Sometimes music partners may need to transfer assets and channels to another music partner, such as when catalog acquisitions happen. During the transfer process, both partners (transferring and receiving) should work together to exchange data and coordinate actions. Specifically, partners should follow the best practices below to ensure a smooth transfer.
Asset transfer best practices
Asset transfer processes vary depending on the asset types being transferred:
- Sound recording, Music video, and Web assets
- Art Track assets
Sound recording, Music video, and Web assets
These 2 steps should be done in sequential order:
Receiving partner adds asset ownership
Receiving partner adds asset ownershipThe receiving partner should update asset ownership when they intend to apply their ownership to the assets in their Content Manager. Doing this will cause the assets to go into ownership conflict with the transferring partner. This ensures claims aren’t released when the transferring partner removes their ownership.
More details
Depending on your preferred content delivery method, updating asset ownership can be done in few different ways:
Add ownership to individual assets
The receiving partner can add asset ownership on individual assets in Studio Content Manager.
Add ownership to multiple assets at once via .CSV
The receiving partner can bulk update ownership for multiple assets using the "Asset Update" spreadsheet template.
Add ownership to multiple assets at once via DDEX
Asset ownership updates can be delivered via DDEX. Learn more about using the YouTube DDEX feed.
Transferring partner removes asset ownership
Once the receiving partner adds their ownership to the assets, the transferring partner can remove theirs. This action will automatically resolve the ownership conflict and allocate the adjustment revenue generated during the ownership conflict to the receiving partner.
More details
Depending on your preferred content delivery method, updating asset ownership can be done in few different ways:
Remove ownership from individual assets
The transferring partner can remove ownership from specific assets, also in bulk, from the Assets or Issues page. This action will automatically resolve the ownership conflicts.
Remove ownership from multiple assets at once via .CSV
The transferring partner can bulk remove ownership for multiple assets using the "Asset Update" spreadsheet template. The “ownership” column should be set with '0%territories'. For example: '0%WW' would remove the ownership worldwide. This action will automatically resolve the ownership conflicts.
Remove ownership from multiple assets at once via DDEX
Asset ownership updates can be delivered via DDEX. Learn more about using the YouTube DDEX feed. This action will automatically resolve the ownership conflicts.
Art Track Assets
Art Track assets can’t be transferred and can’t have ownership applied by multiple music partners. For these reasons, Art Track assets must be redelivered.
To guarantee the catalog availability on YouTube during the transfer process, these 2 steps should be done in sequential order:
Receiving partner redelivers Art Track assets
After receiving the recordings and the associated metadata for the catalog, the receiving partner should redeliver all Art Tracks using their preferred content delivery method. This will create new Art Track videos with new video IDs and new view counts starting from 0. Note that views from the old Art Track asset are lost and can't be transferred to the new Art track video.
If the transferred catalog is large, the receiving partner may need to batch deliveries over several days to avoid reaching the limit of allowed deliveries per partner per day. If help is needed, reach out to your YouTube representative.
- Receiving partner should deliver all relevant metadata using the same identifiers (ISRC, UPC, EAN, GRid) that the transferring partner did. This will maintain placements in current algorithmic playlists and user-created playlists and libraries in YouTube Music.
- To guarantee catalog availability on the platform throughout the process, the receiving partner should redeliver all acquired content to YouTube 2 weeks before they intend to publish the acquired content to YouTube.
- New Art Track videos won't surface in YouTube search while the old versions are still available.
- Removing an old Art Track video can affect the Shorts creation count on its sound page. You can maintain the count by keeping the original version up alongside the new version of the Art Track for 72 hours before removing the original Art Track. This allows new Art Track videos to keep the Shorts creation count on its sound page.
Transferring partner sends takedowns for previously delivered Art Track assets
Once the receiving partner has redelivered all Art Tracks, the transferring partner can send takedown requests for the previously delivered Art Tracks using the same method originally used to deliver the assets.
To account for time zone differences, the end date must be set at least 2 days in the past.
Visual of suggested timeline for asset transfers
Channel transfer best practices
For music video and web assets, partners can start the process of transferring channels and associated claimed videos after the ownership transfer is complete. To do this, these 2 steps should be done in sequential order:
Transferring partner removes the linked channel from their Content Manager
Learn how to remove linked channels from your Content Manager.
Receiving partner links the channel to their Content Manager
Learn how to link channels to your Content Manager.