Ask any YouTuber and they will tell you that generating significant views and subscribers isn't easy. But with the right strategy and tools, any video creator can build an engaged subscriber base when they understand what those subscribers want to watch.

Appealing to an audience to watch content you are passionate about making is just the first step, you need to know how to reach them and get your videos discovered. Our guides to how to guide more views on YouTube will give you the best tips to succeed on the platform.

How To Get More Views on YouTube

Do you want to make money on YouTube? Millions of creators are earning a very good living from the platform by uploading content that drives huge views and engagements. Whether that income is from advertising revenue, merch sales, or brand deals, we keep you updated with best practises and ideas.

How To Make Money on YouTube

Do you know how to do keyword research so you understand what videos people are actually searching for on YouTube? Do you know how to create a custom YouTube thumbnail? Do you know how to create a Playlist on YouTube?

vidIQ has a ton of tips that will help every creator maximise their video content. We publish content every week to keep you up to date with all the best practices.

YouTube Tips & Tricks

If you’ve put off creating your own YouTube channel because you’re overwhelmed with the choices you need to make or are panicking because you feel you lack the right skills to succeed, worry no more and welcome to the only resource you’ll need to fulfill your video creator dreams.

If this is your first time here, we have a 

 that aims to educate you on your YouTube journey. And if it is your plan to grow your channel, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, and click on our notification bell so you don't miss any of our latest tips, tricks, advice, and news.

How to Start Your YouTube Channel: 10 Top Tips

We promised 20 tips to kickstart your YouTube channel, so let's start delivering on that promise with 10 tips in this post and 10 tips in the 

. All the tips are covered in this video too:

So amazingly, there are still some people out there who are thinking of starting a YouTube channel and have been for months, possibly even years. My advice to you is, ready or not, start now. And I'm not telling you this as a New Year's resolution. Every moment you hesitate or procrastinate, there are thousands of video creators starting their YouTube channel today, and gobbling up all your potential audience. You don't want that.

Feel the fear, do it anyway. Start, press record. Record whatever you want today. It doesn't matter if it doesn't end up on YouTube. You need to gain experience in getting in front of the camera, getting behind the camera, using your editing program. You need to start creating content to find out whether or not you enjoy making videos before you know whether or not you enjoy being a YouTuber.

Tip #2 Learn How YouTube Works, No Seriously:

The chances are, that the first video you make is going to absolutely suck. Fantastic, you've made a video. You've made the first step, and in six months’ time, you'll look back at that first video and think yeah, that really was terrible, but you've gotta start the journey somewhere. And with that, you've gotta start your YouTube channel somewhere as well, even if you're not ready. Create a YouTube account, upload a video to YouTube. You don't have to publish it, that's the important thing.

You need to gain experience going through the workflow of uploading videos. The last thing you want is having a brilliant video ready to upload, but you don't know how the YouTube system works. Again, experience is going to trump any advice any of us can give you, so record a video, upload it to YouTube. You don't have to publish it.

Tip #3 Develop a Strategy you Will Actually Follow:

While getting some practical experience behind you is obviously a good thing, you also want some form of strategy. So, answer these questions:

What do you want your channel to achieve on YouTube

, and when you're answering this, try and answer it from a viewer's perspective, not your perspective. So I don't want to hear about hitting 10,000 subscribers, a million views, or whatever. If your viewers know that you're in it for your own self-gain, they will see through it and immediately switch off. Viewers want to know what they can gain from the content, and you want to sell that as much as possible in your videos.

 Again, try and be as specific as possible. What age range? What gender, if you are going to a particular gender? What type of demographic? What are they interested in? You need to know who's going to watch your content.

 There are millions of gaming channels out there, hundreds of thousands of Fortnite channels out there. How are you going to distinguish your content from everybody else who's already on YouTube making content? You need to disrupt the status quo, not join it, because you'll never be seen.

how are you going to deliver this content?

 Is it going to be every day, once a week, at a particular time of the day? Think about when your audience is most likely to watch YouTube, and how much YouTube they can watch per week, and then tailor your content to those watching habits, and think about whether you're going to do video on demand, live streams, what's going to be best for you and your audience?

Tip #4 Find Your Niche and Build the Hell Out of It:

live streams, you'll know this one off by heart. Niche down. Let me give you a quick example. What's your channel about? If you're giving an answer such as, "My channel's about beauty, and it's about travel, "and it's about vlogging," then it's about too many things. 

. It should be about one specific topic, when you start your channel, because you need to appeal to a very specific audience.

Once you've grown your channel, and you've got millions of subscribers who fall in love with you, you can take them on a journey wherever you want, but to begin with, the audience is only interested in the content. They have no investment in you. Try and remember that. It's a cruel lesson to understand, but it will help you when you first start out on YouTube.

Once you've thought about and answered all of these questions, I want you to wrap it all up in a nice little present, called your value proposition. This is your elevator pitch. Try and tell your audience who you are, and why they should watch you, in around about six words.

. It tells you the who, YouTubers, video creators, and why they should watch, because they will learn how to grow their channels. But we've managed to do that in four words. Now it's your turn.

Tip #6 Invest in the Right Audio Equipment:

If you've just started out on YouTube, and you're wondering what your first tech upgrade should be, it is 100% audio, and here's why. Bad audio is so much more distracting than bad video, and everybody hates onboard microphones. 

So if you can, get yourself a dedicated microphone for your camera,

 and if you're recording from a computer, you can't go far wrong with a Blue Yeti.

Tip #7 Create a Formula with Template Videos:

Videos need structure, so when you make your next video, try to think of how you will develop a show formula, that you can use as a template for your future videos. Remember at the beginning of this video, I literally gave you a hook. An introduction, a teaser to what's going to be going on for the rest of this video. Then we have the branded intro, followed by an introduction to who we are for new viewers, a call to action to subscribe to our channel, and then we jumped into the meat of the content where we are right now, and at the end of this video, you'll see how we round this all up.

Your show formula will take time to structure, and it will evolve over the course of your YouTube journey. Try and keep an eye out for this when you watch your favorite YouTubers. As rough and as random as they might appear, there is always structure and story behind each video, and that's why you watch them.

Some people love analytics, others hate them, but there are a couple that are crucial to keep an eye on, whether or not you want to look at that analytics. The first is 

This represents how enticing your titles are, and how clickable your thumbnails are. Check the click-through rate for your channel as a whole, and on individual videos as you test. I'm not going to give you all of the same target to reach. Check what your current click-through rate is, and whether it's two, four, six, or eight percent. I want you to try and improve that by two to three percent this year. It will bring in so many more views.

The other metric, as it always has been, is 

. Generally speaking, the more watch time you get, the more YouTube is going to promote your content. But if you make shorter videos, that doesn't necessarily mean you must make longer videos, because your audience might not react very well to those longer videos.

What I will say is maximize the value of your watch time in the videos that you have. That's by looking at relative audience retention. How does your video stack up to similar videos, in terms of whether people are still watching or not, and try and improve the relative audience retention. Having said that, if your average view duration is 60, 70, 80%, you're doing really well, and it gives you a license to try testing longer videos.

Verify your YouTube account. That will give you access to the most important tool on YouTube, which is custom thumbnails. We've got a video here on how to do it.

Tip #10 Create an Engaging, Interesting Channel Banner:

If I see another generic cityscape, or rolling hills in the channel banner when we do channel audits, I'm going to rip out my hair.

10 more tips or creating and growing your YouTube channel

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level and 

 then make sure to download vidIQ. Join over 1 million other users and use vidIQ to help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

Members of the vidIQ family that have upgraded to our Boost and Pro packages get immediate access to the Academy 

 so you can kickstart your YouTube success today! Access to the exclusive vidIQ academy will give you a huge advantage over your competitors from the get-go. 

Kick off your YouTube dreams with the tools you need to launch YOUR channel. We've got the top tips just for you!

How to Start a YouTube Channel: 10 Brilliant Tips

Here's a challenge for you. What is your favorite video game right now? And if you were to start a YouTube channel on it, could you come up with 10 quick video ideas in 5 minutes?

Now this may sound like a tough challenge, so I'm going to challenge myself right now. My favorite video game is Clash Royale. Here are 10 quick video ideas I can come up with off the top of my head:

The best comebacks you've ever seen in Clash Royale

How to spend your money on the right cards on Clash Royale

Which cards should you be requesting from your clan?

Five new game modes I would love to see in Clash Royale

What should I spend my Clash Royale gems on?

