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Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X and Youtube: An Overview of Blocked and Monetized Songs

Draikin

If you’re looking into streaming or posting videos on YouTube with footage from SEGA’s upcoming rhythm game Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X, there are a few things you’ll need to watch out for. This article is intended to give people an overview of the various copyright claims tied to the currently known tracks in the game. However, do understand that Segalization takes no responsibility whatsoever regarding any copyright strikes or Content ID claims that may be targeted at your Youtube channel if you upload Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X videos. The information here could change at any time, and videos that are safe to upload now may end up getting your channel banned tomorrow. We simply have no control over that. With that out of the way, read on for our findings regarding uploading videos with footage from Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X to YouTube.

Concerning SEGA

First of all, SEGA is not in control over the copyrights applied to all the songs in the game. In other words, they’re also not responsible for any of the copyright claims currently being issued  to Project DIVA X videos on YouTube or elsewhere. They could technically issue copyright claims for footage of the game, but in my experience this hasn’t occurred, and I hope it never does.

If you’re thinking of streaming directly from your PS4, there’s a rather important caveat: there won’t be any audio for the songs, only the in-game effects are heard. As silly as this is, it’s understandable that SEGA had to take this measure. So you’ll need to have an external capture device hooked up to a PC if you want to record or stream footage with the complete audio.

Content ID Claims

Now, the good news is that at the time of writing, we haven’t received any copyright strikes on our YouTube channel for any of the 32 songs featured in Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X. This is an important point, as it’s copyright strikes that may end up getting your entire channel banned. However, do be advised that this doesn’t mean it won’t happen to you. All this means is that it doesn’t seem like any of the copyright holders are actively taking down Project DIVA X videos containing their songs on Youtube. At least, at the moment.

Instead of copyright strikes, we did get Content ID claims. This is an automated system that tracks down copyrighted audio and video on YouTube, and if you get a claim on your video, it can either result in the video being monetized by the copyright holder, or blocked from being viewed in certain countries. Depending on the song, both may be true at the same time. You can view the copyright status in your YouTube channel’s Creator Studio, as shown here:


If the copyright claim states that the video will be monetized by the copyright holder, it means you can no longer earn any money from your video. What this means is that the copyright holder allows you to keep the video on your channel (for now), but the money earned from advertisements on your video will go to the copyright holders. If you’re not monetizing your videos to begin with, this shouldn’t be a problem.

Unfortunately, this situation doesn’t apply to all of the songs. In some cases, your video may also be blocked from viewing in Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and the United States. This is caused by a disagreement between YouTube and the copyright holders in areas where YouTube has rolled out their “YouTube Red” service. Read our previous article here for more information on that. Unfortunately, this situation still hasn’t been resolved, and things will only get worse as YouTube starts rolling out YouTube Red in more and more countries.

Now, for a complete overview, here are the songs that will be blocked and/or monetized on YouTube. Again, this is only accurate at the time of writing.

UPDATED December 2016: South Korea is now also part of the countries where songs are being blocked.

Blocked in Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, United States and South Korea

Note that in other regions, these videos can be viewed but will still be monetized by the copyright holders.

Monetised by the copyright holders (but not blocked from viewing)

The remainder of the songs do not appear to be claimed at this point, but that could very likely change in the near future. Hopefully, this overview may be of some use to people looking for information on uploading Project DIVA X videos to YouTube.

I would also like to point people to the Original Creator website. They’re one of the few companies that bothered to add a link to their website along with their copyright claim, where they explain what’s going on (in English!). They point out that “Part of the profits from the advertisements will be distributed to original creators and it will back up new creations”. They also explain that “OriginalCreator.net is operated by Crypton Future Media Inc. for the purpose of providing a path for creators/right holders of contents to receive a share of the profits from the use of the content”. Assuming this is accurate, you can at least feel good about the fact that you’re helping the original creators of the songs by uploading your Project DIVA X videos.

Should anyone find that the information here is (no longer) accurate, let us know in the comments and we’ll update the above information! Now, to end this article, a small request for SEGA: by now you should really have a video copyright policy in place that explains to fans what they can and can’t upload and/or monetize. Companies like Valve and Ubisoft already have this, and it has the benefit of protecting fans from copyright trolls and establishing clear guidelines for the fans to follow.

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