YouTube Content ID for labels

How Content ID works for a catalogue

Content ID is YouTube's automated matching system. Rights owners give YouTube reference files, and every upload is scanned against them. When a video matches, it gets a claim, and the owner's settings decide what happens: monetise the video with ads, track its viewing figures, or block it. Each of these can be set by country, so a video can earn in one country and be blocked in another.

YouTube only gives Content ID to copyright owners who hold exclusive rights to a substantial body of original material that is frequently uploaded to YouTube (How Content ID works). Most independent labels reach it through a partner that already has that access. TempoDigital runs three Content ID networks of its own, Music, Entertainment and Publishing CMS, and more than a billion YouTube views are monetised across them every month.

The exclusive-rights rule

Every reference must be material you control exclusively in each territory where you claim it. If you own a recording only in some countries, you give YouTube those territories. YouTube lists what does not qualify (content eligible for Content ID), including:

• Content licensed to you non-exclusively, such as beats sold to many artists
• Music released under Creative Commons or other free licences
• Public-domain recordings and compositions
• Karaoke recordings, remasters and sound-alikes, which YouTube does not treat as distinct enough
• Sound effects, sound beds and production loops
• Continuous DJ mixes and full albums as one file: each song needs its own reference

For a label, that means checking every release before it goes in. Covers of other people's recordings, uncleared samples and non-exclusive beats stay out. YouTube says owners who repeatedly make wrong claims can lose Content ID access and their YouTube partnership. On TempoDigital, Content ID and the rights tools are chosen release by release, and only for audio the label controls exclusively.

Ownership conflicts

An ownership conflict happens when several owners together claim more than 100% of the same asset in the same territory. For labels it often comes from one recording being delivered twice: by an old distributor and a new one, by the artist and the label, or by a licensee abroad.

While a conflict is open, YouTube typically postpones monetisation on that asset's claims, and if the owners have set different policies, the most restrictive one applies (resolve asset ownership conflicts). One side has to remove its ownership, or the owners have to agree who holds which territories.

Prevent conflicts with good records: one ISRC per recording, clear territories in every licence, and one company managing each recording on YouTube.

Allowlisting your artists' and partners' channels

Your artists use the catalogue on their own channels, and without care Content ID claims those videos too. The answer is the allowlist: channels on it are exempt from claims on your assets. YouTube's rules (exempt channels from Content ID claims):

• Channels linked to the Content Manager that holds the asset are not claimed; every other channel has to be allowlisted
• Allowlisting stops new claims, but claims made before it are not released automatically
• Where more than one partner owns an asset, each of them must allowlist the channel
• Only channels can be allowlisted, not single videos or assets

Give whoever runs your Content ID a list of channels to keep clear: the label's own, each artist's channel and Official Artist Channel, and partners with a licence, such as a promoter or a film. On TempoDigital we allowlist them for you.

Moving Content ID from another provider

Each recording can have only one owner per territory on YouTube. While the old provider still holds an asset, a new one cannot claim it without creating a conflict. So a catalogue moves in order:

1. List the catalogueEvery recording with its ISRC, the territories you own, and which provider holds it in Content ID today.
2. Ask the old provider to release the assetsOr include YouTube in the takedown when you move distribution. Agree a date, so there is neither a gap nor an overlap.
3. Deliver with the same codesRe-deliver the releases with their original ISRCs and UPCs, and switch Content ID on once the old ownership has gone.
4. Send your allowlist againAn allowlist sits with the Content Manager that holds the assets, so the new provider needs your channel list too.

We plan migrations with labels release by release. The distribution side is covered in how to switch distributors.

Content ID on the Label plan and Label Partner

YouTube Content ID is included on every TempoDigital plan, with no charge per release.

On the Label plan we keep 20% of Content ID money for finding and managing the claims. If your label also runs YouTube channels, our YouTube networks take channels directly. Read more about Content ID for music, or see the full distribution for labels offer.

A Content ID checklist for labels

1. Turn on Content ID only for recordings the label controls exclusively
2. Keep one ISRC per recording, and never deliver the same recording through two providers
3. Record the territories you own for every licensed recording
4. Send your channel allowlist before the first release goes in, and update it when you sign an artist
5. Give every asset a real title; YouTube asks for informative titles, not "Track 4"
6. Check claims on your artists' channels each month, and release any that slip through