MH Legal Hub published a Short called “Nothing is happening. The wait after you file”. It ran 102.3 seconds, on the long wait after a file goes in, with a music bed under it. Days later YouTube blocked it in every country. The reason given was that the claimed content “exceeds the length limits set by the copyright holder”.
The track had come from a royalty-free library, under a valid licence, and it had passed our licence check. All of that was true, and none of it helped.
Two systems that do not talk to each other
A music licence is a permission. It says you may use the track. Content ID is a matching system on YouTube’s side, and it responds to whoever has registered a recording. The two never meet. A contributor can put a track in a free library and also register that recording through a distributor, sometimes under a different title. Your licence stays valid, and the claim arrives anyway.
For an ordinary video, a claim usually means someone else collects the advertising money. Shorts have a sharper rule. YouTube blocks any Short over one minute that has an active Content ID claim, globally, whatever the claim’s policy says. Under a minute, the limits have not changed (YouTube Help, 2026). So the same track with the same claim can play on a 58-second Short and take a 61-second Short off the platform.
That is the trap for a firm like this one. Shorts can now run three minutes, and a lawyer answering a real question often needs more than sixty seconds. The longer form is where the music risk sits.
A licence answers whether you may use a track. It does not answer whether YouTube will show the film.
How common it is
The library does mark these tracks. Pixabay shows “Content ID Registered” on the track’s page, and the mark is on that web page only. It does not travel with the audio file, so anyone working from a download will never see it.
On October 13, 2026 we opened the top results for the three kinds of music this client prefers and read each page:
01 / 03
Lofi
Registered
11
Top results read
14
02 / 03
Jazz lounge
Registered
7
Top results read
14
03 / 03
Funky
Registered
9
Top results read
14
| Search | Registered | Top results read |
|---|---|---|
| Lofi | 11 | 14 |
| Jazz lounge | 7 | 14 |
| Funky | 9 | 14 |
That is 27 of 42. Across those searches more of the top results were registered than not, so a film scored from the first page of results was walking straight into the rule.
What we changed
Every use of a track is now a line in a rights ledger. It records the track, the film, the film’s length, the platform and the status of the track on the day we read it. Clearing a track once is not enough, because a contributor can register it later.
The ledger is checked before scheduling. Each upcoming film is compared against the current state of its track’s page, and a film that would be blocked does not go out.
The check paid for itself within the week. On October 19 it found two upcoming Shorts over the minute, at 61.8 and 70 seconds, on registered tracks. We rebuilt the music bed of both on a clear track and left the picture and the dialogue alone, so the approved posts kept their place in the calendar. Five other Shorts under 60 seconds stayed as they were. They carry a claim and they play, which is a decision we made with the rule in front of us.
The rule
- Over 60 seconds on YouTube Shorts, the music must be clear of Content ID.
- At 60 seconds or less, a claim usually costs you the revenue and the film still plays.
- Check the track’s page before scheduling, every time, because the mark can appear after you downloaded the file.
