Using music in personal content
Type of use
Using music in a piece of content that you have generated yourself for non-commercial or non-promotional purposes. Think, as an example, of a video of your vacation that is located on your computer or published on a site such as YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Instagram, Facebook, or any other service that lets you share video content over the Internet. Bear in mind, however, that if the video includes an ad, generates revenues one way or another or promotes a product or a service, it is no longer considered a personal use. Here are a few examples of music uses that are NOT personal, non-commercial and non-promotional:
- integrating music through the use of YouTube or Spotify players on company web sites, sponsored blogs, etc.;
- using music to promote, directly or indirectly, a product, a business, an individual, etc.;
- using music in a video whose views could be monetized in any way;
- etc.
What To Do
- For personal use of music, you simply need to indicate the source of the musical work and its sound recording, as well as the name of the songwriters, performing artists, and producers, when possible.
- If you wish to exploit this content for commercial or promotional purposes, please refer to this page.
Clarifications and cautionary statement
The Copyright Act includes an exception regarding user generated content which stipulates that using a work that has already been published is not a copyright infringement inasmuch as the work is not used for commercial purposes, that information on the rights holders is included whenever possible and that the user, to the best of their knowledge, does not think said work is counterfeit and that its use has no significant negative impact on the actual and potential exploitation of that piece of music.
Despite the inclusion of this exception to the law, the rights holders of a musical work can, pursuant to their moral right, deem your visual creation as discriminatory, racist, hateful, etc., and demand that it be removed from YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Instagram, Facebook, or any other service that lets you share video content over the Internet.
Related uses
The material on this web site is provided for informational purposes only.