# YouTube "picture" videos and the "video" streaming flag **URL:** \ **Category:** Style\ **Tags:** officialstyle, video, youtube\ **Created:** [June 24, 2026, 8:53am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/youtube-picture-videos-and-the-video-streaming-flag/815139 "2026-06-24T08:53:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![yindesu](https://community.metabrainz.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/y/b77776/32.png) [@yindesu](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/yindesu)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 2:33am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/youtube-picture-videos-and-the-video-streaming-flag/815139/21 "2026-06-25T02:33:36Z")
> [@reosarevok](#): > > where the video content is a static image That’s all YouTube Music is: > `music.youtube.com/watch?v=77iH1Z5I2d0` > `www.youtube.com/watch?v=77iH1Z5I2d0` We can’t say anything but “no” ---
**Author:** ![UltimateRiff](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/ultimateriff/32/47799_2.png) [@UltimateRiff](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/UltimateRiff)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 5:42am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/youtube-picture-videos-and-the-video-streaming-flag/815139/22 "2026-06-25T05:42:31Z")
> [@aerozol](#): > > > [@UltimateRiff](#): > > > > implying its value based on whether the site is a video streaming site like YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, or whatnot > > Wouldn’t that lose the data the flag is for (…or, that I assume it is for) - then a user/app has no idea if something is an actual music video. yeah, I don’t remember what my thought process was here… ignore this part I guess, lol ---
**Author:** ![outsidecontext](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/outsidecontext/32/90_2.png) [@outsidecontext](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/outsidecontext)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 5:53am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/youtube-picture-videos-and-the-video-streaming-flag/815139/23 "2026-06-25T05:53:37Z")
> [@aerozol](#): > > I would not set these as ‘music video’, with my current understanding of MB consensus. A still image or even a slight animation added to it (like the example @HibiscusKazeneko posted above) I would also not consider a video. It’s just a visual inserted because there has to be something. This would still be true if it would show the lyrics subtitle-style. But a fully animated lyrics video I definitely consider a video. It’s not a music video clip, but it is a video, and I do mark them as video accordingly. ---
**Author:** ![dseomn](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/dseomn/32/12195_2.png) [@dseomn](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/dseomn)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 6:10pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/youtube-picture-videos-and-the-video-streaming-flag/815139/24 "2026-06-25T18:10:05Z")
I don’t have any real opinion about the flag, but in case it’s helpful to have more corner cases, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-9zJFVa0X0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-9zJFVa0X0) is one of my videos that’s just the sheet music synced to the audio. I’d probably consider it to be comparable to a video with just lyrics, whether that’s a music video or not. ---
**Author:** ![UltimateRiff](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/ultimateriff/32/47799_2.png) [@UltimateRiff](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/UltimateRiff)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 6:45pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/youtube-picture-videos-and-the-video-streaming-flag/815139/25 "2026-06-25T18:45:28Z")
so for instance, would this be marked as a video (either recording or URL) as it’s just a looped video with lyrics over top (as opposed to the [official visualizer](https://youtu.be/238Z4YaAr1g), which is just a 17-second video loop) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/jCOX8dT9q8M/maxresdefault.jpg "Beyoncé - TEXAS HOLD 'EM (Official Lyric Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCOX8dT9q8M) versus this lyric video with several clips (some from the [official music video](https://youtu.be/F90Cw4l-8NY), some not) timed to the music, also with lyrics over top [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ilLEuwH4hws/maxresdefault.jpg "Bastille - Pompeii (Lyric Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilLEuwH4hws) versus a video with highly animated lyrics but a static illustration as the centerpiece (this is the only official video for this song) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/HtBqK6xsQ9k/maxresdefault.jpg "DECO\*27 - アニマル feat. 初音ミク") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtBqK6xsQ9k) * * * I would personally mark all three examples as video recordings and URLs, linking them to the audio recording as a music video, as they all have video content that isn’t just cover art (in the form of onscreen lyrics) our great and powerful style overlord @reosarevok seems to agree [here](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/style-2428-step-by-step-video-releases-guidelines-thread/685754/32) in the big video guidelines thread, even creating releases for such videos (tho this post is from over two years ago, lol) ---
**Author:** ![aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/aerozol/32/116_2.png) [@aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/aerozol)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 9:10pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/youtube-picture-videos-and-the-video-streaming-flag/815139/26 "2026-06-25T21:10:31Z")
> [@UltimateRiff](#): > > as they all have video content that isn’t just cover art (in the form of onscreen lyrics) I still don’t think a lyric video is a “music video” in the sense that most people understand it. Would be great to get some good guidance, either way. We’ll never avoid the grey areas (music is complicated enough… now we’re adding pictures that move!) ---
**Author:** ![UltimateRiff](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/ultimateriff/32/47799_2.png) [@UltimateRiff](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/UltimateRiff)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 9:19pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/youtube-picture-videos-and-the-video-streaming-flag/815139/27 "2026-06-25T21:19:02Z")
yeah, that’s why I usually add (official lyric video) or (official music video) to the disambiguation for these recordings to prevent confusion as much as possible ---
**Author:** ![outsidecontext](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/outsidecontext/32/90_2.png) [@outsidecontext](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/outsidecontext)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 9:46pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/youtube-picture-videos-and-the-video-streaming-flag/815139/28 "2026-06-25T21:46:31Z")
> [@aerozol](#): > > I still don’t think a lyric video is a “music video” It’s not a music video, but it is a video in the sense of that checkbox. ---
