Metadata: Why It Decides Whether You Get Paid
Metadata is the information that connects a stream or a broadcast to the people owed money. Here is what to get right before release.
Key takeaways
- Metadata connects every use of your music to the people owed money.
- ISRC identifies recordings, UPC identifies releases, ISWC identifies compositions.
- Consistent names and matching splits prevent most payment problems.
- A single master metadata sheet per release protects you later.
Metadata is the address on the envelope
When a song is streamed, broadcast or licensed, the payment does not find you by magic. It follows data: titles, names, codes and splits. That data is metadata. When it is wrong or incomplete, money can be delayed, misdirected or left unmatched.
The identifiers that matter
- [[isrc|ISRC]] identifies a specific recording. Each distinct version — radio edit, remix, acoustic — should have its own.
- [[upc|UPC]] identifies a release product, such as a single, EP or album.
- [[iswc|ISWC]] identifies a composition. It is generally assigned after a work is registered through a collection society.
- [[ipi|IPI]] identifies a writer or publisher within the collection society system.
Many distributors can assign ISRCs and UPCs for you. Some artists register as an ISRC registrant to control their own codes. Either is workable as long as you keep records.
The fields artists get wrong most often
- Artist name variations. Pick one exact spelling, capitalization and punctuation, and use it everywhere.
- Writer legal names. Collection societies need legal names, not stage names alone.
- Featured artist formatting. Follow each platform's style rules, or releases can be rejected or mis-linked.
- Splits. Registrations from co-writers should match. Conflicting claims stall payments.
- Version titles. "Remix," "Live," and "Acoustic" should be labeled consistently and given unique ISRCs.
Build a master metadata sheet
Keep one document per release with every field you submit anywhere: title, version, ISRC, UPC, writers with legal names and shares, publishers, producers, featured artists, release date, genre, explicit flag, and the registrations you completed. When something goes wrong later, this sheet is your evidence.
Check after release
A few weeks after release, search your songs in your PRO, The MLC and SoundExchange portals and compare what you see to your sheet. Fix mismatches early.
Do this now
- Create a master metadata sheet for your next release using the Metadata Checklist.
- Standardize your artist name and every writer legal name.
- Search your existing catalog in each registration portal and note mismatches.
Common mistakes
- Reusing one ISRC for different versions of a song.
- Spelling your name differently across platforms.
- Submitting releases before splits are confirmed.
Free tool
Metadata Checklist
The fields to confirm for every recording before you deliver it anywhere.
Terms in this article
- IPI Number
- An identifier assigned to songwriters and publishers within the collection society system, used to match registrations and payments.
- ISRC
- International Standard Recording Code. A unique identifier for a specific sound recording. Each distinct version of a recording should have its own ISRC.
- ISWC
- International Standard Musical Work Code. A unique identifier for a composition, generally assigned through collection society registration.
- Metadata
- Information attached to music — titles, names, credits, codes and splits — that connects each use of the music to the people owed money.
- UPC
- Universal Product Code. A barcode number that identifies a release product such as a single, EP or album.
- Unclaimed (Unmatched) Royalties
- Royalties that a collection organization cannot match to a rights holder, usually because of missing or inconsistent metadata or registrations.
Sources & further reading
Written by
Al WestFounder, Masterpiece Recording Group
Al West is an independent recording artist, author and speaker, and the founder of Masterpiece Recording Group. He writes The Masterpiece Artist Blueprint from the perspective of an artist building his own label infrastructure — releasing music on his own platform, selling directly to listeners and documenting what he learns about ownership, money and audience along the way.