Creating Art Tracks

These features are only available to partners who use YouTube Studio Content Manager.

To create Art Tracks for your sound recordings, you upload the recording and artwork media files along with a metadata file that describes the recording. You can provide the metadata in one of two formats:

An industry-standard DDEX Electronic Release Notification (ERN) feed
An "Audio - Art Tracks" bulk upload spreadsheet.

YouTube creates the Art Track based on the values you provide in the file; see below for details about how the metadata values impact the resulting Art Track.

YouTube creates one Art Track for each track that you upload using the YouTube Music DDEX feed or the "Audio - Art Tracks" bulk upload spreadsheet. It identifies tracks based on their ISRC, release identifier (UPC, EAN, GRid), and partner. YouTube will create Art Tracks for each unique combination of these fields.

Building an Art Track from a DDEX file

The table below identifies the element in the DDEX file that YouTube uses for the track information. If the element in the Primary DDEX source column does not exist in the message, YouTube uses the value from the element in the Secondary DDEX source column. The items with an asterisk show in the Description associated with the Art Track, not in the Art Track itself.

YouTube does not yet support per-territory metadata. If the message includes multiple versions of the metadata for a track, YouTube uses only the version that appears first in the message.

If you include translated titles or artist names, the translations appear alongside the original language text in the Description; the Art Track uses only the original language. More about providing translated titles and names.

Information	Primary DDEX source	Secondary DDEX source
Album art	`<ResourceList> <Image> <ImageDetailsByTerritory> <TechnicalImageDetails> <File>` If a release has more than one `<Image>` element, the Art Track uses the first one	None
Track title	`<SoundRecording> <SoundRecordingDetailsByTerritory> <Title TitleType=”DisplayTitle”>`	`<SoundRecording> <ReferenceTitle> <TitleText>` plus optional `<SubTitle>`
Artist	`<SoundRecording> <SoundRecordingDetailsByTerritory> <DisplayArtist> <PartyName> <FullName>` If a track has more than one `<DisplayArtist>`, the Art Track shows each artist on a new line, up to four lines	`<ResourceList> <DisplayArtist> <PartyName> <FullName>`
Album title	`<Release> <ReleaseType>Album</ReleaseType> <ReferenceTitle> <TitleText>` plus optional `<SubTitle>`	`<ReleaseDetailsByTerritory> <Title TitleType="DisplayTitle"> <TitleText>` plus optional `<SubTitle>`
Copyright*	`<PLine>` If the track doesn’t have a `<PLine>` element, the Art Track description uses the `<PLine>` element for the album	`<CLine>` If the track doesn’t have a `<CLine>` element, the Art Track description uses the `<CLine>` element for the album
Release date*	`<ReleaseDetailsByTerritory> <OriginalReleaseDate>`	None
Contributors*	`<SoundRecording> <ResourceContributor>` The Art Track description lists each contributor on a separate line, with a comma-separated list of roles (from the `<ResourceContributorRole>` tag) followed by the contributor’s name. YouTube sorts the contributor list alphabetically by role unless the `<ResourceContributor>` includes an explicit SequenceNumber attribute.	None
GRid and UPC	`<Release> <ReleaseType>TrackRelease</ReleaseType> <ReleaseId> <Grid> <ICPN>` If you provide them for the track release, these IDs are saved as attributes of the art track asset. They do not appear in the Art Track itself.	None
Partner-specific ID	`<SoundRecording> <SoundRecordingId> <ProprietaryId>` If you provide a ProprietaryId for a sound recording, the ID is saved as the custom_id of the art track asset. It does not appear in the Art Track itself.	None

Building an Art Track from an "Audio - Art Tracks" spreadsheet

The table below identifies the column in the spreadsheet that YouTube uses for the track information. The items with an asterisk show in the Description associated with the Art Track, not in the Art Track itself.

You can’t provide translated titles or artist names using the spreadsheet, nor a list of contributors. You need to provide a DDEX feed to include these items.

Information	Spreadsheet column
Album art	album_art_filename
Track title	track_title
Artist	track_artist
Album title	album_title
Copyright*	track_pline If the track doesn’t have a track_pline, the Art Track description uses the album_label
Release date*	album_release_date
GRid, EAN, and UPC	If you provide them for the track release, these IDs are saved as attributes of the art track asset. They do not appear in the Art Track itself.

Was this helpful?

How can we improve it?

Creating Art Tracks

Was this helpful?

Need more help?

Try these next steps: