'Apex Legends' Music Mix-Up Results in Copyright Claims on YouTube Videos

Many content creators’ Apex Legends videos were reportedly hit with copyright notices resulting [...]

By Tanner Dedmon

Many content creators' Apex Legends videos were reportedly hit with copyright notices resulting from the use of the game's theme music, though the monetization claims are said to be a mistake following the release of the game's soundtrack.

YouTube's Content ID system will systematically flag videos and streams for using copyrighted content which results in the creators getting notices that an entity – in this case, The Orchard Music and EA Music – had claimed monetization rights to a video. It's an imperfect system that occasionally leads to dubious copyright claims and debates of fair use when utilizing gameplay and music from games, and according to tweets like the ones below, Apex Legends videos were getting hit because people's videos featured the theme music and other songs from the game.

Since the music is heard in every Apex Legends match, content creators were receiving the claims simply for streaming the game where the music would be heard every time unless the audio was muted. While tweets and Reddit posts highlighted what people initially considered to be spurious and petty claims from Electronic Arts, Stephen Barton, the composer of Apex Legends' music, responded to some of the concerns to explain what happened.

"Hey all! We're investigating what's happening here at the moment," Barton said on Reddit. "It's new territory for me - but to my understanding it's not expected - I always thought such things were covered by fair use, but I suspect it's an automated system being over-zealous and not understanding the difference between the in-built game music and music put on by the content creator afterwards, and therefore it was triggered by the soundtrack going live for sale. I think the Orchard company is a parent company of the record label, but I'm not sure."

An announcement from Barton on February 22nd said the game's soundtrack had just been made available to purchase, so it appears this release is what triggered the copyright claims on videos.

Barton referred to the situation in another tweet as "a quirk of the YouTube algorithm not understanding what's in-game and what's music added afterwards." The composer responded to other messages from those questioning the monetization claims and said the situation was being looked into.

Apex Legends is now available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC platforms with the battle royale game's first season scheduled to start in March.

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