YouTube is very strict about copyright. Years ago I received a copyright strike on an old account for a video of Christmas lights synchronized to the THX theme. Even though I deleted the video after they disabled it, the strike remained. If you get three copyright strikes, YouTube will terminate your account.

YouTube now has an automated system called "Content ID" that identifies copyrighted content and blocks, allows, or mutes the video. More information about that system is here: http://www.youtube.com/t/contentid_more

I used to think that as long as Content ID allowed the video to be played worldwide without issues, I was free and clear. This is not the case. From the copyright strike information page: "Automated identifications made through our Content ID system are separate from the copyright infringement notification process. This means that any content you do not have permission to use—whether or not identified by Content ID—may be subject to strikes in the future, should a content owner choose to notify YouTube of infringement.".

The part I bolded caused me to delete all videos that had music from YouTube and re-upload them on Vimeo instead. Vimeo isn't as picky about music as YouTube. Unfortunately, HD uploads are only available to paid members. Since I use my GoPro and other cameras on the 848x480 60fps WVGA setting, this doesn't affect me. I'm perfectly happy with a good quality SD video.

A few days ago I made a slideshow of the past ten years of funny/odd/interesting bikes and bike related photos that I had taken. I used a remix of Kraftwerk's "Tour de France" for the song. At first I uploaded it to YouTube because I had seen other people's videos with Kraftwerk songs that weren't identified and tagged by Content ID.

When I uploaded the video, it was immediately ID'ed and tagged. YouTube said it would play worldwide, but I deleted it anyway due to the above bolded sentence. I refuse to take chances with my YouTube account. I worked hard to get my 150 subscribers, and I don't want to lose my entire account because of YouTube's ridiculous copyright policy. It sucks, because the videos that had music had several likes.

The video is now on Vimeo:

Here is the video that had the most amount of likes for a music video when it was on YouTube. It is a descent of Donner Pass Road, recorded with a camera mounted on the moonroof of a friend's vehicle behind me. I liked how this one turned out.

The vast majority of my videos are 100% natural sound. Believe it or not, many of those ended up being more popular than the music videos I uploaded. People told me they liked the nature sounds, hearing me work hard on climbs, the bike sounds, and the dialogue between me and other cyclists.

The videos that I uploaded with music had crap for original audio (100% wind noise), or the audio was muted by Windows Movie Maker when I sped up the video. If I use iMovie on my Macintosh, I can make a sped-up video with sped-up original audio.

I no longer make sped-up videos of climbs. They end up way too shaky.