuse and Audiam but they never accepted my beats. AdRev is also a popular option, but they stopped accepting new artists.
What worked finally? As I stated I was observing other channels trying this method and I finally made a small list of channels who were still using this method successfully after two years. One thing that I noticed was common in all of those channels was the distributor they were using were private distributor that had no sign-up option in their website, basically, you cannot join unless they invite you or you have referral from someone already working with them.
In May 2022, fortunately I was contacted by a platinum certified music producer of one such private website. The method is free, and I get pre-approved beats to use in my videos. I have been successfully using this method ever since six months without getting any beats banned and paid every month. I have been able to generate more than thousand dollars till now and using that money to grow my cash-cow channel side by side. I hope the method stays long enough until my YPP channel blows out. If interested, I will further document my Copy-Claim journey in this thread.
TL;DR
1. Amabial, Astronaud, Socialryse,Yo2Zing & Syfonix: SCAM ALERT!
2. RouteNote: Bans once you reach $1k
3. TuneCore, CdBaby, iMusician, Distrokid: Bans within months.
4. Audiam, Amuse, Adrev: Doesn't accept unless you are an established musician.
5. Solution: Join a Private Distributor that doesn't have sign-in option in website.
