Can you sync Timeline to YouTube streamed audio?

[epi.noah]

Is there a way?

• I'm trying to build a version of epiTemplate for dance scenes.
• I don't want creators to worry about copyright strikes.
• If I could use the TV in there or something to stream the music instead of embedding the copyrighted audio in the var, and sync the motion to the streamed audio, that would unlock a lot of possibilities.

 

[atani]

Considering that everyone embeds the music in their scenes, I think you'd not be sticking out by doing the same.
The TV option is a good idea but there would be all kinds of issues on people's location restrictions, commercials, you name it.

Perhaps @DJ could advise better in copyright on Hub scenes and current use in scenes.

 

[epi.noah]

Honestly., the way the scene is now, there isn't a single youtube link on the TV. It's a youtube search for the track. That way, ads don't kick in while the scene is loading, and the user can pick whatever current video works in their country.

The animation starter is a different button in scene, it says START.

What I need is:
1. That start button to trigger a click on the TV at the same time as the animation starts. (The user will pick the video first and rewind to 0 with the Youtube slider)
2. Audio sync the way Soundtrack audio sync does

 

[DJ]

Considering that everyone embeds the music in their scenes, I think you'd not be sticking out by doing the same.
The TV option is a good idea but there would be all kinds of issues on people's location restrictions, commercials, you name it.

Perhaps @DJ could advise better in copyright on Hub scenes and current use in scenes.

Including the music files themselves in the scene would, indeed, open up copyright violation issues. A link to a streaming site would avoid that.

 

[epi.noah]

• I'm trying to build a version of epiTemplate for dance scenes.
• I don't want creators to worry about copyright strikes.
• If I could use the TV in there or something to stream the music instead of embedding the copyrighted audio in the var, and sync the motion to the streamed audio, that would unlock a lot of possibilities.

edit: something like epiSanctuary. On the desktop, number keys (the ones under the F keys) switch cameras.
In VR, you control the action with a tablet that you can call to your VR hand with by clicking the button on a wristwatch on your VR hand. Just like epiTemplate.

What's missing is:

1. That start button to trigger a click on the TV at the same time as the animation starts. (The user will pick the video first and rewind to 0 with the Youtube slider)
2. Audio sync the way Soundtrack audio sync does

 

[MacGruber]

There is lots of decent free music out there. For example:

Royalty Free Music for Content Creators, Perfect for YouTube Videos or Multimedia Projects

Royalty-free music for your YouTube videos or multimedia projects. The music is free for everyone (even for commercial purposes).

www.free-stock-music.com

For most songs you have to credit the author, but you can just include it with your scene. That means no dependency that could break, no ads, etc.
I used songs from that site for several of my scenes. E.g. Alex-Productions (which has some songs on above site) uses CC-BY 3.0 license, which makes it compatible with the VAR license system.

 

[epi.noah]

There is lots of decent free music out there. For example:

Royalty Free Music for Content Creators, Perfect for YouTube Videos or Multimedia Projects

Royalty-free music for your YouTube videos or multimedia projects. The music is free for everyone (even for commercial purposes).

www.free-stock-music.com

For most songs you have to credit the author, but you can just include it with your scene. That means no dependency that could break, no ads, etc.
I used songs from that site for several of my scenes. E.g. Alex-Productions (which has some songs on above site) uses CC-BY 3.0 license, which makes it compatible with the VAR license system.

That's what I'd do. But I'm trying to put together that Patreon creators can use. And they tend to use famous songs that their users wanna see girls dance to.

 

[SPQR]

the simplest way to do something like that imo is to use soundcloud instead of youtube, less songs but it solves the ads problem

in game to play a song for example:

- browser >set url> https://soundcloud.com/goodtimesaheadmusic/rihanna-bitch-better-have-my-money-gta-remix (song url)
- browser > logicbricks-delay1> set delay 0:01 (expected delay for song to kick in)
- browser > logicbricks-delay1> trigger (song started event - start vam dance)
- browser > logicbricks-delay2> set delay 3:48 (song duration)
- browser > logicbricks-delay2 > trigger (song endend event - stop browser & vam dance or jump to next)

on the song ended event you can set the url to "about:blank", otherwise soundcloud will jump to the next song


it's not gonna be 100% in sync but close. To force it to be more in sync you could dummy load the url once, after a couple of seconds set the url to something else (like about:blank), and load it again and this time do the delay trigger also. The first time it will probably load a bit slower, the second time it should have some cache and the song should start auto-playing quicker

 

[epi.noah]

That’s more than I know. And I can probably just skip autostart, instead use the buttons on the tablet as also url triggers to start, pause, resume the music with the animation.

