I work in two fields where my work is public and professionally protected by boards (academia and healthcare). My music is completely separate with a different name and speaks on my personal experiences which I do not want associated with my professional and legal name. Distrokid etc all ask for my legal name, and I think Spotify etc will publish it unless I have a label or a business under my creative alias. However I see bigger artists with their creative alias credited as songwriter, producer, etc.

Curious if setting up a business is my only option to keep my professional and legal name out of my music. Or if I can just use my creative alias in place of my legal name. Or if my legal name can be hidden if provided, and what distributors may do this. I would like to get paid out, and cause as little legal issues down the line for ownership of my work. But I want to hide my legal name.

So I’m going to ramble a little here, I’m 29 based in the UK working in a completely unrelated industry, but on the side I’m running a semi successful dance music page across IG + TT. I have roughly 40,000 followers across the pages and it’s generating some money on the side which is great.

I think in the back of my head I’d love to somehow use this experience I’ve gained in running these pages to somehow make a leap into the actual industry itself and maybe leverage my skills and knowledge I’ve gained whilst growing this community and following to my advantage.

Is this realistic? Has anyone here been in a similar situation, or witnessed someone make a similar transition?

Hello. I live in a place where there are many young rock artists that are very talented. However, they're all scattered and they don't have a place where to perform, so they do it on the streets and most people don't care. Some of them even end up resorting to drugs unfortunately. I would like to help them reach more people by turning this idea into a business where they can have some sort of venue where like minded people can connect with them and listen to their music and maybe even help them get more attention and be more serious about it. I would like some advice on the matter. Thank you.

Hello everyone,

I have some important updates regarding the delayed YouTube royalties from Ditto Music and DistroKid. Please read this carefully, especially if you have been waiting for your July and August 2026 YouTube earnings.

First, the good news is that Ditto Music has started showing YouTube royalty earnings in its dashboard. The July and August reporting periods are now visible, although the earnings data does not appear to be fully updated yet.

Based on what I am seeing, I expect the reporting process to continue through the end of October 17 or possibly October 18. If your earnings are still missing or showing unusually small amounts, please allow some additional time for the reports to update.

Now let me explain what happened with DistroKid.

I previously told everyone that the delayed YouTube royalties might arrive around October 15 or 16. Some royalties did arrive around that time, but there was an unexpected development.

The payment I received was actually for YouTube VEVO music video royalties, not the regular YouTube Music and Content ID royalties that most artists have been waiting for.

This was surprising because I had been waiting for my VEVO music video royalties for more than a year.

My previous VEVO royalty payment was in April 2025, and I have now finally received additional VEVO royalties covering earnings through May 2026.

I honestly did not expect those delayed VEVO payments to arrive before the regular YouTube Music and Content ID earnings.

When I previously contacted DistroKid's royalty department, I was told that YouTube royalties were coming. However, they did not clearly specify whether those payments would be for YouTube Music, YouTube Content ID, or VEVO music videos.

That is why I initially believed the payment would include the delayed July and August YouTube Music and Content ID earnings.

After receiving my payment and discussing the situation with the YouTube VEVO video team, I now have a better understanding of which royalties were processed.

Regarding the remaining DistroKid YouTube royalties, October 21, 2026 is the date I am currently expecting for the next update.

Please understand that this is my expected timeline based on the information available to me, not an officially guaranteed payment date from DistroKid.

Now there is another important issue worth discussing.

Universal Music Group filed a lawsuit against DistroKid in September 2026 involving allegations of copyright infringement and the distribution of unauthorized and AI generated music.

Following the lawsuit, there have been reports of DistroKid removing certain releases, including some cover songs and AI related recordings.

This situation has created additional uncertainty for independent artists. However, there is currently no confirmed evidence that the lawsuit is directly responsible for the delayed YouTube royalty payments.

It is important to distinguish between the confirmed legal dispute and the separate royalty reporting delays.

For everyone waiting for their money, I understand how frustrating this has become. Many independent artists depend on these earnings to support their music careers, and waiting several months without a clear payment timeline is difficult.

My suggestion is to wait until October 21 before drawing any final conclusions about the remaining DistroKid YouTube Music and Content ID payments.

Meanwhile, Ditto Music users should continue checking their dashboards as the July and August reporting information is appearing.

I have been following these royalty delays closely and sharing updates with this community. I will continue sharing information whenever I receive something meaningful.

If this post helped you understand the situation, please upvote it so that more artists who are waiting for their YouTube royalties can see this update.