I bet most of you had no idea what I was talking about, except for two or three people watching this video who have played Clash Royale. And that's the audience you need to appeal to with your gaming content. You want to really focus down and concentrate on a target audience with a specific value proposition that they can relate to.

Who should be watching? Why should they care? We've brought this up many times before. It applies to your video game channels as well.

How to Start a Gaming Channel on YouTube: Research is Everything!

How to Start a Gaming Channel on YouTube: The Creator is the Star

How to Start a Gaming Channel on YouTube: Focus on Your Target Audience

How to Start a Gaming Channel on YouTube: Double Down on Successful Content

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level then make sure to download vidIQ. It will help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

YouTube Strategy Tips: If you want to start a gaming channel on YouTube from scratch, you are going to have to find unique content that appeals to a particular audience.

Tax Day is April 15th if you are resident in the US, and If you're lucky enough to make any kind of income from YouTube you have just a few days left to file your personal income tax return including your Schedule C for any self-employed earnings you received in 2019. If you haven’t filed yet, we confirm 10 types of expenses you can deduct if you are a YouTuber in the USA.

We spoke with Devin Weber the VP of Operations for 

. Devin is a Certified Public Bookkeeper and Enrolled Agent with the IRS. She has managed the finances for Braille Skateboarding for 6 years and is one of those rare people who enjoys preparing taxes.

 This post is intended as purely informational. You should 

 consult a professional tax attorney or CPA if you are unsure about your tax filings.

3 Essential Things to Know About Filing Taxes as a US-based Video Creator

Before we dive into the expenses you can claim as tax deductible let’s take a look at some essentials that every YouTuber or video creator that’s making a living online should know:

The bottom line is if you earned more than $400 from YouTube in 2018 you need to declare that to the IRS. If your income from YouTube was more than $600 in 2018, Google is legally required to provide you with a 1099 form (

). If you’ve worked with any brands or sponsors as part of a YouTube collaboration or promotion, and you earned more than $600 from those sources, each brand or sponsor will also need to provide you with a 1099 form. Even if they do not provide you with a 1099, you know you earned that money and you should report it as part of your total receipts.

#2 There is No Gray Area for the IRS When it Comes to Declaring Income

According to Devin, far too many people claim tax deductions are a ‘gray area’ but when it comes to the IRS there are absolutely no gray areas, to them it’s “black or white" and while you as a contractor might believe you can slip questionable expenses through, the IRS is not here to play. You better be 100% confident that, if you got audited, you could argue and win the case for that expense. If you don't and you feel like you're getting away with something, don't take that chance.

An IRS audit will shine a spotlight on every part of your financial history, and uncover every penny of unreported income, and every penny of expenses that were really personal rather than business use. That is something you really, really want to avoid.

However, the IRS understands that it costs to live and to run a business as a freelancer, so there are so many deductions they allow you. At the end of the day, it’s foolish to keep any income hidden, as, in most cases, you legitimately can find deductions to balance out the majority of that income.

#3 You Can File an Extension (On Paperwork not Payment)

Filing taxes in the US can be an overwhelming experience and the 

IRS does offer the option to file an extension

 if you need it. However, if you believe you will owe the IRS money on 2018 earnings, you will still need to submit that payment on April 15th 2019 - the extension is simply an extension of time to file, not an extension of time to pay.

10 Tax Deductible Expenses for US YouTubers

For the IRS to recognise a legitimate business expense that qualifies as tax deductible, it must be classed as both ‘ordinary’ and ‘necessary’. You can find out further information regarding these rules on the 

For any YouTuber, the process of video creation is going to come with some kind of cost, especially if that creator wants to publish content with higher production quality. Even if the creator films with an iPhone (more about that in section 4), the chances are they might progress to a dedicated camera and microphone as well as other hardware. Keep the receipts and as a dedicated video creator you can absolutely claim back these expenses as tax deductible.

It’s a super talented creator that can upload every video they make to YouTube without any tweaking or editing. If you invest in a computer that you use to edit and upload, you can claim that purchase as part of your tax deductible expenses - as long as the main use of that computer is for your business. Yay.

If you create or edit video content from home and have a specific area dedicated to that pursuit (i.e. a desk or a corner of the living room or bedroom), then the IRS will allow you to claim a percentage of your home costs (rent, utilities) against that.

