So you’re thinking, it can’t be that hard can it? Set up your phone in the bedroom, press record, play a famous hit that everybody knows and get thousands of views which can be transformed into a lucrative income which means you can give up that day job working at the coffee shop.

Because let’s face it, you’re bored, bored, bored and everytime you stare at your phone in the breaks from being a human production machine it is promising you a way out to some kind of paradise which involves some distant childhood memory of enjoying yourself in mindless child-dream state oblivion.

Otherwise you’re going to end up evolving from that dude who works at the record store with glossy hair to that guy who sells sofas in a suit with wiry, grey hair or hardly any hair at all a decade or so later. And no matter how you push, push, push, you’re still not comfortably off with your own room full of favourite toys, a white Rolls Royce that you can’t drive and a diary full of interview appointments.

The again maybe you simply want to have fun singing Taylor Swift songs because you know that you’re good looking and you know you’ve got a great voice – so why not get a following on YouTube and hey, why not get paid for it while you’re at it.

Either way you know I’m going to say that it’s really not that easy. So here’s how you can do it and make it work for you. If not a bit of extra cash after a year or two then maybe just some pleasing recognition that really you can play and you can sing and it is fun and people like listening to your renditions.

So why not?

YouTube, which is owned by Google, has kindly provided a series of blogs and videos to talk you through the process of uploading videos, setting up a YouTube channel synchronized with your e mail and decorated with your artistic photo uploads. Then provided you have 1000 subscribers to your channel and an accumulated 4000 watching hours of your videos over a the course of a year, YouTube may invite you to join the YouTube Partner Programme and get an Adsense Account.

YouTube is an American online video-sharing platform headquartered in San Bruno, California, founded by three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim– in February 2005. Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion, since which it operates as one of Google’s subsidiaries.

History of YouTube wiki

In a nutshell, you can make money playing acoustic covers on YouTube by placing ads on your videos once you have enough followers and viewing hours to qualify for this (4000 hours and 1000 subscribers in 2022). However, your videos can be taken down if you haven’t an agreed copyright arrangement in place with the music publishing company.

https://alanspicer.com/how-to-make-money-doing-covers-on-youtube/#google_vignette: How to monetize your acoustic covers on YouTube

Check out Alan Spicer’s explanation on the links above. He says what I’m saying in a different way with a heck of a lot more detail and further suggestions, if you’re up for it right now. His main point being, as many bloggers will rightly point out, that if you provide your own songs as video uploads then there is no issue with copyright. Trouble is, how are you going to get 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours in the space of a year on YouTube if nobody has ever heard of you or heard of your songs.

So then you start on the road of how do I make myself or my band sound generic and famous. You’re contemplating gimmicks, attachments to famous names and songs, catchy words and instant ear worm riffs. Calling your song “I met Dolly Parton” by Edna Sheerwit or doing a YouTube on “How to make a thousand pounds in ten minutes – no this really works” might not have been what you had in mind when you first picked up a guitar to cry over a break up. Basically you might end up playing “covers but not covers” anyway.

Yeah but like me you must be thinking – well how come there are all these covers videos up with thousands of views and ads on them. Can’t I do that.

Ok well you can because people do but they don’t have copyright so in recent years the big companies have been trawling through the YouTubes to find naughty videos which haven’t acknowledged their rights to the song. They can flag up your video and get it taken down and get this – three strikes of being flagged up for removal and you’re out. Your channel is gone. Done. Finished. Off air.

Thankfully there are ways around it. YouTube may flag you up and take all the money from any ads on your songs which you didn’t even know about. So, very important this, the company demonetizes your covers song and the publishing company takes all the revenue. It becomes ineligible for the YouTube partner programme. This is not a copyright strike. So you can carry on but they make the money out of your cover version not you.

The other thing is, you could just hope they never notice you but in my experience they do. Straight away if I’m honest. Damien Keyes explains this beautifully as far as I’m concerned and answers all the other questions you might be asking yourself about this in this hard hitting, clear headed upload.

So this is what I’m suggesting. Make the covers videos and do them and don’t just do them on your phone, get hold of a camera and a decent mic and make sure you have decent lighting otherwise you look second rate.

Be confident, be consistent, put things up regularly and never let go of the rolling vibe it creates, develop some posting strategy with the wording of the title and the thumbnail. Then wait and see what happens while answering the comments if you can handle the good with the bad.

Don’t worry about the money for months and for copyright you can always check out a company which will take a cut but make you feel reassured like https://freedom.support.tm/portal/en/kb/articles/115002110554-we-are-the-hits-wath-create-your-own-cover-songs-legally which is just one company I’m mentioning among many.

The main thing is to do it because you now you can sing well and play in time, you know you’re loving it and you know it’s something you always wanted to do. It saves on traipsing off to singers nights and it stops you playing in total isolation – though it isn’t actually human contact it still carries emotional connection. Good luck.

Here’s one of my videos of a song the Beatles covered on their first album Please Please Me which has been demonetized – so watch it as many times as you like, I did it for love. Feel free to comment on this blog or that video. You’re more than welcome.