Licensed music
Also known as: cleared music, licensed track
Music a video is permitted to use, as opposed to music that merely exists on the editor hard drive and sounds good under the footage.
Updated
What it means
Licensed music is a track whose use in a particular video has been permitted by whoever controls it. The permission is specific rather than general: a platform, a territory, a duration and a kind of use are each named.
Without it a video is exposed regardless of how good it looks. Platforms detect recognisable recordings automatically, and the consequence lands on the upload rather than on the editor.
This is why automatic editing almost always draws on a Royalty-free music library. A catalogue cleared in advance removes the question entirely instead of answering it per video, and it means the tempo is known before any cutting rather than after it.
How it works in practice
Checking what a Music license actually covers matters more than checking that one exists. A track cleared for personal use is not cleared for a monetised channel, and the two are easy to confuse.
Keeping a record of which track went into which video is the boring half of the job, and the half that matters when a claim arrives months later.
Choosing from a cleared catalogue before cutting also simplifies the edit, because the tempo is known in advance and Beat detection runs on a file nobody will have to replace.
What to watch out for
Attribution is not a licence. Crediting an artist in a description grants nothing, and the belief that it does is the most common misunderstanding in the area.
Short excerpts are not exempt either. There is no duration below which a recognisable recording becomes free to use, whatever figure somebody repeats about seven seconds or thirty. The threshold does not exist and never has.
Platform matching is also blind to intent. Content ID systems flag the recording rather than the usage, so a properly cleared track can still be claimed automatically and need disputing afterwards with the paperwork in hand.
How RawClip handles it
Highlights come with music already cleared for the use, so a finished video can be posted without a separate permission question to answer. The track is chosen from that catalogue before the cutting starts, which is also why the edit can be timed to its tempo rather than laid under it afterwards.