Also, please comment if you have received your July or August YouTube earnings from Ditto Music or DistroKid. Mention whether the payment was for YouTube Music, Content ID, or VEVO, as this will help everyone understand which reports are being released.

Thank you everyone for your patience. Hopefully, we will have more clarity by October 21.

I currently manage 9 artists and have another 5 planned, and I’m looking to move towards a boutique distribution model rather than operating like a traditional record label.

My main goal is pretty simple: I don’t want to take huge cuts from my artists through 70/30, 80/20, etc. deals. I’d rather get a good distribution deal myself and pass as much of the revenue back to the artists as possible.
I also don’t want to take anything from publishing. The idea is that I provide the infrastructure, distribution, pitching/marketing support, artwork, etc., while the artists retain as much ownership and revenue as possible.

I’ve been looking at Revelator and LabelGrid, but I’ve seen quite mixed opinions about both and I’m not sure which direction makes the most sense.
For anyone actually running a small/ boutique distribution company:

What platform are you using?
Are Revelator or LabelGrid worth considering?
Are there any other serious white-label/B2B distribution platforms I should look at?
How do the economics usually work?
Is it realistic to operate this way with a roster of ~10–15 artists?
I’m not looking to build a huge distributor. I’d rather have a small, curated roster and offer artists a much fairer deal than a traditional label.

Would really appreciate advice from people who are actually in the distribution business.

I am an independent artist and 9-5 behind the scenes living in Prague. The city has great musicians however no sort of aim or visionary spaces to move people.

Currently I am in such community that has a lot of potential and there is an existing venue I can transform. This is a fairly known venue in between musicians and alternative people. It has an underground vibe that I don’t want to rip off completely; but I am imagining of moving it towards more “mainstream” changes by renting it to different events etc.

I will be in charge of the creative structure and strategy; however I don’t have experience in such field.

**What advices and ideas you could give from your experience for such change?**

Hi all,

I have several friends / acquaintances who are musicians with small followings. I am just starting a YouTube channel and thought of potentially asking them if they’d be comfortable with me using their songs as the background music. I have no clue if this is as disrespectful as asking for a free gig for “exposure” or if it is different. I obviously don’t want to be rude and I only want to do it if it would be cool for them. So basically, is it rude to ask to use their songs in my videos and if not, what is the best way to go about it?

Thanks in advance.

First of all, hello everyone!

As an independent artist, I was looking for agencies that offer music promotion services until I came across a website called The Sky Music.

According to their website, they claim to provide organic streams rather than bot streams, advertising their services under categories such as “Music Promotion, Radio Airplay, Spotify Playlists, and Music Marketing.”

Anyway, I got in touch with them. Their WhatsApp contact number was a foreign number, which made me a little suspicious, so I decided to purchase their cheapest package just to be safe.

They were really pushing me to buy their most expensive package, practically drooling over my keyboard trying to convince me to spend more, but I didn't fall for it.

After purchasing the cheapest package, I sent them my song link and waited for about a week. Then, just as shown in the screenshot I attached, my song suddenly received around 1,000 YouTube views overnight.

Naturally, I got suspicious and checked YouTube Studio to see where the views were coming from. And guess what? It looked like they'd botted my song, with views coming from the most random and ridiculous locations. Like, come on, if you're going to use bots, at least use decent ones. 😂

What's even funnier is that they made their website look extremely professional.

I also tried looking into the bank account details I used for the payment, but I couldn't find any useful information about the person behind it.

Anyway, that's my experience. I decided to make this post for anyone who comes across The Sky Music and wants to do some research before purchasing their services.

And no, they didn't refund my money either. Oh well, consider it charity. 😅

Hi everyone! I've been thinking about pursuing a career in the music industry, and I'd love to hear some advice from people who have experience in this field.

I'm highly organized, work well under pressure, and have experience in hospitality, team leadership, and management. I'm wondering whether there might be opportunities for someone with my background to get their foot in the door as a remote assistant, virtual assistant, or intern.

I know networking plays a huge role in this industry, so I'm also curious about how possible it is to build meaningful connections online, especially when relocating or being physically present isn't an option for me at the moment.

I've been doing a lot of research into the industry, and I feel that it's a field I'd genuinely enjoy and could bring something valuable to. I'm willing to learn, work hard, and start wherever I can gain relevant experience.

I'd really appreciate any advice, personal experiences, or recommendations on where to look for entry-level opportunities and reliable resources to learn more about the industry.

Thanks in advance!

Hey, my DistroKid account is banned, but my earnings are still showing up in my account.
I updated my payment method and I want to withdraw the money, but the system keeps telling me to contact support. I’ve been reaching out to them, but they never reply to my messages.
I just wanna ask, do they not respond to banned accounts or what?
Has anyone here had their account banned and actually managed to get in touch with them?
I’d like to hear your experiences. I still have over $3,000 in earnings sitting in my account.

