It only takes people a few seconds to decide whether they're going to stick with a YouTube video or not, so having an eye-catching and attention-drawing intro can do wonders to keep people invested.
Some people do this with flashy colors or by diving head first into the video's concept, but others tend to rely on an intro that lets viewers know who exactly they're tuning in for, often with a catchy song involved.
YouTube has a vast library of royalty free music that you can opt for without having to fork out for a license, but one creator has realized the hefty cost of using something a little more recognizable, as he's had to pay out millions.
What song was being used?
As reported by Dexerto, Fetty Wap's '679' was used as part of YouTuber Brawadis' intro, accompanied by his name in a flashy graphic. The content creator hasn't actually used the song or its associated intro for some time now, but it remains attached to some of his most popular videos.
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Any regular viewers will attest to the song becoming a key part of his brand, and it likely played a part - however small - in his route to earning over 6,670,000 subscribers on the platform.
Videos like 'INSANE BURNING YEEZYS PRANK!!' and 'CAUGHT CHEATING ON GIRLFRIEND PRANK GONE WRONG' both include the Fetty Wap track as part of the intro, and are the two most viewed videos on his channel, earning 11 million and 10 million views respectively.
How much has Brawadis had to pay?
Brawadis revealed during a live stream this morning that he has had to pay 'millions' of dollars to Fetty Wap's record label, all because he used 679 as part of his intro without express permission.
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"I gave that label millions and millions of dollars, bro," he explained tearfully. "My house was $3.5 mil, I could have bought three of these things bro, it's crazy."
Most big YouTubers have run into a copyright issue of some kind, but unlike many Brawadis' use of the Fetty Wap song explicitly doesn't fall under the standard fair use defense, as even though it's just a short excerpt, it doesn't fall under criticism, commentary, reporting, or teaching, and remains not a 'transformative' use case.
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Many of his most popular videos on YouTube have now been copyright striked and demonitized, significantly impacting his earnings alongside having to pay the record label directly, and only some of these actually used the intro inquestion.
"Look at all these. Copyright, copyright," proclaimed Brawadis when going through his YouTube metrics. "Look at the views - five mil, six mil... all of my most viewed [videos], I don't make a single f***ing penny off of, because of that intro."