…I think the hardest part of making a video isn’t editing it, putting it together, or even grading the footage (although admittedly, I’m still figuring out that last bit).

It’s picking the damn music.

As most people who use the platform know, YouTube runs a tight Content ID system that flags your videos if you use any kind of media that doesn’t allow reuse or modification. You can still post videos that feature, say, carefully edited footage of your six year old trying to ride a bike set to the entirety of Psychosocial by Slipknot, but you run the risk of YouTube flagging your video for copyrighted content, and rendering it impossible for your video to be played in certain parts of the world, or even for you to gain any kind of revenue if you’ve enabled ad monetization on your admittedly weird little video.

Now, with less than 20 subscribers to my name, this really shouldn’t be an issue. Realistically, I might as well just play the numbers, use copyrighted music, and take the hits because 1) I’m not pulling enough weight to make any substantial money off ad monetization anyway and 2) For the most part, companies won’t wholesale BLOCK your video, and instead opt to place ads before it that they can monetize from.

But clearly I’m a sadist and like making things so much more difficult for myself, so I search for Creative Commons licensed music to use more often than not, immediately shrinking the radius of the space I can search for music that I think definitely fits with the vibe I’ve got in mind for a video. I’ve had whole projects go on stall because I can’t decide on music that’ll work well enough with the clips and edits and the vision of how I want this video to go in my head.

Using the SoundCloud filter on the Creative Commons Search site works well enough, but I’m really not into heavy electronica or any kind of EDM really, and while I like chillhop and lo-fi tracks, I can’t make every video with a mellow radio filter beat thumping in the backdrop. Sometimes, I just feel Bon Iver coming out through the cuts between clips, and I have to end up settling for a remix of one of his songs instead.

Granted, there are some good ones out there, but still.

Anyone else really nitpicky about this end of making content, or is it just me?