HI Folks,

I am working on starting a JPF YouTube channel. I have questions for those with knowledge:

1. How do you gain legal access to video clips to fill out a video? I know there are very expensive photo and video clip sites but the cost is far beyond what anyone could afford with a tiny, non commercial channel, especially in the early days.

2. I want to build a library of Awards finalist songs and albums but I've heard CD Baby blanket copyright claims any song in their catalog even if you get permission from the owners of the song. Anyone dealt with this?

3. I want to start interviewing artists and writers. Best software set up for that?

Thanks for any help!

Brian

Hello Brian. Great to see you back posting. I hope you are recovering well.

This site provides some free and royalty-free video clips: https://www.stockfootageforfree.com/

The selection is pretty limited. They are sponsored by Storyblocks. I haven't used them, but they seem to offer a large library with plans that start at $8.25 per month. https://www.storyblocks.com/

Hi Brian. See below:

1. Free stock video clips: https://pixabay.com/videos/search/

2. Youtube is very trigger happy when it comes to take downs. On the flip side, they're just as quick about putting the music back up after you fill out their dispute form and prove that you have permission. Dealt with it a few times with no issues.

3. Depends on how professional you want it look and how much budget you have for this.

Glad to see you posting again and hope you're well on your way to recovery!

Pixabay is one of a few free stock sites for clips.
I finished 4 videos for my songs and used a lot of free stills with a "clip" or two to provide some movement and sense of reality.
You can "animate" the stills with movie making software and it sort of provides the illusion of animation and actual movement.
It gives a viewer something to view.

I use ADOBE PREMIER ELEMENTS. 100 bucks. Easy to use. Fun to use.
See the link below for an example of how I used it.

What I personally found is that there are many more usable free stills, than usable free clips. And often when I needed something
that expressed the song content well at some climactic point in a song...I had to pay for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYw5oJQMEdE


have fun and good luck.

Hey Brian,

In answer to your questions....

1. Do you wish to create original content for JPF or use the members content for the feed ? I'm guessing that the members would contribute their own finished work. No problem, unless you wish to do "JPF promo's" where you would have to deal with clip sites etc. and pay royalties.

2. The copyright of any song/video is owned by the writer. He/she at their discernment may grant any limited rights to whom they choose. CD Baby do NOT have any "blanket copyright" over any material. They are simply a hosting site.

2a The awards finalists are quite entitled to give "limited permission for use" and I would think would freely do so.

3. Best software for interview ? That's a hard one, but if it's only audio then I'd have to go with Audacity. It's free and does the basic functions required. I would contact Glyn on this one as she has done many interviews with JPF members. Likewise Johnny Daubert. whom could advise. The software is not fancy, but does it's job in the right place at the right time.

cheers, niteshift

I took all but one video down from RVN after reading their terms of usage. I could not even ascertain what rights they were actually taking regarding my songs because the language was full of terms that I didn't fully understand. But, if I agreed to their terms....it was ominous looking.

I dont know anything about CD BABY but I suggest carefully reading their terms and condtions before assuming that the site is completely benign.

With Youtube, I think it's a case of over-zealous algorithms or something on the part of distributors like CD Baby on the lookout for pirating, not that they are asserting any copyright (which they don't possess). They are trying to do a good thing for people who distribute through them, but the same process can get in the way of trying to do something legitimate with the copyright holder on board with what you are doing.

Chris and Martin mentioned Pixabay. I use them too, although, like Martin, I usually end up using their images and applying the "Ken Burns" effect to create some movement in the video. They have a really good library of free images. A lot of the same ones (and many others) can be found at pexels.com, but I find Pixabay a lot easier to navigate and more extensive.

If you have a Mac, you can do a lot with iMovie. I don't have a Mac, so I use Windows Moviemaker which I have on my old computer. Microsoft removed Moviemaker in Windows 10 and replaced it with something pretty useless. There are free or cheap movie software programs out there. I have tried VideoPad, which has a lot of capabilities, but the transitions between images can be jerky, so I had to give up. This problem might not occur with actual movie clips.

It is also possible to do a lot with iMovie on an iPhone, but I don't like working on something like that on such a small screen.

Gavin

Mike Z also made me aware of UNSPLASH.COM for stills. That is my personal favorite.

I started out using MS MOVIEMAKER and liked it. And it was free. But they quit supporting it and what they replaced it with was useless, just like you said.
There are several completely adequate video softwares. I picked Adobe because I know that it will be supported well and because the video program integrates real well with Photoshop.

Marty

Yes, I know Unsplash too. When I'm looking for an image, I'll generally check out Pixabay, Unsplash and Pexels.