However, it takes some working out to understand what percentage you can claim against. A very simplified example is ff your home is 1,000 square feet and, the space that you use is 100 square feet, well then 10% of all the costs of your home are going to count against your home office. You can find out more about writing off home office expenses in this 

You can legitimately claim against Internet and cell phone costs - but only the business portion of the useage. If a YouTuber buys an iPhone for $1,200 and they use it for personal stuff 40% of the time, and they make and edit their videos and upload them and answer comments 60% of the time then, they can only take 60% of that cost as an expense, not the 100%.

So many business owners make the mistake of taking 100% and that is not correct You will, if you get audited, owe money. Find out more from this 

Running any kind of freelance business carries its own supplies costs, and it’s no different for YouTubers. For instance, alongside cameras, mics, green screens etc, a science channel may have a legitimate reason to purchase a microscope or lab equipment, while a beauty blogger might need to invest in the latest Jeffree Star palettes or Kylie Jenner lip kits as part of the reviews they upload to YouTube.

Braille Skateboarding not only invests in skateboarding equipment, but they also claim expenses for any props or extra equipment they use in shoots (

For any serious YouTuber, the process of video creation can be costly. However, different creators will have different expenses depending on...almost everything. Luckily, the IRS will let you write off supplies directly related to your business if they are ‘necessary’ and ‘ordinary’ which means that YouTubers shouldn’t be held back in purchasing equipment if it directly relates to them earning a living. Just keep every receipt and confirm on every receipt the video that particular supplies relate to. If you're unlucky enough to be ever audited and the IRS discovers a claim for, say, $300 worth of mascara, you can provide evidence via that video you created around the best mascara brands of 2018 that generated 1.2M views. The IRS will think that’s acceptable.

Office supplies also falls under this category so go ahead and claim that printer and ink, those folders and binder clips, that dry erase board, and that desk and chair.

No matter how talented a video creator you are, there will be some skills you are going to need help with as part of your YouTube journey. You may take on an assistant, or outsource help with editing, social media, costume design, bookkeeping or 100 other things, and the chances are those businesses or individuals will require payment for their services. The good news is that you can claim against those expenses!

However, just as any company or individual you work with on a freelance basis should legally provide you with a 1099, you need to do the same for your subcontractors if you have paid them over $600 in 2019. Those individuals can then report the income on their own taxes.

Anyone you pay money to as part of being a YouTube creator is a tax deductible expense for you, but reportable income for them (via a W9 form from them which confirms their name, address and SSN). Remember, the IRS wants those taxes no matter who it is so, if you deduct it and it goes to another person, they better report it.

#7 Travel Expenses (National & International)

There are a huge number of video creators whose sole focus is on publishing content around travel. Naturally, a good deal of expenses may be incurred as part of their business so keeping a very clear record of receipts is vital. There may be other creators who rack up expenses around travel throughout the year, and may be able to make these tax deductible if they can prove that travel was essential to the business of being a YouTube creator.

But beware - here comes one of those gray areas we talked about. To the IRS, there is a VERY clear distinction between business use and personal use when it comes to travel expenses. For instance, if you have a YouTube channel and you fly to Paris and you do an episode about the hidden gem bistro's of Paris as part of a holiday, you need to separate out the business part of it. Say, you are in Paris for 10 days and, for five of them, you're doing filming and business work, then for half of the time is business, and half of the time is fun. You can claim half of the travel expenses (50% of hotel costs, flights etc) but you cannot claim for the whole trip if the whole trip is not dedicated to business.

Also note, the IRS only gives you a 50% tax deduction on meals and entertainment so, if you spend $100 on food, you're only going to get a deduction of $50. Again, check with your CPA if you are unsure, these are only guidelines.

__#8 Local Travel Expenses Related to YouTube Business __

Did you know that if you travel locally on YouTube business - say, to a coffee shop to do some editing, or to Target to pick up supplies - you can claim local transportation expenses? Not only can you claim on the mileage (currently at 55 cents per mile but this differs every year), but if you keep your receipt, you can also claim for any parking expenses. Any local travel expenses incurred, even toll charges, can be tax deductible if you keep proof of payment.

#9 Subscription & Software Licencing Fees

If you are signed up to any subscription services or pay licence fees for software or other items directly related to your business, then you can also claim these as tax deductible. For instance, if you’re a beauty blogger, and you have a regular subscription to a beauty magazine, you can claim against that.