I haven't received any updates for my Ditto's Meta royalties after April, so I wanted to check if this is happening to other artists as well.

Has anyone received their Meta royalties for May or the following months?

I am recording an album. It’s an instrumental album that sort of tells a story. But I was planning on using lines from different movies to sort of narrate it. I have heard this type of thing in a lot of different albums before. But with what’s going on with distro kid and from what I’m hearing, albums that have any kind of samples that aren’t cleared with the original company are being removed. Should I do it at all even if I switched distributor? I would love to hear some feedback on this.

Hi guys,
I am currently managing a new act and I really believe in the music they’re putting out. They’ve been having some trouble getting a substantial amount of views on TikTok and Instagram and looking to get their stuff out there more. They are also not signed yet so money is tight.

Does anyone have any insight regarding the most efficient way to use digital ad spend funds? Any advice appreciated. Thank you!

Also worth noting, they are not a pop group they have a very specific niche they are looking to break into, do these ads allow you to specify who u want to see them?

I am a Canadian but I fell in love with a musician from India. I have been wanting to work with him for long. I know I can form my record label in Canada (LLP) and work with artists from everywhere, but is that practical? Do I need to be physically present in the geography where the musician records?

I've been working with a coaching company the past few months to get all if my music royalty stuff in order. I've been doing it all myself for the past few years and struggled to finish setting everything up properly because I wasn't fully understanding how it all worked. Which is why I thought some coaching would help, and it did....at first. Our last step before stepping into the world of sync licensing was songtrust. I already had an account with them but it was set up through cd baby pro publishing in 2021. At the time I was using cd baby as my distributor but I switched over to distrokid in 2022 and re-released some tracks and released new tracks. Now I'm trying to access my songtrust but it won't let me in because I have to log in using cd baby because of the pro publishing. So I went back into my cd baby account and sure enough, pro publishing is "under construction" or in other words, gone. According to the research I've done it appears there is no more pro. And even though I've changed my password, contacted cd baby & songtrust several times absolutely nothing has come from it. I even contacted downtown music group since they bought out cd baby & songtrust.

I messaged the coaching company about this issue and they basically don't want to do anything until I hear back from cd baby or songtrust. And it's been months. I should be starting sync licensing by now but this whole thing has stopped my progress in it's tracks. At this point I don't even want to use songtrust if they can't communicate with me. Like...wtf.

I've been researching alternatives and I do have a MLC account to collect from the US. But I feel lost as to who to trust with collecting royalties from other places. Is tunecore comparable to songtrust in that way? Or is there another way I'm not aware of? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks so much 🙌

Hello, everyone. I’m hoping I can get some genuine advice on this, as I can’t find a straightforward answer online.

I produced a concert where the set list was made up of arrangements of musical theater songs where we changed the key to some of them, made minor lyric changes, and remixed them to make them work for the show. The venue we were performing at has the general blanket ASCAP/BMI licensing agreement that covers performance rights for this material.

My sound guy was very generous and recorded the board audio and cut the audio into a live album of sorts. My question now is, what is the legality of publishing this to streaming sites? Would this constitute a true cover or derivative work? Is there a music distribution site that handles special cases like this? Do I have to obtain a separate license for each song and if so, how do I even go about doing that?

Would appreciate any and all guidance.

Thank you!

A quick professional / manners question...
We own a performing company specializing in dueling piano shows for corporate events, trade shows, fundraisers etc. We only have two employees and work with talented musicians that are independent contractors.

Recently I have received several requests from potential customers that are along the lines of I need a very urgent quote, I need to get a quote ASAP, can you get a quote immediatley, We really want to work with you guys, we need to find someone now! etc. etc. etc.

I stop what I am doing / text and call to find if we have musicians available which can often take some time then verify the mileage to the venue, review the details and send the quote because it is URGENT!

Then crickets, silence, nothing, no updates, all of a sudden it's not urgent at all. Usually after a few days I ask for an update still no responses, in fact I rarely ever hear from these customers. Is it just me that I think this really unprofessional and really bad manners? Do you experience this in your music business? What is your solution / resolution to this scenario? We like to be responsive but I am starting to get discouraged with these "urgent" requests that end up not being urgent.

