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The Music Business School

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Release & Production · Topic 17 of 27

Why do wrong song details cost you money?

ISRC and metadata: your recording's ID card.

Every recording gets an ISRC (International Standard Recording Code), basically its ID card. Streams, radio plays and sales of your recording are matched through it. Your distributor usually assigns the ISRC for free.

Metadata

Metadata is all the information about your song: title, artist name, songwriters, producers, featured artists, label and genre. If names or credits are misspelled, the money can't be matched correctly and ends up nowhere.

  • Spell your artist name exactly the same everywhere.
  • Always enter songwriters, producers and featured artists correctly.
  • Use the same details with your distributor, GEMA and GVL.
In shortClean data, clean money.

All figures are rough guidelines for beginners and focus on Germany. They are no substitute for legal or tax advice.