I don't have Photoshop. I used to use Gimp, but now I use Photopeia.com. It's all done on their web page for free and is amazingly capable and easy to use. It won't do all that Photoshop does, of course, but still really good.

Nite,

I plan to do a variety of video formats once I am good enough to do it. This includes illustrating the 1000+ My Takes from the past newsletters and the many thousands of quotes I have collected over the years. I also have a lot of non JPF video ideas I would like to incorporate going over travel and other interests. I may have more than one channel for this, but baby steps before empire building. If I really suck at it, then I don't want to have over extended the promises if you get my drift. I know that I will have to practice a lot and suck a lot before I get acceptable then hopefully good at it. I have tried for years to get the right info about this but often something awful has pulled me away. I also went without a cpu for the past 6 months, which made nearly everything impossible. Losing ALL my important files is still a problem. I had outlined 53 full scripts for videos with photos from my own collections and song lists etc. but it is all lost including the back ups. It nearly made me just give up to be honest. Additionally, one single file escaped deletion and it could not be downloaded, printed or saved and it was an ENORMOUS spreadsheet with ALL the awards info by round. I managed to save all the most recent vote totals (things were about 98% finished at that point) thankfully or multiple years of work by nearly 4000 people would have been lost. Let me tell you the stress was beyond belief and likely contributed to my recent health issues.

All that said, I have just begun to look for content from much older back ups. Unfortunately I had gone through them all over the years and loaded the important stuff on the lost laptop and back up drive. So I am unsure of what I can re-find at this point.

I have been TOLD repeatedly that CD Baby DOES automatically claim any music they "host" as their terms of service allows them to do so with few exceptions. (Mainly artists who have forced them to stop). I am uninterested in lawsuits so I will leave it at that. But I got this from both artists and video makers who have had great difficulty with this issue. I can't say what you can or can't do from first hand knowledge so any litigation happy folks there can bear that in mind. This is all second hand info. I could tell you many many stories that have come from insiders but a few still work there and others don't want lawsuits. I will simply characterize their comments as not good if true. If anyone has first hand experience posting songs on CD Baby's collection with permission, please let me know. The comments I have gotten are all from last summer or earlier.

I need to have the three shot with my head, the interviewee's head both in smaller boxes as well as (as needed) a third area for videos/photos/graphics as needed.

Thanks for your feedback/info.

Brian

Thanks Gavin. Question: How are they making money if they are giving it away? I have had that question with no good answers. Makes me wonder about what tracking info they get from it etc. I am okay if they are 100% upfront about it. I have heard stories that give me concern in general.

Thanks Chris, I will ask you the same question. If it is free usually that means "I" (the user) am the product. Do you know how they recoup their money?

Starting a new channel means being pulled for even a day to repeal a claim destroys most of your chances of being picked up and promoted to others. That's my concern. I am starting at Zero, though I am hopeful I ca get a few hundred from Facebook or the email list to subscribe. I've heard horror stories from friends though of that not happening.

As for cost, I do plan to grow into a very pro production. I find various channels that really knock it out of the park, but no luck getting them to share tech details. Most of the early interviews will be remotes but eventually the goal is to get back out on the road. I saw a production that allowed one guy with a laptop set up a 4 camera shoot (two close ups, two wide shots) as well as being about to add graphics and video/audio as needed. No idea what he was using.. he would never respond. I did note he had very powerful people (shocking actually) show up on his broadcast very early on though he started with less than 100 people subscribed. Now he's in the 6 figure range.

Hi Martin,

What is it that you are limited to with the cheap Elements that the expensive versions offer? How likely is it I would need the higher end program? Can Elements take super old VHS clips and other oddball formats and make them all work together? JPF started with a giant VHS cam and then went through at least 4 other tape formats prior to digital, then the digital went from files that fit on a floppy to needing terrabyte drives.

Brian

Actually they DO claim rights since they uploaded "videos" of most of their entire catalog onto YouTube already and according to various artists did it without notice or express permission because their terms of service allowed them to do it. Search for any random CD Baby title (especially those where the artist does not have their own channel) and likely you will find it on YouTube where you can listen to the whole album free (minus annoying commercials) any time you want. Of course you can do the same on Spotify and guess where Spotify got that content? From CD Baby (again according to artists). Apparently CD Baby "collects" any income earned, takes their cut and them pays based on their agreements. But in some cases at least folks are no even aware their stuff is on YouTube or Spotify or how it got there until they figure out it was CD Baby. Perhaps they forgot clicking the boxes to put it there automatically, or perhaps it was simply done without notice which many artists have claimed to me. It is all second hand info to me however, though the music is easily found.

