I cannot stream on Youtube until 2021

Good morning/afternoon/evening, I am Ayane Ninomae and I’m an independent Vtuber who mainly streams on Youtube. This is an important announcement that I have to make regarding my Youtube channel and future livestreaming activities.
Before anything else, I’d like to get one thing out of the way first: I am fine. Physically I mean. I’m stating this first because I don’t want to make anyone worry too much; the announcement I’m making and the reason behind it is nothing related to my health.

Youtube is my main platform for streaming and almost any content that I make (song covers, etc.). To me, I consider it as another home I come back to after a long day at university or work.
It was just last night when I reviewed my channel analytics. To be honest I still look at my subscriber count feeling very overwhelmed with lots of emotions because I’m proud of myself and how far I’ve come in my Vtuber journey. Despite streaming for the first time ever in my life and having a lot of shortcomings as a streaming, I’m very happy with the support I received from so many people.
However, starting today, I cannot stream on Youtube until 2021, next year.

Sorry if I made this sound a bit dramatic or maybe too long to read even though the reason is simple, but upon receiving the notification on my email a while ago, I just felt really numb. I recently just came back from my streaming break at the start of this month and was very excited to regularly stream again. 2021 is still so far and it’s only October. My 6-hour comeback stream last October 03, which included a karaoke session in the middle, received a copyright takedown notice. My channel got a copyright strike and as a result, I got a livestream restriction until January 2021 (3 months). I do not blame Youtube for this; it’s not a mistake made by them but mine alone. I was stupid for not doing my research enough. Before making my song lineups in Karaoke streams, I do a simple check to see if a song is ‘safe’ to sing in a stream. This is my own and admittedly stupid method but if I see a redistribution (such as song covers, lyrics video, etc.) of the song I want to sing in a stream up on Youtube, then it is fine to sing it in a stream. This thinking of mine is completely wrong and naive. Not all song covers are protected under fair use or completely safe from copyright strikes. I can’t risk making any legal actions regarding the strike such as submitting a counter-notification because it may result in the termination of my channel. There’s really nothing else we can do but wait until next year. I should’ve been a lot more careful and what happened today will definitely serve as a lesson for me to be careful next time. I’m very sorry to the people who were looking forward to my streams and I’m sorry if I have to make everyone wait for me again because of my careless mistake.

I don’t want my livestreaming activities to just permanently stop from there though. I will resume my streaming activities once the strike has been lifted in January 2021. Regarding alternatives such as streaming on Twitch, I don’t think I am ready to dip my toes on streaming there anytime soon because I need to learn and adjust myself to that platform temporarily but when I am, I hope you can still give me your support and maybe guide me as well on Twitch streaming.

I am still a Vtuber and I will continue other activities such as collaborating with other streamers so you may still see me around in other people’s streams, it's just that I won't be able to stream my part/POV. I will still upload covers (carefully(?) I don’t think I won’t have a problem with cover uploads though, don’t worry) and maybe other videos as well. For now, I’m back to streaming break again. What happened today is still a lot to take in for me emotionally so I hope everyone will understand. I’ll still be alive and active on my social media accounts so you’ll definitely still see me around! Thank you so much for reading up to this point. Also if it’s not too much to ask, please don’t bring this topic up when I am on other people’s streams. Thank you and I’ll see you all soon

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