Frequently asked questions
For our Payment FAQ please go here: https://identifyy.com/paymentfaq
1) What is Identifyy?
A: Identifyy (http://identifyy.com) is a social video/audio rights management service owned and operated by HAAWK, Inc. We police, license, administer, monetize, and collect both advertising and subscription revenue generated by videos uploaded to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram (and more – coming soon).
2) How much does Identifyy cost?
A: Identifyy is free to join. Identifyy retains a 30% administrative fee for earnings that accrue from claims made with tracks you have uploaded to our platform.
3) What sort of content is eligible for uploading to Identifyy / YouTube Content ID?
A: You must be the exclusive copyright holder (or exclusive administrator of YouTube monetization rights) to the music in the files that you upload to Identifyy. Sound recordings submitted should be original, unique, and distinct, and must not contain any open or unlicensed samples, sound effects, sound bites - or purchased beats, royalty-free music, or the like.
The following examples are NOT ELIGIBLE for uploading to Identifyy:
- Content licensed non-exclusively from a third party
- Content released (at any point in time - either previously, currently, and/or in the future) under Creative Commons or similar free/open licenses
- Recordings that contain audio made available for free from Garage Band, Logic, Fruity Loops, Abelton, and other Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs).
- Public domain footage, recordings, and/or compositions
- Clips from other sources that might be considered as acceptable under fair use principles
- Video game footage (by anyone other than the game’s publisher)
- Karaoke recordings, re-masters, re-records, and sound-alike recordings
- Sound effects, sound beds, production loops, and production beats
- Speeches, audio podcasts, and other non-musical spoken word material
IMPORTANT: More information about ineligible content can be found here:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2605065?hl=en
4) How does this work?
A: Identifyy fingerprints your music copyrights and claim any videos that use your music on YouTube. We can then collect both the advertising and subscription revenue generated by those videos.
5) What is the profit share percentage?
A: We operate on a 70%/30% split. We pay you 70% of the revenue we collect.
6) How do I get paid?
A: Identifyy clients receive their royalties via Bank Transfer, PayPal, Payoneer, or Wise. Please be sure to visit the Bank tab within your account to input your preferred payment method in order to be paid properly and on time. If you are seeking to be paid via Payoneer or Wise, please Contact us .
A threshold of $100 needs to be met before payouts commence.
7) When are royalties paid?
A: Identifyy will automatically deposit your royalties via Bank Transfer, PayPal, Payoneer, or Wise on the last day of the month following the last day of calendar quarter that is subsequent to the calendar quarter in when your earnings accrued. That’s a lot of fancy accounting speak, so here is a plain English summary of what this means:
For earnings during the period January 1 to March 31, payment to you shall be made by July 31
For earnings during the period April 1 to June 30, payment to you shall be made by October 31
For earnings during the period July 1 to September 30, payment to you shall be made by January 31
For earnings during the period October 1 to December 31, payment to you shall be made by April 30
8) How much will I make?
A: Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to estimate how many videos and views we will be able to find in the system. It is also very difficult to estimate the per-view revenue because it varies widely by watch time, viewer territory, etc.
9) How long will it take before my music is live in the YouTube Content ID and FaceBook Rights Manager systems?
A: The admin team generally approves tracks within a week. You should have received an email with a few questions about you and your music. You can help speed-up the approval process by replying to the email with detailed answers to the questions.
10) Do you monetize for Facebook / Instagram?
A: Yes. We provide Facebook and Instagram monetization to those clients that generate enough earnings on YouTube to display a solid potential for earnings on Facebook and Instagram. While we typically only offer Facebook and Instagram monetization to those clients engage us for YouTube monetization, if you already have a YouTube monetization provider and simply wish to engage with us only for Facebook / Instagram monetization, we are open to discussing such a setup. Contact us to discuss.
11) What’s an IRSC code and do I need one?
A: The ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is the international identification system used for sound recordings. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) created the ISRC system. ISRCs are used in digital commerce / retail by streaming and download sites (e.g. Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, TIDAL, etc.) as well as collecting societies like SoundExchange.
If you use a digital distribution service, your distributor has most likely already assigned an ISRC to each of the recordings that you submitted / distributed with them. You may be able to obtain your ISRC’s by logging into your distribution account and downloading your data, or by contacting your distribution account rep.
