On July 4, YouTube released an updated removal tool for creators, making it easier for them to remove copyrighted music from their videos without affecting other audio, like dialogue or sound effects.
“Great news for creators: our updated Erase Song tool makes it easy to remove copyrighted music from your videos (while leaving the rest of the audio intact),” YouTube chief executive Neal Mohan wrote in a post about the tool on X.
Great news for creators! Our updated “Remove Song” tool makes it easy to remove copyrighted music from your videos (while leaving the rest of your audio intact). Learn more… https://t.co/KeWIw3RFeH
— Neal Mohan (@nealmohan) July 3, 2024
The company said in the video that it had been testing an eraser tool for some time, but that it was not very accurate at removing copyrighted songs. The company noted that the new tool uses an AI-powered algorithm to identify and remove specific songs without affecting other audio in a clip.
YouTube warns on a support page that in some cases its algorithms may not be able to remove just the song.
“If you have difficulty removing the song, this edit may not work. If you are unable to successfully remove the claims from your video with this tool, you can try other editing options, such as muting all sound in the claimed portion or trimming the claimed portion,” the company said.
Alternatively, creators can choose to “Mute all sound in the claimed segment” to silence the portion of the video that contains potentially copyrighted material. Once a creator successfully edits the video, YouTube will remove the Content ID claim, which is the company's system that identifies when copyrighted content is used in different clips.