White-label Content ID: the Aegis partner program

Many creators find Aegis through someone who already looks after them: a multi-channel network, an agency, a music distributor or a label manager. Until now those partners could only send creators to Aegis under the Aegis name.

From today, they can apply to offer Content ID protection under their own brand. Your creators sign in on a portal with your name, logo and colors. Aegis does the Content ID work. It reviews each creator, claims reuploads on YouTube and pays creators every month. You don't need a YouTube content management system (CMS) of your own.

Who it's for

The partner program is for companies that manage YouTube creators and want to protect their videos from reuploads:

• multi-channel networks (MCNs) and creator agencies
• music distributors and label managers
• talent managers with a roster of channels

If you're a creator with your own channel, you don't need a partner. Start with the free channel check and apply to Aegis directly.

What partners get today

A portal on an Aegis address. You pick a subdomain, such as your-name.aegis.h.ki. Creators see your display name, your logo, a second logo for dark mode if you have one, your favicon and your colors, with a small Powered by Aegis mark. They sign in there with their Freedom! account, the same account every Aegis creator uses.

A brand console. You fill in your brand, preview it in light and dark mode and submit it. If a color is too light to carry white text, the form tells you before you submit. A person at Aegis checks every version before it goes live, and you can start a new version from any earlier one.

Invitations. Send a creator a personal sign-up link. We email it from Aegis, or you copy the link and send it yourself. Each link lasts 14 days.

A creators list. Every creator who signed up through you, where their review stands, and their views, claims and earnings for this month and last month, with a monthly history. You see names, channels and figures. You don't see creators' email addresses or payment details.

Who does what

Aegis reviews every creator who applies through you, the same way it reviews creators who apply directly. You can invite creators, but you can't accept them yourself. Once Aegis accepts a creator, it registers their videos with Content ID, claims reuploads and pays the creator directly each month. You earn a share of the revenue, as set out in your partner agreement.

We don't promise what your creators will earn. That depends on how often their content gets reuploaded and how the copies are claimed, and any figure we gave you would be a guess. What we can show is what Aegis has paid creators so far.

Why we vet every partner

Aegis claims on YouTube for every creator, direct or through a partner, from one CMS. If one partner's creators make invalid claims, YouTube can take Content ID away from everyone on that CMS, including creators who never heard of that partner. So a person reads every partner application, and we're strict about rights.

Your creators must own their content exclusively, and your agreements with them must let you manage Content ID for their own uploads. The application asks how they prove it, with links to your creator contract and any other evidence.

Aegis doesn't claim gameplay, compilations, reactions, Creative Commons or non-exclusive content, and creators who mainly make those won't be accepted. Our post on checking whether your content qualifies explains each case. If you distribute music, read Content ID for musicians first. Only one party can manage a recording in Content ID, so a catalogue already managed elsewhere has to come out of that system before it can come to Aegis.

New partners start with a cap on how many new creators they can add each month.

How to apply

The application has three steps. You tell us about your company, then about your creators: how many you work with, what they make and a few of their channels. Last comes how they prove they own their content. You sign in with a Freedom! account to start, and you can save and finish later.

We usually decide within 5 working days and email you. If we approve you, we get in touch to sign the partner agreement and open your partner console.

Not part of it yet

Partners ask about a few things the program doesn't do today: a domain of your own instead of an Aegis subdomain, emails sent from your own domain, setting your creators' revenue split yourself, and self-serve billing. If that changes, we'll say so here.

Apply to become an Aegis partner. Want to talk it through first? Use the contact form and tell us about your company.