Again, it’s up to you to prove to the IRS that any licences or subscriptions you list have a direct impact on your business. The subscription had better tie into the way that you're making income, and you need to be honest about the money you’ve spent in order to make an income from YouTube. And, if you can show that it was, you're good. Some examples of the type of expenses you can claim for include:

You can also claim against bank fees incurred as part of running your YouTube Channel which includes expenses like Wire transfers, or if you pay a monthly fee for a business bank account, or incur PayPal charges. If you sell merch, you can also claim postage and packaging expenses, and if you have a PO Box, you can claim for that too!

There is no escape from paying taxes to the IRS, but if you ethically report your income and deductions and you're not lying about anything, you have absolutely nothing to be worried about.

Like it or not, everyone should pay their fair share of taxes. We have firemen and schools and roads that get repaired because people pay their taxes. But Devin states that “you should pay your fair share but not a penny more.” and take full advantage of the tax deductibles that are available to you.

And if you’re really serious about growing your YouTube views and subscribers, sign up for exclusive access to the 

 and learn how to launch a successful YouTube Channel in just 30 days.

10 last-minute tax filing tips for US YouTubers - make sure you claim all your deductibles!

10 Last Minute Tax Filing Tips for US YouTube Creators

We all get the same 24 hours in a day and yet some people are able to achieve so much whilst others seem to be constantly running out of time. On this episode of TubeTalk, the YouTuber podcast, we discuss the secrets of time management, an invaluable skill for a YouTube creator, with productivity expert Mike Vardy.

Mike is a writer, productivity strategist, and the founder of 

. He is the author of several books, including The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want (published by Diversion Books) and The Productivityist Playbook.

In order to be consistent, you need to know how to budget your time. According to Mike, "productivity is about intention plus attention." What's your intention? It's to make YouTube videos. How are you going to pay attention to that? Intention to make YouTube videos without a way to pay attention to them, means you're not going to get them done.

With any complex task, creating a production schedule to break a big task into a series of tiny tasks can really help. ‘Shooting a YouTube’ can be a big project, but starting on some of the smaller projects associated with it, like keyword research for “early morning routines." is more doable.

While we all have the same 24 hours in a day, we all have different lives, and we all have different energy levels. While business isn't always personal, productivity definitely is. Mike calls this process “Time Crafting” and it's got to be personalized. You don't have to do it all. For full details on WHAT is "Time Crafting" and how to impliment it, make sure you listen to the podcast for details and working examples.

The first question you have to ask yourself is, are you just trying to get through today? Or are you trying to make a plan for beyond today? That's the question I always ask people when they're doing this. If they say, "I'm just trying to get through today," then we start with daily themes and then write down the things you know about each of those days of the week that are consistent.

Time management and productivity can be an overwhelming topic if you’re new to it, so we’re extremely grateful to Mike for his time. Check out 

 for emails and updates about Mike's time management techniques, and for information about his exciting new book on how to craft your time.

Subscribe to TubeTalk: The Video Marketing Podcast!

TubeTalk has been informing video creators amd marketers since 2014, and is one of the most respected and listened to podcasts in the online video industry. Subscribe today so you never miss an episode! You can find vidIQ's TubeTalk at:

Time management is a vital skill for a YouTube creator, and vidIQ can save you precious time by helping you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps to gaining more views and subscribers. If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level then make sure to download vidIQ today. 

Good time management skills are critical for any YouTube creator if they want to be productive. In our new TubeTalk podcast we discuss the best techniques.

Time Management Tips and Tricks for YouTube Creators: TubeTalk Episode 157

Attention all video gaming YouTubers. Google Stadia might be super important for you so let’s take a look at this brand new feature from the platform.

What is Google Stadia? It’s a new type of gaming streaming platform that doesn't require any new technology, and is available on virtually any technology already in your house, whether it be a laptop, a mobile device, even a ChromeCast. This allows you to play triple A games, with super intense graphics, at high resolution, over the internet. Yes, this is Google's answer to Cloud based gaming. Other advantages include no need for a new game controller, although there is one available, and you also can access these games seamlessly.

For example, if you're watching a YouTube video, which has an advert for a video game, you can literally click on the 'Play Now', and start playing that game instantly, and transfer it to another device instantly, starting off from where you left it on the other device.