But with the soundtrack audio sync plugin, creators actually skip a beat or just pause the music for a second if the animations skips a beat or becomes janky because VaM drops frames. So they keep it perfectly in sync, every move keyframe matches the beat as they intended.

And some scenes use the VAMAudioAnalyzer plugin on the audio source atom to do that.

Which makes me think that I need something like a plugin like VAMAudioAnalyzer to analyze the soundcloud audio and communicate it to the soundtrack audio sync plugin for this to work properly, instead of breaking mid scene.

 

[SPQR]

personally i think that's a lot of work that's gonna be janky & temporary for a feature that's not worthy: commercial songs. people care 99% about sexy dances here, music is kinda irrelevant imho. and it's a slightly shady way to circumvent copyrights, might not be 100% legal anyway

myself i wouldn't bother with online music tbh, i don't think it's really worth it. on the plugin side i think it's extremely unlikely you'll find someone to get it done that way

 

[epi.noah]

Thanks your for your perspective from a coders side. I'm half way convinced to give up on the idea

It's gotta be legal because the files are kept at Soundcloud, their view count goes up, their loyalties go up... They retain the right to take their music off Soundcloud and there is no redistribution etc. But if coders don't find the idea worthy of their time, it ain't happening.

 

[SPQR]

It's gotta be legal because the files are kept at Soundcloud, their view count goes up, their loyalties go up...

i ain't no lawyer but i think things are more complicated than that. if you're thinking of loopholes to make money out of a corporation's content, 99.99% the corporation has it covered

like

https://soundcloud.com/terms-of-use ctrl-f commercial

You may not, without the prior written consent of SoundCloud, use the Players or the Widget in such a way that you aggregate Content from the Platform into a separate destination that replicates substantially the offering of the Website, or comprises a content service of which Content from the Platform forms a material part.

 

[epi.noah]

I believe "substantially " is key in that sentence. It says "don't clone our site with an inline frame and ads to call it a day, you monster". That's my interpretation anyway.

I believe we can agree that this would be at least much more defendable than embedding the audio and redistributing it. And it would also be more acceptable to creators who wouldn't do that but could see themselves doing this.

I can imagine that when a new music video comes out, there would be scenes in the hub from people who do an adult parody of the music video because now they don't have to be sharing files online to do that.

Could be problematic if it's a paid scene. But if it's a free scene and a parody, I believe it would be protected by free speech unless you redistribute the music. But I ain't no lawyer either.

 

[SPQR]

you're obviously not a lawyer lol. "or" is key there

I believe we can agree that this would be at least much more defendable than embedding the audio and redistributing it.

nah, i don't think it's a spectrum and it's not something you really have a voice in to defend. it's their content, their services, and they set the rules for it. you're either respecting them or you're breaking them. has nothing to do with free speech imo

i'm not saying they're gonna sue you or that anyone would even notice or care about it. but it would take a 30s email to shut it all down. i'm just pointing that out

 

[epi.noah]

Al Yankovic would disagree

• There is doing something where you're trying to follow platform rules and can choose to argue or take it down if they say you're at fault.
• And there's doing something that is obviously illegal.

The first gets the content down with an email.
The latter gets you a huge fine or jail time (or both).
And if they sued you, the first one is more defendible.

• Yes, using free stock music would be my first choice. No gray area there.
• Having the SoundCloud/YouTube link open in the browser and having a plugin syncing Timeline to the audio analysis would be perfectly legal IMO. Could become a gray area if it's paid content. Otherwise, it is SoundCloud/YouTube on a browser, you're not providing that content, you're providing content that goes along with that. I would rather have a system in place for creators to have the option than say “free stock music is my first choice anyway”.

Just like it says "substantially" before "or", it says "forms a material part" and "comprises a content service" after or. A dance that syncs to the beat of whatever music the user clicks on a browser doesn't fit into that definition IMO. And that was my first proposal.