Have you ever thought about having your music or sound effects stolen, illegally downloaded, or ripped off? Or worse, finding out that your music or sound effects are being sold by somebody else and they are making money off of your hard work.
When I began working as a composer and sound designer online, I had to figure out ways to protect my work. I found that protecting your audio files using a custom watermark was the best course of action. There are 3 ways to watermark your audio files:
1. Add a voice-over layer using your own voice
2. Add a music layer
3. Add an ambient sound layer
If you can add just one of those 3 options, it will become incredibly more challenging for anyone to steal your work.
What Exactly Is Watermarking?
Traditionally speaking, watermarks were a faint text or design applied to an image or document to prevent someone from stealing the document and claiming it as their own. It is generally unintrusive and still a way to protect documents and images today. For audio, however, watermarking is not as simply put. The issue is that no matter what watermark you use, it will disrupt the audio and potentially disturb the listener’s experience.
When Should You Watermark Your Audio?
Here are some considerations for when to use watermarks if you decide to use them.
- You send work to clients online. This could be audio files that may need revisions or not. It could be a portfolio or other audio for projects that you or the client may not want to be publicly available.
- You create and sell your own audio products online and create previews of your products. This could be selling music tracks or stock sound effects.Â
- You want to share your work online, but really do not want anybody to even try to steal it for whatever reason.
Whether or not you watermark your audio is completely up to you, but you need to be aware of some possible consequences of not protecting your work. The most obvious is that once your audio is shared online, whether through email or posted on a website, it immediately leaves your hands and becomes available to the public at large. Anyone can potentially have access to and download your work.
Pros vs Cons Of Watermarking
PROS
- It protects others from illegally downloading and profiting from your work without your consent.
- It will detract anyone with a malicious intent.
- It gives you the opportunity to brand your audio.
CONS
- It takes extra time to prepare the audio.
- It disrupts the listener’s experience which will inevitably generate lower view counts.
- Your work may have less interaction and fewer comments.
- People may view you as an amateur .
Another Way To Protect Your Audio
Another way you can protect your work is by registering it with Youtube’s Content ID. Though this is limited to YouTube’s platform, it will protect you from having your work stolen and used on the internet’s second-biggest search engine.
Watermarking Tips
- Keep the watermark at a low volume. It needs to be audible in all parts of your track, but never overpowering it.Â
- If the watermark is too loud and causes the audio to clip, you’ll want to find the right balance of volume by trying out different volume settings. For advanced audio engineers, you can also use a compressor plugin with sidechain capabilities to duck the watermark if this is an issue.
- Keep the watermark in the same frequencies as the audio file you want to protect. If your watermark is too low, someone can simply place a low cut filter and remove it. If it is too high pitched, a high cut filter can remove the watermark.
- Make sure the watermark is unique to you and that nobody else can have access to it. If somebody else can find the audio file you are using as a watermark, they can easily remove it using specialized software and your work will be vulnerable.
Free Software For Adding A Watermark
If you do not have a DAW and are on a tight budget, Audacity is an easy way to add a watermark to your audio files. Simply drag your audio file and your watermark into a project and export them together onto a new audio file.
Paid Watermarking Software
If you are a product creator, freelancer, or often need to quickly add watermarks to your project files, then getting a paid software program can help save you lots of time. With AG Watermark Generator, you can drag and drop audio files directly into the engine. Once you have all your files ready, simply drag and drop your watermark file once and the generator will create new files that are protected with your watermark.
***Note that I have never personally used the AG WATERMARK GENERATOR product, but if you are interested in a software that specializes in watermarking audio files and is quick and easy to use, you can find a link HERE.***
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Audio watermark maker
Batch audio watermarking utility lets you quickly insert a short audio file (audio watermark) at choosen position in any number of your audio files and repeat it at set intervals. This protects your work from being stolen or illegaly used. If you are music creator, audio FX creator or maybe you have your own podcast inserting audio watermark is sure way to prevent illegal use of your work.