Fullscreen, Universal Sign Music Deal for Legal Song Cover Monetization

One of the biggest things you'll find on YouTube are aspiring musicians who cover other popular artists' songs.  We've seen in the past couple of years some of the top videos of any particular year are song covers.  And the biggest YouTube success story of them all is Justin Bieber, who got discovered doing this very thing.  But, strictly speaking, you can't monetize song covers unless you have an agreement with the artists or record labels.  YouTube network Fullscreen has reached an agreement with Universal Music Publishing to allow their creators to monetize any song cover from their library.  Whoa.

How the Fullscreen/Universal Deal Works

Network members part of Fullscreen's "FAM," or "Fullscreen Artist Mix," may pick any song from the Universal library, make their own version, and monetize it.  And, the original artist will be compensated.  There's also the chance to start monetizing already-existing covers.

Fullscreen’s “FAM” network has over 700 musicians on YouTube including Lindsey Stirling, Megan Nicole, Tyler Ward, Luke Conard, Alex Goot, Tiffany Alvord, Jason Chen, Joseph Vincent and Sam Tsui.  And Universal is one of the largest music publishers in the world.  It has Adele, Elvis Costello, Beastie Boys, Beach Boys, Billy Joel, Sex Pistols, Justin Timberlake, and Britney Spears just to name a few.

Here's Stirling (pictured), being awesome:

This is an exciting time for Fullscreen network members.  There was a recent announcement about a "Million Dollar Fund" for creators looking to improve their content, and now one of the most powerful ways to get noticed while showing off your talent can be monetized.  I say, "Good on you, Fullscreen!"