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Freestyle Music Guidelines & Download Links (OWYYC2021)

Freestyle Music Guidelines

About Music

All contestants in the Freestyle Divisions, please read the following guidelines carefully.

The Cultivation of Wholesome Youth

All contestants must behave in an upstanding, appropriate manner. The player must consider their conduct in their freestyle, music content, and behavior on the contest premises.

Music must be suitable for an audience of all ages (including young children and their parents). Contestants who use inappropriate music (with inappropriate words in all languages, obscene language, and inappropriate lyrical content explicit and implied; in addition, in the case that a beep/silence/etc. is used to cover the word(s), if the coverage of the word(s) is judged to be incomplete or insufficient the player may still be subject for disqualification) may be disqualified by judges. If the contestant is unsure if their music is suitable, they may request that the judges review it beforehand.

Every year there are contestants who are disqualified or nearly disqualified. If there are questionable words or content in your music we highly suggest that you choose a different song. Again, your music must be suitable for an audience of all ages (including young children and their parents) and that guideline will be strictly enforced.

More information concerning disqualification is listed at the bottom of this page.

Regarding Disqualification for Inappropriate Music

If it is brought to the attention of staff and/or judges (by contestants, staff, authorized persons, audience members, judges, etc.) that a contestant’s music is inappropriate, contest staff will promptly call a meeting of the relevant division’s judges (all of that division’s judges, supervising management staff), to check the contestant’s music.

If half or more of the meeting members (ex. in the case of 4 people, 2 people or more) judge the music to be inappropriate, that contestant will be disqualified from the relevant division.

No disqualifications will be made after the results for each round (Prelim, Semi-Final, Final) are announced (unless the violation is particularly bad).

If the music is so excessively bad that the continuation of the performance is judged to be inappropriate, the music can be stopped mid-performance by the judgement of any one person of the following: head judge, division judges, contest supervising management staff, venue authorized persons. (If after checking it is found that there is no problem with the music, the contestant can do their freestyle a second time at the end of the relevant division.)

Judges will use the submitted song itself as the primary material subject for judgement.

After it has been decided that the song is inappropriate, the judge in charge will attempt to inform the relevant contestant before results are announced. However, we cannot promise as such if there is not enough time before results are announced, or the relevant contestant is out of the venue or does not respond the summoning announcement.

At the time of an announcement if the contestant desires to explain the circumstances, we ask that they report promptly to the person in charge. However, even if they provide reference from the song’s composer, lyric writer, record company, and/or lyric notes, such materials may not be considered. The judges final decision will be based on what was heard in the originally submitted music.

The decision of the judges is final and after a disqualification is decided it will not be reversed in any case.

Please read carefully before you choose your music.

In order to prevent any copyright issues and not being able to share your routine with the world, the IYYF has set the rules as below.

PRELIMS

All contestants must use music from the IYYF Music Library. Songs may not be altered, edited, or remixed.

SEMI-FINAL / FINAL

Your music choice must be one of the following:
1. Music from the IYYF Music Library.
2. Music that is not registered to copyright control organization(s) (like RIAA, JASRAC, ASCAP, BMI, etc.) and the copyright holder allows everyone to use on public YouTube videos.

*If it requires special permission to use, you cannot use the song since IYYF cannot verify the permission.

*You can use music that the copyright holder requires us to credit in the video’s description on YouTube. However, if credit must be included in the video itself, it is not permitted.

3. Original music not registered to copyright control organization(s) and also will not be registered in the future. (This must be of your, or somebody you personally know’s, own creation. Random music which does not have any copyright information is not permitted.)

4. Music from the YouTube Audio Library (Music requiring credit in the video’s description is okay to use)

Additional Music Sources Whose Terms Match Our Usage Requirements

  • The list is current as of June 19, 2021.
  • Please also check the terms of usage by yourself to be sure.
  • If usage requires a fee or payment, the contestant must cover that.
  • YouTube AI may still block or mute the video, so please upload a test video to your personal account to check the availability before submitting your finished video to the contest.
  • If you cannot test upload by yourself, we recommend choosing your music from the IYYF Music Library.
  • Ultimately, contestants are solely responsible for music that for whatever reason does not meet the upload requirements. If you are not sure, we recommend choosing your music from the IYYF Music Library.

Japanese:

https://dova-s.jp/
https://dova-s.jp/_contents/agreement/

https://zukisuzukibgm.com/
https://zukisuzukibgm.com/terms/

https://www.nash.jp/fum/
https://www.nash.jp/fum/help-faq/help-contentsid

https://audiostock.jp/
https://audiostock.jp/help/use_for_youtube

https://www.premiumbeat.com/ja/
https://www.premiumbeat.com/ja/faq

English:

NCS (Credit in description needed, licensing info here)
https://www.youtube.com/user/nocopyrightsounds

Bensound (Credit in description needed, licensing info here)
https://www.bensound.com/

Audio Jungle (No credit needed, licensing info here)
https://audiojungle.net/

Artlist (No credit needed, licensing info here)
https://artlist.io/

TakeTones – (License must be purchased, under $20) https://taketones.com/

Free Music Archive – (License info here)
https://freemusicarchive.org

Music That Cannot Be Used

  • Any music registered with copyright control organization(s) such as RIAA, JASRAC, BMI, ASCAP, etc.
  • Any music you need to get special permission from the copyright holder or recording company to use.
  • Any music that has a time limited permission.
  • Any music the copyright holder prohibits usage for commercial purposes or on commercialized YouTube channels.
  • Any music solely found on SoundCloud (anyone can upload music there, there are many different copyright conditions, and also many unauthorized copies; it is too difficult to verify the correct permissions).

Important Notices:

  • If you choose to mix multiple songs, all of the music used has to meet the criteria above. If the music provider does not allow an edit or remix, you cannot use those songs for mixing.
  • If we find a copyright violation, IYYF may cover the music, mute or take down (and reupload) the video without notice.
  • If YouTube AI blocks the video due to the music, IYYF will cover the music with our choice and reupload (also, the contestant will get 0 points for their score in the Music Use category).
  • If the AI block of a video is clearly false, we will submit an objection to YouTube to fix the block.
  • If the copyright holder / recording company requires a fee for music usage, the contestant is fully responsible for paying that fee. IYYF does not take any responsibility and will not cover the cost.