Is Google Stadia the Future of Video Gaming?

This sounds like the future of video gaming. Now that's quite a bold statement, and it may turn out not to be true. However, if Google Stadia does become a major player in the video game market, you’ll want to be there when it kicks off right? Until now, Stadia was a word more associated with sporting venues. Now it's part of gaming culture, and already YouTube searches are being flooded by everybody giving their opinions on the new gaming platform. It's why a channel with a little over 5,000 subscribers is currently competing with the big boys, ranking number four for this search term.

When we talk about riding the wave of a trend, this is exactly what we mean. This is your very small window of opportunity to establish yourself as an authority on the subject. It's why we're making this video after all. Now by the time you see this video, it may already be too late to give your take on Google Stadia. The window of opportunity may have passed. But you also want to strategize evergreen content.

How to Make YouTube Content Around Google Stadia

For example, one video I can think of right now is 

‘Everything you need to know about Google Stadia before it's released’.

 Then when the service is launched, you want to be the first person to do tutorials around it - 

‘How to use Google Stadia, a beginner's guide.’

 That could sit there for years and years, bringing in views for your channel.

I'm telling you now, the most common questions that are going to be asked about Google Stadia, a Cloud based gaming service, are:

What controllers can I use on Google Stadia?

What games are available on Google Stadia?

I could think up of another 20 ideas all about this product, and it's not even launched yet. In fact, let's do a little bit of a friendly wager here. I bet, by this time next year, somebody is going to have a video with over 100,000 views, that is titled ‘How to use a Playstation 4 controller on Google Stadia’, or words to that effect. If you take one piece of advice away from this video, it is this. If you think Google Stadia is going to be important to you and, most importantly, your audience, start your research, make videos, get your foot in the door. This is your opportunity.

But there's also something else to consider through all of this. Stadia is a Google product, and so is YouTube. Yes, YouTube is integrated into Stadia. Let's start with Crowd Play. This allows a video creator to livestream a game through YouTube and create a lobby, where livestream viewers can actually join the game that is being played. Imagine that, joining ninjas that play Fortnite, or the diamond minecarts who play Minecraft. It's real time YouTube collaboration. In theory, this sounds amazing. In theory of course. We don't know what games will be supported just yet. I can't imagine Minecraft, a Microsoft game, being one of them.

Another feature goes by the name of State Share. This is where a player can reach a certain part in the game, whether it be a big boss or a scary part in a horror game, and then share that state through a link, on YouTube for example, for other gamers to play and experience. To be honest, in the real world, I have no idea how that's going to work, but it sounds exciting. If we step back and look at Stadia as a whole, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. We don't know what games are going to be available for it. We don't know how payment is going to work. Is it per game, or on a subscription based service? And we don't know the release date yet.

Google are going to reconnect with the community in summer, to let us know more about that. But, as a video creator, you have no excuses. You know it's coming, you should be preparing for it. It could be a revolution in the gaming industry.

Is Google Stadia the Future of Video Gaming? Possibly - and that's why YouTubers should start thinking about creating content around the streaming service right now.

Google Stadia: Why YouTubers and Gamers Should Start Getting Ready For it Right Now

So you've created some videos, and they all live happily on your YouTube channel. Then you notice that somebody else has taken your work and used it on their own channel, claiming fair use. Are they actually allowed to do that?

Can you take somebody else's music and use it in the background of your videos as long as you credit them in the description? Do you really know your rights when it comes to your content and what you can and cannot do?

On today's episode of TubeTalk, we talk to one of the online video industry’s leading expert on digital rights management, Rian Bosak from 

. Rian really understands content creators, really understands 

 and knows how to get those rights back to the rightful owner so the rightful owner can actually make money off the hard work they’ve poured into their content. In this podcast you will learn:

How creators can protect their ownership of video content

Why many creators are missing out on revenue due to copyright violations

TubeTalk has been informing video creators and marketers since 2014, and is one of the most respected and listened to podcasts in the online video industry. Subscribe today so you never miss an episode! You can find vidIQ's TubeTalk at:

The Expert's Guide to Fair Use on YouTube: Full Transcript

Rian Bosak:	Thank you for having me. I'm super excited to be here.

Liron Segev:	Okay, so Rian, let's start at the top. I upload my video onto YouTube. I own that video. I own that information. It's my intellectual property. Is that where we start?

