Media asset management (MAM) has often been used interchangeably with other asset management terms, which we will discuss later in this blog. While there are similarities across the different asset management methodologies, a MAM system is unique both in its origin and how people use it to organize visual content.

Media asset management is the process in which people manage large audio and video files. It has long been a crucial piece of A/V production workflows, enabling various team members, from creators to editors, to store their audio and video projects in one location.

As we delve deeper into this topic in future sections, feel free to skip ahead to the parts that are the most relevant to your needs:

What are the key terms around media asset management?

There are a couple of terms that are often used freely when discussing media asset management. These terms are not as fluid as the terms we covered in our blog on digital asset management (DAM). However, they are still important to cover.

Media asset management system specifically means the actual platform, software, applications, or tools used to manage high-volume multi-media content. This term is often abbreviated to simply MAM system, which refers to the same thing—the actual solution itself rather than the concept of media asset management as defined above.

Another term, which is much broader, is asset management solutions. This term refers to the general market of asset management solutions, including DAM, MAM, BAM (brand asset management), and VAM (video asset management), which a company will research and eventually purchase to meet its asset management needs.

As for media assets, the piece contained within the term itself, we defined this in our last blog on digital asset management. Basically, a media asset is a piece of content that typically comes in five key formats—images, audio, video, documents, or HTML. This term usually refers to the specific, individual piece of collateral that has been created. For the purposes of media asset management, we’ll be focusing on audio and video content.

How is a MAM different from other asset management methods and systems such as DAM, BAM, and VAM?

To understand the differences between all of these different terms, let’s first understand what they are before we outline how MAM stands apart.

Digital asset management refers more broadly to the method and systems used to help people store, manage, share, and distribute their content. Media asset management could be grouped under this term as a specific segment within DAM, however MAM is more focused on managing audio and video content specifically.

Brand asset management (BAM), also a segment of digital asset management, is the process and systems used to manage all branded digital files and content. This branded content is managed and accessed by internal teams who can repurpose, modify, and update branded content as needed. This can include logos, sales sheets, and other sales and marketing content.

Video asset management (VAM) is also a segment underneath digital asset management. You could even argue it’s also a subset of MAM. VAM specifically focuses on the storage and organization of video content whereas MAM typically deals with audio and video content.

What should I look for in media asset management software?

There are four key areas that you should focus on when trying to research and ultimately purchase a media asset management solution. While there may be other considerations important to you, these should also be added to your list if they are not currently on your radar.

Integration Capability

With the world continuously moving towards digital transformation, you should consider seriously what sort of integration capabilities come with the MAM systems you are looking at. Do they have prebuilt APIs and integrations with relevant third-party software solutions that you would use? How would it integrate with your current stack?

This is important not only from a cost standpoint but also just an operational efficiency point of view. The last thing you want is to adopt a modern MAM solution and have limitations integrating it with your other solutions and tools.

Features

The way you know if you need a media management software versus a DAM, BAM, or VAM boils down to what you are looking for it to do. Some of the top features that justify a MAM over other asset management systems include:

  • Manual or automatic media logging
  • Editing proxy files in the cloud
  • Easy transcoding and file preparation
  • Seamless collaboration for editing purposes
  • Built-in review and approval of files
  • Enabling subtitles

Access and Security

Accessibility is critical from a collaboration and distribution standpoint. You should determine what sort of controls it comes to assigning access to internal or external teams. In addition, to further ensure that your content is protected and not being accessed without your permission, you should look at the security features it comes with. This is often tied to integration and deployment, so this will vary depending on your unique circumstances.

Vendor Trust

And lastly, as we covered in our blog on DAM, you’ll want to gauge the success of the vendor that you are looking to buy from. If you are going to invest a ton of time and resources into selecting a media asset management system, you should make sure that the vendor won’t suddenly go out of business. If this happens, you basically have to start the process over as it will become untenable to use a solution that’s no longer supported or being updated.

How Veritone Digital Media Hub stands up against these MAM considerations

Veritone Digital Media Hub has prebuilt APIs, along with established integrations for a variety of things including cloud storage, accelerated file transfer, payment, and more. From a features standpoint, the following areas really summarize at a high level just some of its MAM capabilities:

  • Cloud deployment and storage
  • Content management of images, audio, and video files
  • Artificial intelligence (AI) powered content discovery
  • Rich metadata management with AI-enabled data creation
  • Built-in workflows for review, approval, and distribution
  • Transcoding and enhanced asset delivery
  • White-label UI
  • eCommerce capability to license content

From an access and security standpoint, Digital Media Hub comes out of the box with granular access and permission settings, helping you define which internal and external people have access to what parts of your archive. All of this is made secure with the latest standards to ensure the protection of your content. We have been in business since 2014, and have thrived during the pandemic, launching new offerings as well as features for our current products to enhance our customer’s capabilities and experience.

To learn more about how Veritone Digital Media Hub can help you with a better way to access, manage, and monetize your media assets, reach out to a team member today.

 

 

Additional Reading: 

What is Digital Asset Management?