What is an asset?
In the YouTube rights management system, an asset is a collection of info about a piece of intellectual property. Copyright owners create assets in YouTube’s Studio Content Manager so they can manage their copyrighted content on YouTube.
Assets are not YouTube videos. Assets get linked to YouTube videos when they're claimed. Videos uploaded by copyright owners can be claimed or other users’ videos can be claimed when they include content that matches the copyright owner's asset.
Parts of an asset
An asset is made up of:
- Reference file: The actual copyrighted content, such as a music video.
- Metadata: Info about the copyrighted content, such as its title.
- Ownership info: Info on where you own the rights to the content and how much of the content you own.
- Policies: Instructions that tell YouTube what to do when matches of your content are found.
Create an asset
An asset must be created so our right management tools can find and act on matches of your content. There are a few ways to create an asset:
- During video upload or by applying an upload policy
- Using the Manual Claiming Tool
- Using YouTube's Package uploader
- Using a high volume upload method, such as DDEX or SFTP
- Using YouTube's APIs
Asset types
When you create an asset, you’re asked to pick the asset type. There are a few different types of assets:
| Asset type | Description | Example metadata |
|---|---|---|
| Sound Recording | An audio recording. |
|
| Composition Share | An ownership share of a musical composition. |
|
| Music Video | Audiovisual music content, typically provided by a music label. |
|
| Art Track | Video consisting of a sound recording and a static image. Art tracks are used for songs that don't have a premium music video. |
|
| Movie | A feature film. |
|
| TV episode | Episode from a television show. |
|
| Web | Any other type of video content not covered by the other asset types. |
|
Why does asset type matter?
It’s important to select the correct asset type for a few reasons:
- Different asset types have different metadata options
- Asset type can’t be changed easily
- Depending on your contract with YouTube, asset type might decide whether or not you can monetize claimed videos
If you’re not sure which type to use, get in touch with your partner manager or YouTube support for help. You can also check out the best practices for assets.
Embedded assets
Many different writers, artists, and companies are often involved in the creation of a song or music video. To correctly represent their shared ownership, some music assets can be embedded in others.
| Composition Share asset | Sound Recording asset | Music Video asset | ||
|
Composition Share assets represent the rights of the song writers. One or more Composition Share assets can be embedded in a Sound Recording asset. |
 |
Sound Recording assets represent the rights of the song producer and performer. One Sound Recording asset can be embedded in a Music Video asset. |
|
Music Video assets represent the rights of the music video producer. |
Sound recordings with many different owners can also use sound recording shares to represent complete ownership info.