**Author:** ![aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/aerozol/32/116_2.png) [@aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/aerozol)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 9:51pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/youtube-picture-videos-and-the-video-streaming-flag/815139/29 "2026-06-25T21:51:11Z")
Every link to YouTube is a video, in the sense of that checkbox. The question here is, what definition gives the best value/distinction to the end user. ---
**Author:** ![DontMindMe](https://community.metabrainz.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/3e96dc/32.png) [@DontMindMe](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/DontMindMe)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 9:51pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/youtube-picture-videos-and-the-video-streaming-flag/815139/30 "2026-06-25T21:51:31Z")
> [@aerozol](#): > > Would be great to get some good guidance, either way. We’ll never avoid the grey areas (music is complicated enough… now we’re adding pictures that move!) This definitely. One of the reasons I vote for static image as the limit. Otherwise it’s gonna need a very clear explanation or we’ll have the same discussion in edit notes or forums for every case. ---
**Author:** ![aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/aerozol/32/116_2.png) [@aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/aerozol)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2026, 8:14pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/youtube-picture-videos-and-the-video-streaming-flag/815139/31 "2026-07-12T20:14:23Z")
Another issue I have with flagging lyric videos etc (of which there can be _a lot_ of, for popular songs) is that it means that they are each a new recording? ‘Proper’ music videos usually have a number of unique credits, and a chance of being used across multiple releases, which makes it valuable to assign a separate recording. And there’s usually just one. In the absence of that, I fear we would be dealing with a lot of duplicate recordings and credits. ---
**Author:** ![Libra](https://community.metabrainz.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@Libra](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/Libra)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2026, 9:44am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/youtube-picture-videos-and-the-video-streaming-flag/815139/32 "2026-07-13T09:44:11Z")
> [@UltimateRiff](#): > > I would personally mark all three examples as video recordings and URLs, linking them to the audio recording as a music video, as they all have video content that isn’t just cover art (in the form of onscreen lyrics) +1 In my understanding, ‘video’ checkbox was always for video according to the technical definition, so I considered and marked as video every recording that had some movement\animation in it even if this change is minimal. The key was it is not a static image. Because in any other case, the definition will be too complicated. > [@aerozol](#): > > Another issue I have with flagging lyric videos etc (of which there can be _a lot_ of, for popular songs) is that it means that they are each a new recording? Yes, they are new separate recordings and there is a lot of them. > [@aerozol](#): > > ‘Proper’ music videos usually have a number of unique credits, and a chance of being used across multiple releases, which makes it valuable to assign a separate recording. And there’s usually just one. In the absence of that, I fear we would be dealing with a lot of duplicate recordings and credits. As someone who likes adding covers, lyric video, visualizations and all other types of video content that is created by people, there are tons of them. But the most common situation is when some artist publishes one music video and perhaps one lyric video and all other versions most often are made by fans, so in fact, credits will not be the same. In addition, the recordings will not be the same. It only will look so, because MB doesn’t store visuals of them or any fingerprint of these video, so in theory it can be a little bit hard to differentiate them, if someone will decide to add all visualizations for one popular song. But 1) it is a rare story, because it is hard to add video releases, so not many people will be ready for that, 2) credits are different, so the differentiating still will be possible. > In addition, the recordings will not be the same. It only will look so, because MB doesn’t store visuals of them or any fingerprint of these video The only one real problem I see is generated AcousticID for such video, that is used by MB and many other users, will be the same for many different video recordings, because they share the same audio. But this problem exists already even with usual video releases, so it is AcousticID/MB DB problem and should not be the reason for forbidding to add such video ![изображение](https://community.metabrainz.org/uploads/default/original/3X/b/b/bbb7827f8fbc56063460ee77106af69720e4635a.png) ---
**Author:** ![outsidecontext](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/outsidecontext/32/90_2.png) [@outsidecontext](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/outsidecontext)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2026, 12:55pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/youtube-picture-videos-and-the-video-streaming-flag/815139/33 "2026-07-13T12:55:16Z")
> [@aerozol](#): > > Every link to YouTube is a video, in the sense of that checkbox. Well, no. That’s why we have this discussion. There seems to be a very broad concensus that not everything on Youtube counts as a video for us. But I do believe that if an artist or label commissioned an animated lyrcis video this often has an artistic value on its own. We had a couple of examples already above. Here is another of those lyrics videos I think is more than just some placeholder images: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/NT_xiX36TcI/maxresdefault.jpg "Billy Talent - Louder Than The DJ (Lyric Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT_xiX36TcI) I never understood the “video” checkbox for meaning only “music video”. That would mean we would not set that flag for e.g. interview parts on live DVDs, or probably not even for live video recordings per se. ---
**Author:** ![aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/aerozol/32/116_2.png) [@aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/aerozol)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2026, 8:22pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/youtube-picture-videos-and-the-video-streaming-flag/815139/34 "2026-07-13T20:22:42Z")
> [@outsidecontext](#): > > Well, no. That’s why we have this discussion. Like the rest of my post says: “The question here is, what definition gives the best value/distinction to the end user.” edit: but it seems like I am in the minority here so I am happy to bow out 🙂 [Previous page](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/youtube-picture-videos-and-the-video-streaming-flag/815139.md?page=1)