YouTube Remix
YouTube Remix is the umbrella name for YouTube's content-remixing system for Shorts — the "Remix" menu and its full set of creation tools that let a viewer build a new Short out of an existing video. It's the feature behind Cut, Green Screen, Collab, Add object, Use this sound, Shorts templates, and the AI-powered Reimagine tool.
Remix is not a single button — it's an entry point into several different creation modes, each with its own rules for length, eligibility, credit, and monetization. This entry covers the whole menu. For the deep mechanics of collaborating side-by-side with another video, see YouTube Collaborations. For AI-based Shorts creation, opt-in-by-default remixing settings, and the "Edit into a Short" workflow, see Auto-Generated Shorts.
What Counts as a "Remix" on YouTube
A remix is any new Short built using audio, video, or a single frame sampled from another eligible video — a Short or a long-form upload — via YouTube's own creation tools. You open the Remix menu from:
- The Remix icon on a Short's player, or
- Share → Remix under a long-form video's watch page.
Every remix that uses sampled video or audio is automatically attributed back to the source: remixed video is credited directly in the Shorts player with a clickable link to the original, and remixed audio is credited on the Sound Library page. You can also remix a remix — chaining audio, Cut, Collab, or Green Screen from a video that was itself built with Remix.
Every Tool in the Remix Menu
| Tool | What it does | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Cut | Samples a 1–5 second video+audio segment from an eligible Short or long-form video and places it at the start of your new Short. | Reacting to a specific moment; building on a viral clip. |
| Green Screen | Uses the sampled video as a live animated background behind you (visual only, or visual+audio for eligible music videos). | Reaction content; walking through someone else's footage. |
| Collab | Places the sampled video in a split-screen or stacked layout next to new footage, with adjustable templates and positioning. See YouTube Collaborations for the full mechanics, including how side-by-side dance/response formats work. | Duets, side-by-side comparisons, choreography. |
| Add object | Uses an AI-generated prompt (your own or a Gemini suggestion) to insert an object into an 8-second segment of an eligible Short. English prompts only; not available in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland. | Adding a generated prop, item, or visual gag into someone else's Short. |
| Use this sound | Pulls the audio track from a Short or long-form video (via the Sound icon, or Share → Remix → Use this sound) to use as your own soundtrack. | Riding a trending audio trend without reusing the visuals. |
| Use this template | Applies a Short's existing structure (cuts, timing, transitions) as a template you drop your own clips into. | Recreating a popular format with your own footage. |
| Reimagine | AI tool (powered by Veo) that takes a single frame from an eligible Short and generates an entirely new 8-second clip with new AI-generated audio, optionally inserting you or an object via up to two reference photos. English prompts only; not available in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland. Full context on the AI-generation side of this tool is covered in Auto-Generated Shorts. | Turning one scene from an existing Short into an entirely new AI-generated riff. |
Not the same thing: Dream Screen is a separate YouTube tool that generates an AI background for your own Short from a text prompt — it doesn't sample another creator's video the way Green Screen does. The two are easy to confuse because both alter the background of a Short.
How Remix Eligibility and Opt-Out Work
Public Shorts and long-form videos are opted in to remixing by default — no action is needed to make your content remixable. Some videos are automatically excluded: private or unlisted videos, videos claimed by third-party copyright owners who haven't enabled remix use, and (for music) tracks restricted by licensing terms.
To restrict remixing of your own content:
- Go to YouTube Studio → Content.
- Open a video's details, click Show more, and find "Shorts remixing."
- Choose whether to allow remixing, then Save.
This setting can also be applied in bulk across multiple videos, or set when you first upload. For a standalone Short, this generally lets you block video remixing of it. However, blocking audio remixing of your own content is only available to creators or labels with access to YouTube Studio Content Manager — regular creators without Content Manager access can restrict video reuse but not audio-only sampling. This distinction is frequently missed in generic "how to opt out" guides.
Attribution, Notifications, and Reach
- Video credit appears directly in the Shorts player with a clickable link to the source channel/video.
- Audio credit appears on the Sound Library page, linking back to the original.
- Source videos and their remixes (including remixes of remixes) are surfaced together via "Pivot pages" and in player metadata.
- If your content gets remixed, you're notified — but capped at one summary notification per day, up to three per week, even if dozens of remixes are made in a single day.
- You can measure how much traffic remixes send back to your channel by checking traffic sources in your reach reports and filtering by "Remixed video."
What Happens If the Source Video Is Deleted or Remixing Is Restricted
This is one of the least-documented parts of Remix outside YouTube's own help pages, and it works differently for audio vs. video:
- Audio remixes: muted, set to Unlisted, and scheduled for deletion 30 days after the source is deleted or restricted. You're emailed and can download your video before deletion to re-upload it with different audio.
- Video remixes (Cut, Collab, Green Screen): deleted outright when the source video is deleted or its remixing is restricted. You're notified by email. Views already accumulated still count toward your channel's lifetime view total, but you generally can't re-upload the same remixed footage.
- The same treatment applies if the original creator blurs or trims their video in Studio after the fact, not just on outright deletion — either action can cascade the mute/Unlisted/30-day countdown to downstream audio remixes.
Copyright and Monetization Notes
Using YouTube's own Remix tools on eligible content doesn't require separate permission from the copyright holder — that's the point of the eligibility system. But copyrighted material used outside the official remix tools (e.g., screen-recorded or manually re-uploaded) can still trigger a Content ID claim, a copyright claim, or a copyright strike.
For monetization, a remix is treated like any other Short under YouTube's reused content policy: it needs meaningful original commentary, transformation, or added value to qualify for the YouTube Partner Program rather than being flagged as low-effort reused content. Channels managing multiple contributors should also check channel permissions to control who can adjust a channel's remixing settings, and can review YouTube's broader monetization and policies hub for how remix-based content is evaluated.
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Is YouTube Remix the same as YouTube Music's "Remix" feature?
No — YouTube Music doesn't have a feature literally named "Remix." Its comparable personalized playlists are called "Mixes" (for example, a "Mixed for you" section), which is a different, unrelated feature. Some coverage of YouTube's experimental Dream Track "restyle a track" tool has informally used the word "remix," but that's a separate audio-generation experiment, not the Shorts Remix menu covered here.
Can I stop people from remixing my videos?
Yes, for video remixing — restrict it per video (or in bulk) from YouTube Studio's "Shorts remixing" setting, which is opted in by default. Fully blocking audio remixing as well is only available to creators/partners with YouTube Studio Content Manager access.
What happens to someone's remix if I delete my original video?
Video remixes (Cut, Collab, Green Screen) are deleted outright. Audio remixes are muted, set to Unlisted, and scheduled for deletion 30 days later, giving the remixer time to download their video and swap in different audio before it's removed.
Does using Remix's built-in tools require permission from the original creator?
No — content that's eligible for remixing under YouTube's system can be sampled with the official tools without separately asking the rights holder, since eligibility itself is the permission mechanism. Copyrighted material used outside these tools is a different situation and can still trigger a Content ID claim or copyright strike.