How Much Money Can You Make Uploading Music Mixes to YouTube?
When it comes to making money on YouTube, the only thing that matters is the amount of Monetized Views x the CPM.
CPM is how much money you make per 1000 views. It can be different based on your views from different countries.YouTube takes 45% of CPM Revenue.
A typical CPM will be between $1 - 10 per 1,000 views.
If you take the total revenue from a music channel and divide that with the total amount of views, you'll end up with the true CPM. True CPM is Total Revenue / Total Views.
The other CPM is based on how many monetized views you have.
Each Youtuber is different.
So for a YouTube music channel uploading mixes, you're looking at a CPM of anywhere between $0 - $5 per 1,000 views. You can do better than this but, hey, there's too many variables.
Honestly, I don't even think AdSense is the best way to make money on YouTube.
My preferred method for making money on YouTube is either to sell something directly to your audience, do affiliate marketing, or better yet, do stuff with sponsors that are willing to pay you for access to your audience.
That's the way a lot of YouTubers make money. That's the way you should be considering when trying to make money uploading mixes on YouTube.
But, of course, for the far majority Adsense is the easiest most accessible way to make money on YouTube.
Can You Monetize DJ Mixes, Mixtapes, or Remixes on YouTube?
Music copyright can be very confusing.
Let's say you want to make a mixtape and put it on YouTube.
You are preparing the perfect set. You are spending hours finding the right music, recording the set, and editing it for upload. And then you realize you can't use commercial music in your mix.
You'll get demonetized. You'll probably even get a copyright strike on YouTube.
YouTube is choke-full of channels getting demonetized or even blocked.
What if I told you there was a way around that? A way that is completely legitimate, but requires a little bit of work?
If You Did Not Make the Music You Don't Own the Copyright
Music copyright can be confusing and if you've tried using music before in the mixes you uploaded to YouTube, you may have received Content ID claims.
Why can't you just pick any song, put it in your mix and upload it to YouTube?
Well, the artists who write and make that music, and the companies they work with, own the copyright to their songs.
That means they generally have the right to control how other people use their music. One of the ways they make money is by selling licenses to people who want to use their songs.
If you did not make the music you don't own the copyright to that music.
That means you don't own the right to distribute it anywhere, let alone YouTube.
When you buy songs on Beatport or iTunes, for instance, you only have the license to listen to it at home, not in public.
So, when you are out playing your DJ sets in the park, you can't do that officially. But when you are playing in a club or festival, that club or festival has to pay the rights organization for the music you spin. That's why they ask you for your playlists.
YouTube Content ID
YouTube has a system in place they call content ID.
Content ID recognizes automatically all the songs you are using in your YouTube mix.
Depending on what the owners of the music want, they have a couple of ways in place to deal with this.
The most obvious they can delete your video, they can block your video in certain locations, they can make you share the revenue from monetizing the mixes with the copyright owners. The copyright owners can take the entire revenue or even strike your channel.
YouTube is pretty clear on what's allowed and what's not.
YouTube Music Policy Directory Will Be Going Away With Creator Studio Classic
First, there was the music policies page, that went away but then there was the music policy directory.
Now the music policy directory is going away with Creator Studio Classic. This is pretty important.
The music policy directory was a database that listed all the songs you can [or can't] use in your music video. It allowed you to know whether you can include a song in your mix, in which countries, whether you can [or can't] generate revenue from it. It told you whether you can [or can't] make a cover of the song and whether you can monetize a cover, and so on.
That is being retired.
What to do?
Uploading Mixes as Private or Unlisted to Spot Content ID Issues
Without the music policy directory, the best way to avoid Content ID claims on YouTube is to upload your mixes as private or unlisted to spot any issues before publishing. YouTube has mentioned that they plan to build a better around this in the new Studio.
This is not a perfect method, far from it, but currently, it's the best.
Even with the music policy directory, there was a risk someone could simply change their mind.
That is the reason why I don't upload mixes on YouTube unless I own the copyright to the all the tracks.
I know a lot of DJs that upload mixes on YouTube, but, it is their responsibility.
They are taking a risk here.
Copyright-Free or Royalty-Free Music
There is such a thing as royalty-free music.
Royalty-free grants permission to use intellectual property without paying royalties.
The problem is two-fold here
One, what exactly is a copyright-free or royalty-free license?
Does that include distribution, commercial use, are there conditions attached to the license?
Two, what if someone changes their mind?
YouTube allows you to monetize copyright-free music if the license allows you to use it commercially.
What do you do if you have a potential hit in your hands that can make an easy 10 grand?