Rian Bosak:	Yeah, I think that's right. I mean, I think one of the most basic things that the content creators need to understand is just what their rights are, when they own rights, what they have to do to own those rights, and kind of where that starting point is.

So, look, anytime you create something and put it into a fixed transferable format, you own a copyright. You don't have to register that copyright so there is no requirement to go to the US copyright registry office and register your content there. Once you put it into a fixed format you have created a copyright and you can do what you want with that copyright. You can sell it to someone else, you can upload it to a digital platform and put it out to the world for everyone to see. But it's really important to understand that that is a thing for you as soon as you have created something unique that you own.

Liron Segev:	Okay. So it's effectively like owning a physical thing that I could lease it out if I want to. I could give it to you to destroy. It's my choice to do with it as I please, since it belongs to me.

Liron Segev:	Okay. So now that we understand that, so I have a piece of content, I've shot my YouTube video, I uploaded it, I gave it a beautiful title and a thumbnail and all that good stuff. And then I put it out into the world. Now I still own it and if other people go ahead and share that on my behalf, I'm totally okay with it and they're not infringing on any right. In fact, we encourage them to do that. That's correct?

Rian Bosak:	Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you want to allow people to repurpose your content, that is completely within your jurisdiction to do so.

Liron Segev:	But now we have a situation where people are maybe reacting to my content or maybe they take a piece of my content and they add commentary to that. What happens in that case?

Rian Bosak:	So this really gets into a lot of what fair use is meant to address, right? And let me give the caveat before I start down that path. Look, fair use is really up to a judge to decide. It's a defense that someone can use against a claim of copyright infringement. And if you're going to argue a fair use defense, you should always consult your lawyer prior to doing that.

That's a really important piece. It's extremely complex. There's four points to it and there's kind of a certain type of content that really fair use was meant to allow for, which is news, nonprofit, education, those sorts of things that it's harder for those type of companies to come up with the money to be licensing content, whereas if you're doing it for commercial purposes, that's a very different use of content.

So, look, when it comes to a lot of react channels, I mean, they're all over YouTube, right? Like you've seen thousands of these things. In large part they don't really fall under the exclusions for fair use. They're not really transformative. They're not really adding anything. I mean, most of the react channels that are out there kind of have an intro of somebody saying, "What's up, guys? You've been asking me forever to react to this video. So today I've got creator X, Y and Z's video up for you, and let's just hop into it."

And then they play the entirety of the video, which gets into one of the four points of fair use, which is, amounts to substantiality of the work taken. And over the course of the video they'll just be like, "Oh, wow. Oh, that's crazy. Oh man, I love that thing."

And then they come to the tail end of the video and they wrap it up with, "Well, guys, well, that video was great. Make sure that you leave a comment below about what you thought about my reaction or what you thought about the video. Smash that like button and subscribe. Let me know what you want me to react to next and I'll see you guys next time." Right?

Rian Bosak:	So, this gets into, again, the four points of fair use. What's the purpose and character of the use? Oftentimes these are people that are trying to create new content off of existing content and create a commercial base for themselves, which kind of puts everything into a little bit of a wonky balance, the nature of the copyrighted work. So was the work that you originally took out for commercial purposes? If that was out for commercial purposes and your content is out for commercial purposes, that puts them really opposed to each other.

The big question, like I said earlier, is what is the amount of substantiality of the content that has been used? If you've used the entire video and reacted to the whole video, it provides the question, "Okay, if someone were to consume your piece of content, would they need to go back and consume the other piece of content?" Which the answer, if you've used all of it, is probably no.

Which gets to the fourth point of fair use, which is effective use upon the potential market. So, basically by creating this piece of content, you've removed the need for someone else to go consume that content. So, in large part, react videos don't really fit under what fair use was meant to address kind of for all of those purposes.

Now there are ways in which react content can lean more towards fair use if you really are adding to the conversation about it, if you're using limited portions of the piece of content to illustrate the point you're trying to make. If you're talking about how that piece of content reflects on public affairs that are going on or that sort of thing, that can lean you more towards it being fair use.

But again, as I said when we first started this was, keep in mind this is a defense, right? So if somebody thinks that you've infringed on their copyrights, you can say that this is fair use and talk about that in a discussion with them that ultimately is really on a judge to decide if it were to get to that level of being litigated.

