YouTube on Friday announced that it has purchased a company that processes royalties to music publishers.

YouTube has acquired a company called RightsFlow, which processes royalties for music publishers.

It won't change YouTube for regular users; the video platform will use RightsFlow's database of help match songs to their publishers so that they can be properly compensated.

"As new ways of consuming music have emerged, RightsFlow has been at the forefront of solving the complex issues of licensing and royalty payment management," YouTube wrote in a blog post."By combining RightsFlow's expertise and technology with YouTube's platform, we hope to more rapidly and efficiently license music on YouTube, meaning more music for you all to enjoy, and more money for the talented people producing the music."

As the New York Times noted, it can be difficult to keep track of music on YouTube because there is no central database for publishers and songwriters. Becoming a huge hit on YouTube, however, could result in a huge payday for the artist.

YouTube's partnership program (YPP), which kicked off in 2007, allows amateur YouTube users to share in the revenue Google earns by selling ads against videos. In 2009, the Google-owned site to include single viral videos.

YouTube said it has invested "tens of millions of dollars" in its content management technology like Content ID, but the site has still faced criticism from copyright holders.

The RightsFlow purchase comes several months after Google settled copyright-infringement claims brought by the National Music Publishers Association over the unauthorized use of music videos on YouTube. The launch of , meanwhile, was also reportedly delayed because music labels were concerned about Google's ability to control piracy. (For more, see .)

In September, it had made "considerable progress" in fighting copyright infringement.

Also on Friday, YouTube introduced an updated video manager. The tool includes the following features: simplified top and left navigation bars; icons to denote the level of privacy, whether monetization is enabled, and publish status; badges to designate if a video is in HD, from Creative Commons, or if it's close caption-enabled; and a look consistent with YouTube's recent site overhaul.

YouTube of its site last week that included an emphasis on streamlining the actual video page. The makeover also changed the look of the front page, making it a bit more cluttered, with an increased emphasis on social networking.