YouTube is introducing an enhanced tool called “Erase Song,” which lets creators remove copyrighted songs from their videos without affecting other audio elements.
Announced earlier this week and gradually becoming available, the improved “Erase Song” tool is now accessible to more creators. Previously, this feature was in beta and not widely available, and YouTube acknowledged that its performance was lacking. The updated tool uses AI to remove songs from videos while preserving the creator’s dialogue and other sounds.
YouTube explains it as follows:
“Remove the claimed song while keeping other sounds such as speech, or mute all sound.”
According to a support page, this feature appears on videos with copyright claims related to audio. Besides removing only the song, the tool can also mute all audio during specific parts of the video affected by the copyright claim.
Editing a specific portion of audio in a finished video is challenging, and YouTube admits it may not always work. If the song is difficult to remove, creators might need to consider other options, such as muting all sound in the claimed segments or trimming them out entirely.
The tool may also be ineffective for videos with more than 100,000 views, and processing times can vary, potentially taking a while.
“Erase Song” is being rolled out to YouTube Studio on desktop and mobile devices over the coming weeks.
