Do you need a media asset manager? An honest guide, including when it isn't us

You need a media asset manager when you can no longer find a shot in a minute by folder and file name. Before that, you don't, and we would rather tell you than sell you one. After that, the right one depends on how many people share the library and where the footage lives. Here is the honest version, from the people who make DISKO, including the cases where something else is the better pick.

Signs your folders have stopped working

• A folder called "to sort" that has been sorting itself since 2022.
• Drives labeled B-ROLL FINAL FINAL and DO NOT ERASE.
• You remember shooting the clip, scrub for forty minutes, and use a different one.
• The client asks for "that interview where she mentions the launch" and nobody knows which drive it is on.

If none of that sounds like you, keep using Finder or File Explorer. They are free, they are already there, and they work until they don't.

If a big organization needs everyone in one library at once: iconik or ShareBrowser

Some organizations need one library open to many people at once, from different offices and cities, with permissions per person and an admin to run it. Server and cloud media asset managers are built for that. iconik is a cloud media asset manager with permissions, storage on site or in the cloud, panels in Premiere Pro and Resolve, and pricing per user per month. ShareBrowser is the media asset manager built into Studio Network Solutions' EVO shared storage, with unlimited users on your network and panels for Premiere Pro, Resolve, Final Cut Pro and Avid. If your team already edits off an EVO, it comes with it.

If review is the job: Frame.io

If your days are uploading cuts and collecting notes from clients and collaborators, Frame.io is built for that. Footage is uploaded to its cloud, where everyone comments in one place.

If everything is in one project: Premiere Pro's own search

Premiere Pro's Media Intelligence search runs on your machine and finds clips by what is in them. It searches only the media inside the project you have open, so it is great inside one job and stops at its edge.

If it's you or a small team, with footage on drives: DISKO

DISKO is a media asset manager that runs on your own computer. It reads any drive where the footage already is, describes every clip moment by moment, transcribes every word with speaker labels, reads every sign and finds anyone you have named, across every project and every drive. Put the library on a network drive and the whole team can open it, with one editor at a time. It costs $99 once, and nothing uploads unless you send it. When a client needs to see a cut, DISKO Cloud gives you review links and portals.

Who DISKO isn't for

• Editors in Final Cut Pro or Avid: DISKO hands off to Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve.
• Intel Macs. DISKO runs on Apple Silicon, and the Windows version is a beta.

We would rather lose a sale than sell you the wrong tool.