FAQ
Answers to the questions we hear most. Current clients with an account-specific question should open a ticket.
Most-Asked Topics
Switching Distributors Without Going Dark — how the deliver-first, takedown-second move works.
Metadata Is Money — why wrong or missing song information is one of the most common reasons writers don’t get paid.
Why Smith Music Group Claimed Your YouTube Video — what a Content ID claim on your own video actually means.
Don’t Buy Streams — our artificial-streams policy, and what it can cost your catalog.
Publishing, Without Distributing With Us — publishing administration on its own, and how the song side gets paid.
Getting Started
We’re a Texas company. We deliver independent artists’ and labels’ music and videos to stores and streaming services, collect what they earn, and pay it out. We also handle publishing administration for songwriters.
Independent artists, labels, and songwriters. We’re selective. Many clients come to us through people we already work with. Inquiries are welcome, but we can’t reply to every one. If it’s a fit, you’ll hear from us. Send an Inquiry
You do. We don’t take ownership of your music or any intellectual property rights in it. You keep 100% ownership.
Labels can upload and manage releases for all their artists in one place. You can attach your label name to releases (some stores display it), and use one label name or several if you have sub-labels or imprints. Earnings reports can be viewed per artist or all together, and downloaded to a spreadsheet.
Yes. Your portal session is encrypted (HTTPS) to help protect your account from unauthorized access.
Costs & Payouts
Terms vary by catalog and by deal. We’ll discuss them with you directly. Ask about terms in your inquiry.
We pay you after the stores pay us. Most stores report monthly, and their reports usually cover listening from about three months earlier, so a stream from yesterday typically shows up on a statement around three months from now. Every store and streaming service reports on its own schedule, so different services’ numbers won’t land on the same day. Your payment schedule and method are set out in your agreement.
Payout terms, including any minimums, are covered in your agreement. If you’re not sure what applies to you, contact us.
Sign in to view your statements, one for each reporting period. Royalty statements are also available through our royalty portal. If you don’t have access, contact your label rep.
Stores keep reporting for a while after a takedown, so royalties can keep coming in for a year or more. We keep paying as they arrive and issue a final payment once they stop. We need a W-9 on file to pay you. If we don’t have one, send a completed copy to your label rep.
Timelines & Delivery
Plan for review and delivery time ahead of your release date. Once stores receive it, most major services put a release live within a few days to a week. Apple occasionally sends a release to manual review, which can add a week or two. Facebook/Instagram and TikTok can take a few weeks. Delays are rare and usually on the store’s end.
Pandora curates its catalog through its own review process, so we can’t predict if or when a release will be added to Pandora stations.
Yes. Releases usually become searchable in the app within a few weeks. TikTok isn’t a full-length on-demand streaming service. Users add clips of songs to their videos, and your music earns when it’s used.
Usually one of three things:
- It isn’t live yet.
- The store is still indexing your artist name. This is common the first time a name is used, and stores handle it on their side.
- The title is common (like “Home”), so other popular releases rank above it.
Your first release with us can take up to a week or so to go live everywhere. In rare cases a store needs a little more processing time after that. If it’s still missing, open a ticket.
Most stores and streaming services compress audio so it loads faster, and compressed audio can sound worse than what you uploaded. Listeners can often improve it. On Spotify, for example, paid users can turn on higher-quality streaming in settings.
Switching
We deliver your catalog through the portal first. Once your releases are live with us, notify your current distributor and have them issue a takedown. Done in that order, you shouldn’t have any downtime. Talk to your rep before you start and we’ll plan the move.
Metadata, YouTube & Content ID
Yes, for most metadata. Go to your album page, make your changes, then choose Request Update → Metadata Update → Save.
Audio files, track listing, genre, language, album extras, and ISRCs can’t be changed with a metadata update. Those need the release removed and re-uploaded corrected.
Stores won’t let you change the artist name on a release that’s already been delivered. You can use a new name going forward, but existing releases keep the original. Stores also won’t accept a delete-and-re-upload with conflicting metadata (different artist name, titles, and so on). If you need a release pulled from certain stores or countries, open a ticket and we’ll help.
Use an artist name that isn’t already in stores if you can. Duplicate names cause confusion.
- Will I still get paid? Yes. Sales tracking doesn’t depend on artist names, so your plays are paid to you.
- My releases are showing up on the other artist’s page. Can you fix it? Stores sometimes merge artists with the same or similar names, or create a new page instead of using yours. Open a ticket and we’ll help you sort it out.
Not with uncleared samples. You need permission from everyone involved. Remixes of your own songs are fine. If your remix uses another artist’s song or any part of their original music, stores require that artist’s permission.
For a remix of your own song, title it “Song Title (Remix).” To credit a remixer: open Add/View Participants, enter the name in the Artist/Band Name field, and set the Role to Remixer.
When we deliver your music, it appears in YouTube Music and on YouTube as Art Tracks on an auto-generated Topic Channel. If you already have a YouTube artist channel, we can help you claim an Official Artist Channel, and your Art Tracks then appear there instead of on the Topic Channel.
That’s Content ID doing its job. Smith Music Group adds your audio to YouTube’s Content ID system, which finds videos using your music, puts ads on them, and collects the ad revenue for you. If the video is yours, you can ignore the email. We’ll collect and pay you what it earns. If you want specific videos cleared from claims (yours or a partner’s), open a ticket.
Publishing
Yes: copyright registration, licensing, sync placements, metadata management, and digital performance and worldwide royalty registration. You don’t need to distribute with us to work with us on publishing. For publishing questions, you can reach us at help@smithmusic.com. Publishing administration
Registering your songs with a PRO (Performance Rights Organization) helps protect your rights and collect the performance royalties you’re owed. If we handle your publishing, we’ll make sure your registrations line up.
Streaming services use metadata (artist, title, album, release date, and more) to track what’s played and pay the right copyright holders. Incomplete or wrong metadata is one of the most common reasons songwriters don’t get paid.
Artificial Streams
Don’t buy streams, and watch out for anyone selling them.
Third parties that promise playlist placements or a set number of streams for a fee are likely using illegitimate methods, whether or not they tell you. That can get your streams or royalties withheld or your whole catalog removed.
If a service finds that you, or anyone working for you or on your behalf, boosted play counts through bots, click farms, paid playlist placement, or any other fraudulent means, it can permanently remove your entire catalog.
Still Have a Question?
If the FAQ didn’t cover it, current clients can open a ticket and everyone else can use our contact form. We get a lot of mail, so please allow a few days for a reply.