Including ISRC’s is not mandatory for using / uploading to Identifyy, but it is highly encouraged, as it will make the accounting, reporting, and monetization process more complete and accurate.
If your music is already live in Apple Music / iTunes, Google Play Music, or Amazon Music, then including your ISRC’s in your Identifyy submission may allow YouTube to place “Stream/buy this music on Apple Music / iTunes, Google Play Music and/or Amazon Music” links right below the YouTube videos that contain your music, but only if at the time of submission to Identifyy, you provide the same ISRC’s to us that were used by your distributor when previously submitting your music to Apple Music / iTunes, Google Play or Amazon Music.
12) Why are certain videos that use my music not showing advertisements and/or not showing up in my earnings report?
A: The data that appears in your reports comes directly to Identifyy from YouTube and contains each and every YouTube video that earned $0.01 or more in any given reporting period.
For a comprehensive list of videos that Identifyy has found which have earned $0.01 or more and that make use of your music, please refer to your royalty reports.
If you have located a video on YouTube that you know is using your music, but you do not see any earnings for it or any advertisements running before, after, over, or alongside it, first please check that you are not using an ad blocker and are not subscribed to YouTube’s ad free subscription service (currently named “YouTube Premium”).
If you still don’t see any ads, then email a link to the video to support(at)identifyy.com and list the title of the track or composition used in the video and we’ll investigate and resolve.
13) I received a copyright notification on a video on my own YouTube Channel / Facebook page. What should I do?
A: If you have received a email or other notice from YouTube or Facebook about a third party match / claim on a video that you uploaded to your own YouTube channel or Facebook page, this means that the YouTube Content ID system has located your own music in one of the videos on your own channel / page. You will notice that it says “HAAWK” or “HAAWK for a 3rd Party” - that’s Identifyy (HAAWK, Inc. is the parent company of Identifyy). These notices are sent to uploaders that have used a piece of your music in their video for the purpose of notifying them that Identifyy is going to monetize their videos on your behalf. Unfortunately, both YouTube’s Content ID system and Facebook’s Rights Manager system are unable to tell the difference between your own videos and other people’s videos. To stop receiving notices on videos uploaded to your own channel / page, please contact us via email at support(at)identifyy.com (please include a link to your official YouTube channel and Facebook page in your email) to ask for your channel / page to be white listed from further matching. Identifyy will white list your official YouTube channel so long as your YouTube channel is directly partnered with YouTube by way of the YouTube Partner Program (and not by way of a third party MCN). Regarding past claims made on your YouTube channel for which you received notices, please click into the claim details and then please click “OK, Got it”. Please DO NOT click “Dispute!”.
When you click “OK, Got it”, you’re letting Identifyy collect revenue on your behalf. Every time this video generates ad revenue, we’ll collect your share and then pay it back to you. Just click the “OK, Got it” button.
Don’t forget to tell us the name of your YouTube channel and Facebook page. If you have your own YouTube channel, you have the option to tell us its name on your Identifyy account information page. Identifyy never takes a %-age of your earnings on your own videos using your own music on your own official YouTube channel or Facebook page so long as such channel is partnered directly with YouTube by way of the YouTube Partner Program (and not by way of a third party MCN), so if you are a direct member of the YouTube Partner Program, we need to know your YouTube channel and/or Facebook page for white listing purposes.
14) When I download a report of my earnings, why do certain line items show a 0% rate?
A: If your track or video has 0 claims and 0 earnings for the selected month, the downloadable .csv will show a 0% rate. This does not affect your earnings.
15) Some of my earnings are a little lower when I add the earnings together than the Total Gross Earnings column. Why is this?
A: Identifyy receives payment in fractions of cents, but we display values rounded to the nearest penny. Therefore, sometimes total gross earnings for a line item will be slightly greater than the sum of the earnings columns.
16) How is this different from ASCAP, BMI, and other Performing Rights Organizations (PROs)?
A: ASCAP and BMI are for public performance royalties ONLY. Furthermore, these public performance royalties are generated by the composition (i.e. publishing / writer) side only, and NOT by the master side. 90% of the money earned from YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram streams are from master side earnings (because masters not only have a better revenue share %-age, they also monetize in more territories than compositions) and in addition to the master side, Identifyy also collects and remits (a) synchronization, (b) mechanical, and (c) public performance royalties missed, black boxed, or otherwise not collected by the US PROs – all of which are generated on the composition side. Identifyy’s service does NOT in anyway, conflict with ASCAP or BMI.
