I’m thinking about starting a lyric/music review site and I was wondering if it is okay to have a stream to the song in review or lyrics (no download link) pages. Is this against guidelines or no? I have seen big sites do it but I’m still not sure if it is okay.
Grapetimes
11:00 pm on Nov 3, 2018 (gmt 0)
Streaming would be done through official players such as Apple Music, Spotify or SoundCloud.
justpassing
11:01 pm on Nov 3, 2018 (gmt 0)
Music = Entering in the gray zone
frankleeceo
11:48 pm on Nov 3, 2018 (gmt 0)
I personally won't touch it. Be prepared to get cease or desist letter after reaching a certain traffic level. It's not worth the headache down the line.
With that said, it's probably not against adsense guidelines per se. But adsense will always shut it down if they receive lawyer's letters on copyright grounds. So the odds is stacked against you with little to no repeal.
lucy24
12:11 am on Nov 4, 2018 (gmt 0)
stream to the song in review or lyrics (no download link)
Anything that can be streamed can be downloaded. De facto, not de jure.
justpassing
10:50 am on Nov 4, 2018 (gmt 0)
I think that Grapetimes is talking about embedding music/video clips in his pages, the same way you embed Youtube videos. So if the embedding function is available from streaming platforms, you can assume that you have the right to embed them. Then it's the streaming platforms which controls what is allowed or blocked.
However, as a result, the page may have too thin content, for adsense to accept it. A page, with a video which it not your, and an adsense ad, this is a no-no.
If the page features a review (text), it has to be long enough to show the added value of the page.
As for Lyrics, this is another sensible point. Posting the whole lyrics of a song is very gray zone to me. Because it can be considered a copyright infringement since you reproduce the whole text. And you can't argue it's fair use. This is like if you were publishing the whole text of a book.
And again, lyrics is not "your" content. So if a page is made of a video / music which is not your, and lyrics which are not yours either. I don't see how Adsense can accept this. But it's just a personal opinion.
Now, if the page also features a significantly long review, the background of the song, trivia, and other information about the song, the singer, the composer , etc... then it can be enough of "your" content.
trebuchet
1:26 am on Nov 14, 2018 (gmt 0)
Funnily enough, Adsense just posted a video addressing your question:
Unless you're going to include original content, such as a lengthy article about the song or the artist, then you're effectively monetising someone else's content and likely to find yourself in trouble.
tangor
1:51 am on Nov 14, 2018 (gmt 0)
Most of this is dead in the water before even starting if you wish to include the "tunes"...
Leave those out and you're gold. You can list OFFICIAL publicly known links (which takes the visitor OFF YOUR SITE) and hope they back button to yours... No problems there. Except they leave and might not come back.
Fair Use is a 10 second or less offering of "tunes" for the purpose of scholarly report ... but given these days of media companies vigorously protecting their properties and g being in cahoots with same, don't expect much love or success.
MEANWHILE, a comment/reporting site CAN do well WITHOUT "samples" if the writing is top notch, the reporting is valid and intriguing, and the users like what they find. (Tough row to hoe, good luck!).
Additionally, with some aspects of EU copyright revisions which might appear shortly, the above might not even be possible. If the USA takes similar steps the OP's hope is not feasible ... and might lead to litigation/fines most enormous.
