you're FAQ
Can I use your stuff?
yep. all my work, including music, sprites, and videos, are and always will be free to use for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, provided that you credit me. be sure to let me know what you do with my work too, i love seeing how my work inspires others.
Things I'd rather you not do with my work (but won't stop you from doing):
- promote a political ideology (honestly idek how you'd do this but i've seen other people say not to do this so i guess it's a thing.)
- nsfw (if you must do this then at least don't send it to me)
- training public ai/ml projects (this is here and not under things i will stop you from doing mostly because i realistically can't stop you from doing this. if it somehow turns out i'm able to stop you though, i probably will.) (idc if its private tho. here's why.)
- directly reupload a song i've already uploaded to youtube/soundcloud. (if i haven't uploaded it then please ask me, as i may be planning to upload it in the future.)
- extentions. the loop feature exists on youtube for reason. (though if you put effort into looping it really well i'll dislike it less.)
Things I will stop you from doing:
- directly ripping my work and reselling it for a profit. to be clear, i dont mind commercial use as long as you're actually adding something. if you literally just reupload my work to bandcamp and charge for it, that's not cool. my work should remain free for all to download and use at will.
- submitting my work to content id databases.
- crypto/blockchain stuff (kinda falls under ripping and reselling my work but yeah)
Regarding monetization:
my distributor gives me the option to submit my work to youtube's content id seperately from youtube music, and i have chosen to not submit it to youtube's content id (along with other content id databases like tiktok, snapchat, facebook, and instagram). if you ever get a copyright claim from one of my songs, it's either a glitch or someone exploiting the copyright system, and you should appeal it and link this page in your appeal. i have no desire in stealing the money you rightfully deserve for putting hard work into a video just because it happened to use my work.
Regarding credit:
if you're using it for a youtube video, just say something like this in the description somewhere: "song at [timestamp] by @lookink54-ut: [link to song]". the @mention is optional but is highly preferable for two reasons: 1: it's a direct link to my channel, and 2: it gives me a notification. (this is a good thing to me because, as mentioned previously, i love seeing how my work inspires others.) crediting me in the video itself would also be great, but not required.
if you're using it for a scratch project, something like "[song name] by @lookink54" in the notes and credits section would be great. you don't have to link anything, since scratch will probably delete your project if you do. also, i'll probably extend a bit of grace if you're obviously a dumb 9 year old who doesn't know any better.
if you're using it for a game, putting me in the game's credits both in the game and on the game's page wherever it's hosted would be great. naming the song(s) you used and linking to it would be extra great.
if you're using it for a short film, putting my name in the credits at the end would be great, especially if its like a school project and doesn't have a description or anything like that where you can check for credits.
you get the idea. just credit me somewhere visible and everything's cool. if you absolutely can't/don't want to credit me, dm me on discord @lookink54 or email me at lookink54@gmail.com (discord is preferred due to me checking it much more often) and we can work out a license or something.
Regarding older music:
all music that i've made during or before march of 2022 is licensed under a cc0 license, which is essentially public domain. this means you can use it for literally anything in the world, with no credit necessary. (it is still appreciated though!) why? well, mostly because all my music made during/before march of 2022 is mediocre at best and i don't care about it enough, but also because public domain stuff is fun. i remember in like march of 2024 i was looking on wikimedia commons for public domain music to sample for fun, and i found a couple cool things. i want more people to be able to experience at least a taste of what it'd be like to live in a copyright-free utopia.
What do you use?
for music, up until very late may of 2023, i used reason 10 intro. after late may 2023 i upgraded to reason+.
for pixel art, i use pixilart.com, though i've also been trying to use aseprite recently.
on the very rare occasions i do digital art, i've used Krita and Ibis Paint X.
for video editing, i use Hitfilm Creator, but before june 2023 i used the free version. i've also made some custom backgrounds in OBS.
for sprite animations, i use scratch.mit.edu.
for thumbnails, i use Imerge, OBS, and Canva.