YouTube's Content ID system enables music partners to easily identify and manage their music on YouTube. YouTube scans uploaded videos against a database of music that you've submitted. When content in a user-uploaded video matches a work that you own, you get to decide whether to monetize the video, block it, or track it.
To use Content ID, you create assets in YouTube's rights management system. Each asset represents a piece of intellectual property. You can deliver four types of music assets:
- Music Video assets
- Sound Recording assets
- Composition Share assets
- Art Track assets
YouTube also recognizes relationships between these assets. A Music Video asset may embed a Sound Recording asset, and a Sound Recording embeds one or more Composition Share assets.
To create assets, you upload the media files and their associated metadata using spreadsheet templates. You must only create assets for items you own the rights to; for example, music labels should not create Composition Share assets without an appropriate contract, and music publishers should not create Sound Recording assets.
Using the references associated with your assets, Content ID identifies user-uploaded videos that include your copyrighted work and makes a claim that asserts your ownership of content within the video.
When one of your assets claims ownership of a user-uploaded video, YouTube applies that asset's policy to the video. In cases where a Sound Recording asset and its embedded Composition Share assets have different policies, YouTube applies the most restrictive of the policies; see How policies are applied for more details.