When it comes to the master side earnings that Identifyy collects…ASCAP and BMI have no rights to your masters (they are composition side only societies - i.e. publishers and writers shares - and NOT master side).
Important to note regarding performance royalties from YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram…It’s estimated that for every $1 in public performance royalties generated from YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram streams (with such $1 being due to you by way of your PRO), there are approximately $100 in master, synchronization, and mechanical royalties. This means that the money earned through Identifyy can be in the realm of 100x that of which you will earn from ASCAP or BMI when it comes to online streams from YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
The reason for this is because Identifyy collects both master AND composition side synchronization and mechanical royalties (and public performance royalties that are either missed, black boxed, or otherwise not collected by the US PROs) and these royalties are generated by both advertising and subscription (subscription being in the case of viewers watching ad-free YouTube by way of a YouTube Premium subscription, which was formerly known as YouTube Red). Furthermore, the public performance fees that are paid by YouTube to the PROs (and then onto you, if you are PRO affiliated and your PRO is able to collect on your behalf) are extremely small because ASCAP and BMI have structured their public performance licensing models on a “one-to-many” versus “one-to-one” broadcast basis. What this means is that if a TV network or radio station broadcasts a show using your music to an audience of 100,000 viewers / listeners, this is considered a one to 100k broadcast (one performance to 100k listeners simultaneously) and the public performance fees paid by the TV / radio broadcasters are decent in this instance. However, when it comes to YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, if a video gets 100k views, these views are PRO treated as 100k individual one-to-one broadcasts and while the total audience size is the same (100k in this example), the amount of licensing fees paid by YouTube for a 100k individual one-to-one streams pales in comparison to if it has been a one to 100k stream (as in the case of network and cable TV as well as terrestrial radio).
The advertising and subscription revenues collected by Identifyy (for rights other than public performance) are part of a far greater revenue pool (when it comes to YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram) than the revenue pool for public performance royalties generated by these same services. The advertising and subscription revenue stream (also known as the YouTube Content ID revenue pool, and excluding public performance rights) was recently reported by YouTube to be in excess of $1B per year (for YouTube alone). The public performance royalties collected by ASCAP in any annual period are just over $1B in total, but this amount is from ALL sources - TV, radio, general establishments (think clubs, hotels, dance halls, bars, and restaurants), and web (e.g. YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram) combined. While there are no publicly available figures for the amount of public performance fees paid by YouTube to ASCAP and BMI, we estimate these amounts to be less than $25M per year (which is 40x less than the YouTube Content ID revenue pool, which is in excess of $1B and also growing faster than the public performance licensing fees can be increased in any given period).
Finally, you should be made aware that in the event that you are affiliated with a US PRO, you are affiliated on a non-exclusive basis (this is because US PRO affiliation agreements are prohibited from being exclusive by way of the regulation outlined in Consent Decrees that the PROs have in place with the US Department of Justice). The non-exclusive nature of all US PRO affiliation means that you are permitted to directly license your public performance rights to YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram and therefore you are not required to have either ASCAP or BMI collect your YouTube public performance royalties (which is especially helpful in the event of missed, black boxed, or otherwise uncollected public performance royalties), further emphasizing the lack of conflict between the services of the US PROs and that of Identifyy. In short, you need Identifyy IN ADDITION to your PRO, NOT in place of your PRO. Identifyy’s services do not conflict with those of the PROs.
17) Can I get paid if I do not have a Paypal Account?
A: Yes. Identifyy clients receive their royalties via Bank Transfer, PayPal, Payoneer, and Wise. Visit the Bank tab/section within your account to input your preferred payment method. If you are not able to be paid by bank transfer or Paypal but instead are only able to be paid via either Payoneer or Wise, then please contact us and provide us with your Payoneer and/or Wise details for your royalty distributions.
18) Why am I unable to upload? I’ve been with you for over a year?
A: Due to the sheer volume of tracks coming into our system, if you have been with us for over 12 months and have not generated a revenue threshold we’ve re-allocated these resources towards tracks that are generating revenue that meets this threshold. You are not barred from uploading to us, send support an example of the track that you would like to upload and the admin team will rule on these in a case by case basis.