Liron Segev:	So the onus is on who to prove that it's fair use. Is it on me, as the person using that content reacting, or is it on the original content creator to say, "This person has used my content."

Rian Bosak:	Yeah. So, in a fair use defense, the onus is really on you to take whatever you have created. So if it's a react video, take your react video, hold it against these four points of fair use, and try to articulate why it would fit that legal exclusion under the copyright law.

Liron Segev:	Okay. So, let's just go through those four points one more time. What are the four points?

Rian Bosak:	Yeah, so the four factors of fair use are:

The amount and substantiality of the portion taken

The effect upon the potential market for the original content

All of those things really have to be balanced and factored together. There's no one smoking gun that creates it as a strong case for fair use. You really have to measure it against all four things and take that into consideration when you're trying to assess if your content could fit the legal exclusion for fair use. These are super complicated.

I mean, if you were to start to unpack some of the cases that have been litigated, it gets muddy really quick and even different judges have fallen on different sides on the same points of this.

So it really depends again, how much did you use? Was it really transformative? Did you really take this thing and talk about it and use it to illustrate an original idea or point that you have that you're trying to make?

Liron Segev:	Okay. Okay. So, it's not as simple as one, two, three and four, when I've got three out of the four, therefore I'm perfectly fine. What tools do we have at our disposal for this?

Rian Bosak:	For the standard content creator most people have is some ability inside of Video Manager to locate copies of their content. That's the very base level service that YouTube offers. And if you can do that from your Video Manager, it's what's called Content ID Light. It is a version of Content ID, which Content ID is a product that YouTube created back and launched in 2007 that allows you to deliver reference files to YouTube or copies of your videos that help you scale this intellectual property management.

Liron Segev:	Is that almost like a fingerprint of your particular copy that you know that that's your original content that you uploaded?

Rian Bosak:	Yeah, exactly. It's an exact copy into a separate server at YouTube that basically you can define to YouTube how you want copies of that content to behave. And that can be to monetize the content, track the content, block the content, or take down the content.

Now to be clear on takedowns, I think there's a big misperception that YouTube is issuing these takedowns, and this is done by "copyright parts" which is not the case in particular with takedowns. Takedowns actually require you, even when you have access to more product functionality, to fill out a form and actually issue that copyright strike. So that process can't be automated. But discovery under different policy types actually can be automated and then content is reviewed and a decision is made as to whether it matches your reference file or not, but at a manual level.

Liron Segev:	I don't have to do anything extra. In other words, if I upload my video onto YouTube, do they kind of get that fingerprint Content ID? Do they create that at that point, or do I have to go into another system and tell them, "Hey, this belongs to me."

Rian Bosak:	There's really two systems, right? One is, if you're an individual creator, there is this... you may or may not have access to it. Not everybody has access to this so it's something that you can apply for and YouTube decides, but this ability to kind of find some content.

Or, there are companies like SuperBam that can actually help you deliver full reference files into the system and have access to even more functionality that YouTube provides called manual claiming where we can help manage our copyrights on the YouTube platform.

Liron Segev: So if I'm just using the default set of tools, I may or may not have the system in my Video Manager in the New Studios, no longer Studio Beta, luckily. In the new Studio I am going to the copyright option and see if somebody else has used my content and then give them an option to either email them and ask them to remove it or issue them the notice to get off the system. However, that's not going to get everything, right?

Rian Bosak:	Yeah, no. So, Content ID definitely has some restrictions mostly based around time code. So if the match isn't long enough, Content ID won't find it. And that's why in really a robust rights management strategy, you also need to have human beings that are looking for more of your content trying to find it out there.

Liron Segev:	Okay, so now we're moving towards the SuperBam arena where, if I am maybe not an individual creator, maybe I'm part of a bigger corporate or maybe I'm in the music industry and everything is royalties and I need to be able to be paid out and pay my artist out, I'm not going to just rely on the default tools. SuperBam really is going to come in and help me in this particular case, right?

Rian Bosak:	Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what we do. So we do both sides of it where we both deliver your reference files into the system and then we have a team of people who search for more of the content and where we find that content we're able to place claims on it.

Have you ever uploaded a video to YouTube then found other creators using your work as their own? In this week's episode of TubeTalk we talk to Rian Bosak about copyright and Fair Use on YouTube.

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