I have also been told that Google Images is free to use as well as stuff off Google Earth which I want to use to establish locations as we have members in 185 countries at last count.

Any have experience with their libraries?

I can't answer this with absolute certainty. My best guess would be, they hope you start out with their free videos and eventually run out of content at which point you click through to the videos they advertise at Shutterstock, which is a paid service. Pixabay must have an affiliate deal with them. I don't see any other way for them to monetize their site since it's not even required to create an account or give your email address to them in order to download their free content.



I hear ya. Youtube is trigger happy. At the same time, if you have your ducks all in a row, upload videos and win a few of the disputes, it will get better over time. Maybe start by "warming up" your Youtube account. Post some relevant short videos with all original content that isn't subject to removal, ask us here on the forum to view it to rake up some views on the channel and by the time you start putting up the "real" videos you're intending to, Youtube might be less trigger happy. I don't know the exact workings of their algorithm but I assume that account authority has a lot to do with how trigger happy they are at the end of the day.



Can you share some of the videos? Maybe someone on here with experience in this might know what kind of setup it is. We're in the early stages of putting together a Youtube series as well, however we're working with a videographer. If I see the videos you're referring to, I can show him those videos and he might have an idea about the setup. If you don't want to share them here, PM me or shoot me an email.

Brian

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements for stills and Adobe Premier Elements for clips. In both the musical hobby and work. They are both "lite" versions of more expensive programs.
I can't really answer your question from experience of all levels of programs, but I can say that ELEMENTS does everything that I need it to and then some. Occasionally, I run across some function that only the full blown versions have...and I wish that I had it... but it is rare.

My instincts are that you would be very happy with ELEMENTS for what you want to do. There are many good competitiors just like there are with DAWS... but with Adobe you are guaranteed support and longevity.

As far as old file formats, I dont really know but doubt that you would have too much trouble with anything digitized. I found this information....

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-elements/kb/supported-file-formats.html

Good luck with it. It's fun to use these programs. A little frustrating at first but fun.

Martin

If that's happening without knowledge and consent, it's extremely disturbing. These days, of course, one of the main purposes of CD Baby is to get your stuff onto the streaming services. They act as a distributor. I don't use them, so I can't speak from direct experience, but my distributor gives me the option to select where my stuff will be available and there is a specific option to exclude YouTube. If you choose not to exclude them, your song will be available for listening on YouTube.

As far as I can figure out, most of these services operate like this:

Photographers make some of their work available on the site for license free use. Presumably, one motivation is exposure of their work. There is often also a means for those who use photos to make a voluntary payment to the photographer.

The owners of the site make money by advertising their "sponsors." Pixabay, for example, displays images from Shutterstock across the top of the page. Presumably, Shutterstock hopes that you will want to get your hands on these images and subscribe to their paid service. With Pixabay, you don't have to sign up to an account, but, if you do, you are not presented with captcha images to prove you're not a robot when you download a photograph and you have access to higher resolution images. I think the only information I provided was my email address. I have never received an email from them or anyone else about this kind of service.

This is key. Once this is active, they can copyright claim any detection of that music. I've heard they even got people who were doing an interview and someone in the home happened to turn on their music in another room but it still got picked up and blocked. I am sure there's a workaround, but for example I wanted to post the top 6 songs with info on the artists for each Awards genre and top 4 albums as well, or at least some samples. I had also hoped to do some discussions on songs that did well and why we think that is based on judge feedback as well as why songs we loved failed to catch on. Lots to learn when nearly 4K people are listening to songs and voting and giving feedback. I am hoping I have the comments in places I can reconstruct it a bit (my old messed up laptop might be able to be salvaged (it has known Toshiba problem that happens to ALL their old laptops). The Alienware can never be plugged back on line EVER as they got into the bios and ruined it and nothing would be safe if it went online. It might be able to be used for off line stuff we hope, but that remains to be seen. Never buy anything from Dell or Alienware. Their entire company has been infiltrated by scam artists, hackers and ransonware villains.

I ran across this on a book author site. Someone said that they like it for covers and that there are lots of free pics.

https://www.canva.com/?fbclid=IwAR1BeRkoL_Ph2ouGBn0JlfTTcy30bLWG0JIzy_YT2SQ3v2qmTEntsnf0iD4

I just finished this video for work. I used ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS for pics and ADOBE PHOTOSHOP PREMIER ELEMENTS to construct the video.
I'm not great at it but it gives some idea of what is possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yaKCW19Dvg

Martin