Have you ever wanted to combine different media assets from different campaigns and share them?

Have you ever wanted to share media assets but restrict the operations on them?

Have you ever wanted to restrict access to only a few media assets? Without the effort of moving and duplicating files?

Well, if you answered yes to any of the above, we have the right solution.

We are super happy to announce the launch of our new feature that will change how you access, share, and collaborate on your images and videos.

🎉 Introducing ImageKit's Media collection and sharing. 🎉

With media collection and sharing, you can create a collection of assets and control who has access to your media assets, what they can see, and what they can do with them. Built to streamline how you operate with your media assets, this is a game changer for teams working remotely or with stakeholders with different access levels acting on an extensive repository of media assets.

Interesting, isn't it? Check out this video for a quick walkthrough.

Understanding Media collection and sharing

With ImageKit's media collection, you can group media assets together for any specific business use case. Creating a collection is agnostic of the existing folder structure or the current location of the file/folder; thus, the media asset put together in a collection are merely accessible in the collection and are not duplicated in your repository.

This allows you to create a collection from resources across your media asset repository without duplicating or moving files.

While creating a media collection is essential for a cross-functional workflow, it is also important to check who can access what and on what level the collections can be accessed.

To help with this, we are introducing a new role at the user level called the media library restricted user, which will let you create a user who has access only to specific parts of the media collection that can be curated. Once these users are created, you can also create user groups that have similar access requirements making it easy for large distributed teams.

For every media collection created, you can now define the access level for users. We have introduced 3 new access levels for every user, and they are as follows:

• Can view: For all users who can only view, search and download media assets from the collection or file/folder.

  This is perfect for sharing critical files, like your company logo, where changes are not allowed.

• Can Contribute: For all users who can add assets, view and search the existing assets and download them from the collection or file/folder

  This is Perfect for your in-house design team or content team to add new files to your Library without the ability to delete files.

• Can Manage: For all users who can add assets, perform asset operations, view the existing assets, and download them from the collection or file/folder.

With these access levels defined, you can now control what is being done and by whom, making it easy to secure and streamline your asset workflows.

We've defined the access control levels on the media collection and the files/folders in our documentation for easy reference**.**

How Media Collection and sharing can Impact your workflows

Now that we have seen what is being added to the ImageKit's media library. Here's how media collection and sharing will impact your daily workflow:

1. Media collection and sharing will improve collaboration across your team

One of the key reasons why we introduced the collection in the media library is to facilitate better collaboration in your asset workflows. With media collection and access level, you are in the driver's seat to control the entire asset operation, thus enabling the right actions for the users.

Share the right set of assets by putting them together in a collection and share it with the intended access levels for the files and folders in them. With all stakeholders working on the same collection with different access levels, a lot of your access and collaboration-related worries are now at bay, and the entire operation will now feel like a breeze.

2. Better asset grouping for improved accessibility

The media collection is a powerful tool for large teams with distributed assets or remote teams with a vast media repository. Grouping similar assets into a defined collection lets you create the much-needed accessibility and visibility of those previously scattered assets.

While creating the right collection, you are also ensuring that you are not exposing assets that are not needed, thus enhancing the security and sanity of your asset operations.

3. Internal content gatekeeping

Internal content gatekeeping is an underrated tool when dealing with a large media asset repository. Media collection and sharing helps you to accomplish this in the following way:

• Media collection restricts the visibility of assets.
• Creating varied user levels controls the accessibility of the assets. Media collection and sharing allows you to choose who can view, contribute and manage these assets.
• Once you have created the user access levels, the operations on the assets are different for every user.

With the media collection access levels powering your asset security, establish trustworthy content operations with confidence.

Now, Let's put everything together with an example:

• You've hired a new social media agency. They will be sending you ~12 assets for posting to social media every week.

• You need to send them the following:
  a) branding assets like the company logo and color scheme.
  b) old social media assets for reference.
  c) supporting media like employee photos, product, and event photos, etc.,

  This happens as a one-time share and as a recurring event with weekly additions to your repository grows.

Old-Way of collaborating with an external stakeholder:

• You track down all the branding assets, duplicate them into a new folder, and send the folder to the agency, typically on WeTransfer, since it's too big to email or create a google drive link with a fear of the security of your assets.
• Your agency emails you their deliverables bit by bit as they are ready → you soon have a huge mail trail and can't find anything.
• You are, in turn, continuously emailing them supporting assets.

New -Way of Collaborating with an external stakeholder:

• You added this agency as a restricted user using ImageKit's media collection and sharing feature.
• You create a collection - Search by a tag called "Brand" and add everything to that collection. You give your agency view-only access.
• You create a second collection - Give the agency contribution access. This is where they will upload their deliverables week by week. If there are specific folders that you would like to restrict them from accessing in the collection, you can still change the access for them with ease in the media library.
• Your Tech Team picks up assets directly from the Media Library to post to the web, with no additional download or re-upload.

A streamlined, frictionless workflow is created with ease. That's what media collection and sharing can do for your team.

If you are a team that deals with many images and videos involving many stakeholders, then you definitely need this.

ImageKit strives to improve digital asset management for media-heavy companies, and every day, 1500+ companies across 70+ countries leverage ImageKit for their daily media workflow and delivery needs. It is time to hit the next gear in your media management journey.

Go ahead, and try ImageKit today.