Release list

These features are only available to partners using YouTube's Content Manager to manage their copyrighted content.

Releases – Audio Album profile

For Audio Album feeds, the <ReleaseList> defines the releases that can be made from the resources in this message. Each available release is represented by a <Release> element with a unique release reference.

Each Audio Album feed must contain two types of releases:

• At least one release with a <ReleaseType> of Album, Single or ClassicalAlbum. For each of these releases, an album playlist will be created (assuming the relevant rights). YouTube uses some of the <Release> metadata to create the Art Tracks for the sound recording resources; see Creating Art Tracks from DDEX files for details.
• For each track, a release with a <ReleaseType> of TrackRelease. Since YouTube streams tracks one at a time, only deals that are linked to TrackReleases are considered for YouTube Premium. YouTube does not use any metadata from TrackReleases.

YouTube supports territory-specific metadata in the <ReleaseDetailsByTerritory> composite. Please refer to this article for more details.

Art Track ownership

At the time of delivery, YouTube applies ownership on the Art Track asset for all territories that the track will go live in. The auto-populated usage policy on the Art Track claim will determine when the video will be live in each of these territories.
 

Releases – Single Resource Release profile

For Single Resource feeds, all Releases in the <ReleaseList> must have a ReleaseType of SingleResourceRelease. These releases are used for linking Content ID deal terms to the <SoundRecording>. YouTube does not use any metadata from these releases.
 

Releases – Video Single profile

According to the Video Single profile, each feed must contain two types of releases:

• One release with a <ReleaseType> of VideoSingle. This release type is not used by YouTube.
• One release with a <ReleaseType> of VideoTrackRelease. Since YouTube streams tracks one at a time, only deals that are linked to VideoTrackRelease are processed. YouTube also uses this release for the following:

Video: Description	<ReleaseDetailsByTerritory>     [...]     <MarketingComment>Official video for 'A little bit of Foo' by Jonny and the Føøbars. Now also available on http://someothersite.abc/jonnyandthefoobars. Follow us on social media: http://socialmediasite.abc/jonnyandthefoobars.     </MarketingComment>     [...] </ReleaseDetailsByTerritory>
Asset: Embedding a Sound Recording in the Music Video asset	<ReleaseDetailsByTerritory>     [...]     <RelatedRelease>         <ReleaseId>             <!-- This is the Audio ISRC. This will result in the SR asset in CMS being linked to the MV asset. -->                 <ISRC>QZ6RS1712345</ISRC>          </ReleaseId>          <ReleaseRelationshipType>IsFromAudio</ReleaseRelationshipType>     </RelatedRelease>     [...] </ReleaseDetailsByTerritory>
Video: Linking a custom thumbnail image to the YouTube video	<ReleaseDetailsByTerritory>     [...]     <ResourceGroup>         <ResourceGroupContentItem>             <ResourceType>Video</ResourceType>             <ReleaseResourceReference ReleaseResourceType="PrimaryResource">A1</ReleaseResourceReference>             <LinkedReleaseResourceReference LinkDescription="VideoScreenCapture">A2</LinkedReleaseResourceReference>         </ResourceGroupContentItem>     </ResourceGroup>     [...] </ReleaseDetailsByTerritory>

Releases – Specify track ordering

Per DDEX standards, YouTube Music requires partners use the <ResourceGroup> composite to communicate track ordering.

The following shows sample XML to communicate track ordering for an album with five  tracks:

<ResourceGroup>
    <ResourceGroup>
        <SequenceNumber>1</SequenceNumber>
        <ResourceGroupContentItem>
            <SequenceNumber>1</SequenceNumber>
            <ResourceType>SoundRecording</ResourceType>
            <ReleaseResourceReference>A1</ReleaseResourceReference>
        </ResourceGroupContentItem>
        <ResourceGroupContentItem>
            <SequenceNumber>2</SequenceNumber>
            <ResourceType>SoundRecording</ResourceType>
            <ReleaseResourceReference>A2</ReleaseResourceReference>
        </ResourceGroupContentItem>
        <ResourceGroupContentItem>
            <SequenceNumber>3</SequenceNumber>
            <ResourceType>SoundRecording</ResourceType>
            <ReleaseResourceReference>A3</ReleaseResourceReference>
        </ResourceGroupContentItem>
        <ResourceGroupContentItem>
            <SequenceNumber>4</SequenceNumber>
            <ResourceType>SoundRecording</ResourceType>
            <ReleaseResourceReference>A4</ReleaseResourceReference>
        </ResourceGroupContentItem>
        <ResourceGroupContentItem>
            <SequenceNumber>5</SequenceNumber>
            <ResourceType>SoundRecording</ResourceType>
            <ReleaseResourceReference>A5</ReleaseResourceReference>
        </ResourceGroupContentItem>
    </ResourceGroup>
</ResourceGroup>

If the <ResourceGroup> composite is missing, YouTube will use the resource list ordering for track ordering. While this is not DDEX compliant, it is currently accepted for legacy reasons. Partners should update their feeds to send <ResourceGroup> to specify track ordering instead.

<ResourceGroup> composite for track ordering will soon be mandatory and YouTube will fail all messages without this composite, and deprecate support for all other non-DDEX-complaint track-ordering mechanisms.