How Does YouTube Know When My Music is Being Played?

Content ID fingerprinting on YouTube

YouTube uses a system called Content ID, which scans audio files delivered by sound recording owners (labels and distributors) against all videos uploaded to YouTube. If it finds a match, it will claim the video automatically.

However, this system does not always work when attempting to find and claim live and cover versions of songs. So to combat this, we allow clients to manually claim these videos. You can manually identify these videos that are not matched by Youtube’s Content ID system using your Songtrust YouTube Monitor, and then claim them directly from your account!