What is an asset on YouTube?

An asset is considered a reference file (content that contains a piece of intellectual property, such as a web video or sound recording), that a creator provides to YouTube to match against new and existing videos for rights management. Assets are delivered into YouTube's ContentID database, and are not viewable on a channel.

Here are the asset types that Stem can deliver to YouTube ContentID:

• Sound Recording: The master audio for a song. Sound Recording assets are embedded in Music Video assets in ContentID to ensure you're collecting as much data & earnings as possible. 
• Composition: The written melody & lyrics of a song. Composition assets are embedded in Sound Recording assets in ContentID. Currently, Stem can collect on U.S. Mechanical Royalties from YouTube Streams.