Watermark has been used in a variety of copyrightable properties such as images. The purposes of watermark are as follows:
a.) Credit the original work creator in case the work will be shared or distributed by public users.
b.) Protect the copyright owners against unauthorized use. It is because if an object is watermarked (for example images), then another user cannot easily claim they owned that because of the presence of watermark crediting and acknowledging the original creator.
c.) Promote the name of the brand or company creating the work. You have seen this in copyrightable photographs where the watermark bears the presence of the photo studio responsible for the work.
Watermark in MP3 Audio: Some Important Concepts and Background
Similar with photographs and copyrightable images, watermark can also be used with music copyright application and sound recording such as MP3.
Back in the old days, sound recording copyright owners depends on the ID3 tagging system to credit and place the name of the artist, creator, album, etc. Although the ID3 tagging system proved to be a success in identifying the work; it does not provide sufficient protection against unauthorized use.
It is because if an MP3 is re-encoded or re-processed using an audio editing software or mp3 tagging software, the original ID3 information would be lost; thus the MP3 would be re-distributed without proper credits and information to the original creator.
Watermarking is designed to survived even if the audio is re-encoded, re-processed or undergo any means of MP3 tag editing and audio processing. In other words, once the watermarking has been embedded with your MP3 audio; it is now permanent and irreversible.
And there is no other existing technology that could have 100% accuracy in separating the watermark from protected MP3 audio.
What is the best concept of watermarking MP3? I have initially read an article from Michael Borges in License Quote here.
It is about the concept of watermarking MP3. I elaborate the entire process in this post and showing the watermarking process as shown below:
watermarking technique of MP3
It shows the difference between non-watermarked MP3 vs. a watermarked MP3 audio. The key is knowing how to make a voice over to your existing MP3 that you want to be protected. This will be clearly illustrated below. This voice over can be your own voice or any method such as an automated/programmable voiceover software.
To be “permanently embedded”, it will be mixed with your MP3 and the result is the watermarked audio. You can then embed your ID3 tags such as ISRC (see an example here on how to embed and read ISRC codes on MP3 files).
You can then use this MP3 as a preview file in your website (where you are selling or offering your original work for licensing). This preview file is only used for public demonstration of your work. So if it gets shared to another sources (such as in a file sharing system), your originally created work still have its watermark that can be identified by any listeners and potential fans. However the actual MP3 file that your customer would be receiving (after purchase) should not contain any watermark.
Although this watermarked system is not a solution for MP3 piracy, it does have a lot of benefits to the original creator of sound recording:
a.) When used as a preview files, listeners can identify the song creator or other information embedded in the watermarked. This will be a big factor in the song marketing.
b.) You do not have to worry about your MP3 being shared to other users, the watermarked on them can help the user trace the original source or creator.
Actual Demonstration on how to add a watermark on your MP3 file
Step1.) Decide first which information you would like to embed in the watermark. Remember that you will be embedding this information as a voice over. Below are some important lists of information that you can include in your voice over:
a.) Title of the song
b.) Name of the performing artist
c.) Owner of the Sound Recording
d.) Website
Step2.) Generate the WAV file of your voice over. If you have a home studio with microphone, you can record it by speaking to the microphone, for example:
“Visit the music publisher website,
www.audiorecording.me ,
Thank you”
Or if you do not want to record your own voice and does not want to hire a voiceover talent, you can do it yourself by going to this website.
And then enter the text you would like to be converted to speech, for example see the following text and settings used below:
Text to speech converter
After you have finalized the automated voiceover, you can click “Save audio file” link and save it to your computer. You can use a lot of text to speech generated software and there are lots of great solutions out there.
If you are recording your voice over; you need to read this tutorial on how to record vocals properly. Recording voices over uses the same technique as recording vocals. You should pay attention to your recording levels, etc.
Step3.) You can use any audio editing software to mix the voiceover to your MP3 file to form the watermarked audio. Supposing you will be using Audacity (free software); you need to add two new tracks (one for the voiceover and the other for the MP3).
You can also do this with Reaper much efficiently. Read this Reaper DAW tutorial for details.
Then import the MP3 and the voice over. By default, the voice over would be 16KHz sample rate and 24-bit PCM when imported in Audacity. Your MP3 should be in standard 16-bit/44.1KHz. The Audacity project rate should also be in 44.1 KHz to match with the MP3 sample rate.
Use the “time shift tool” to move the voice over to the desired location. For example, see screenshot below:
Watermark and MP3 waveform together
Step4.) After you have finalized the blending of your MP3 and the voiceover, save the project first and assign a file name. After that, go to “Tracks” then click “Mix and Render” in Audacity.
Step5.) After mixing, the resulting single stereo waveform is now the watermarked mp3. You can then use this file as a preview or any other marketing purposes where watermarking is needed.
To Export as MP3 in Audacity, go to File – Export then assign a filename to the watermarked MP3. You can optionally assign ID3 tags (recommended) as well as the MP3 bit rate (128KBPS recommended for most streaming purposes, although you can also use 320kBPS). For a better quality results, you can try flow below:
Record voiceovers in 24-bits//44.1KHz — > Important voice over and 24-bits/44.1KHz WAV file of your song — > Mixdown/render to 24-bits/44.1KHz stereo WAV –> Sample rate and bit depth conversion to 16-bits/44.1KHz — > Convert to 320Kbps MP3
Refer to the following tutorials below for details:
1.) Reaper high quality mixdown
2.) How to use dithering & sample rate conversion. Simply set resample to 44.1KHz and output bit depth to 16-bits. The result is 16-bits/44.KHz WAV file.
3.) Finally you can convert WAV to MP3. Read this Reaper DAW tutorial for the steps on how you can add an MP3 encoder.
Listen to the sample watermarked MP3 below created by the following the above steps.
Content last updated on July 14, 2012