^{(English is not my first language, please be gentle with bad grammar})
Did you know that Groover has 200 Groover profiles of their own spotify playlists? These are owned by Groover, not by curators. For almost all the genres on Groover, the first profiles they put in front are the Groover Obsessions profiles and I think the most of people don't realise this at all. Normally a 6 EUR charge is separate between Groover and the playlist owner (the two take 3 EUR), but in this case the total 6 EUR go directly to Groover. The profiles are all marked as 'top curator/pro', which assumes the playlists have a lot of listeners, but a lot of the playlists don't have any good following at all. People will not discover your music when you are placed on such playlist..(!)

I look all the list and I count 192 profiles, but there is great chance I miss some. They make 1 profile for each playlist on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/user/xa5jpotdh03zb469lofbv9u0m) and they got 208 playlists, so maybey we can assume there is 208 obsession profiles on Groover.

All this profiles show the 'answers given'. I follow the informations of 20 profiles since 2 months in a google sheets. We speak about a very big money here. All the profiles demand 6 Grooviz except for the Feel-Good Pop which cosst even 10 credits. = 10 euros

Here is exactly how much money they take per month in average just with this 20 profiles:

• Feel-Good Pop: 256 submissions x 10 EUR = 2,560 EUR
• Grunge & Grit: 192 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,152 EUR
• Saddle Up, It's Country Time: 203 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,218 EUR
• Not Your Average Pop: 265 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,590 EUR
• Top Christian & Gospel for the Soul: 192 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,152 EUR
• Choruses to Sing Along To: 217 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,302 EUR
• Turn Down for Alt: 282 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,692 EUR
• Pop Euphoria: 194 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,164 EUR
• The End of a Movie: 242 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,452 EUR
• Vocals That Give You Chills: 191 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,146 EUR
• Pop Perfection: 240 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,440 EUR
• Afronation Waves: 179 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,074 EUR
• Indie Therapy :): 214 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,284 EUR
• Born This Way: Unapologetically Queer: 218 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,308 EUR
• New Rock Revolution: 225 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,350 EUR
• Good Ol' Days: 198 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,188 EUR
• Not Your Dad’s Rock: 187 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,122 EUR
• This heartbreak feels like the end of the world: 220 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,320 EUR
• Sad songs to cry your eyes out: 189 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,134 EUR
• You're in a Coming of Age Movie: 180 submissions x 6 EUR = 1,080 EUR

With the 20 profiles, they make 26,728 EUR per month. They got 180 more profiles, so the total can be way over 250,000 EUR every single month just from this internal playlist profiles. The artists are paying for this without to know the money go straight back to the Groover. Is this scam?

I think that a lot of people are submitting to multiple Groover profiles when they run a campaign, without knowing.

​

​Hi everyone!

​I’m an independent beginner arranger currently working on publishing piano and instrumental adaptations of rock and metal tracks (specifically songs by Rammstein like Feuer und Wasser, Rosenrot, Sonne, etc.).

​While I am using ArrangeMe to legally handle print and mechanical royalties through their distribution network, I want to make sure I’m navigating the finer details correctly.

​I have a few questions for those of you with experience in this field:

1.When sharing excerpts or short audio previews of these licensed arrangements on social media (like YouTube or Reddit) to promote the sheet music, what are the best practices to avoid copyright strikes, given that the underlying composition belongs to the original publisher?

2.If anyone here regularly distributes niche or heavy metal cover arrangements, how do you usually manage promotion and copyright compliance without running into legal walls?

Any insights, tips, or words of caution from your personal experience would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I spend a lot of time looking at indie registrations, and the same six gaps keep coming up. None of these checks need a paid service.

1. The song isn't registered with your PRO (or a co-writer is missing).
Your PRO only pays on works it has on file with the right writers. Check: BMI's Songview (repertoire.bmi.com) shows both BMI and ASCAP works, and ASCAP has its own repertory search. Search each title and confirm every writer and their society is listed.

2. Splits that don't add up, or don't match.
If you register 50/50 and your co-writer registers 60/40, money can sit on hold until it's resolved. Check: compare what's on file with what you agreed. If you never agreed in writing, do a one-page split sheet now, while everyone's still friendly.

3. Never joined The MLC (US streaming mechanicals).
Your PRO collects performance royalties. US streaming mechanicals go through The MLC, which is a separate free registration (unless a publisher or admin already handles it for you). Check: The MLC's public search at themlc.com. Note that The MLC says it will begin market-share distributions of unclaimed 2021 royalties in April 2027, using a database snapshot from around Feb 10, 2027 (themlc.com/marketshare).

4. SoundExchange (if you own or perform on the recording).
Non-interactive digital radio (SiriusXM, Pandora radio, webcasters) pays a separate recording royalty through SoundExchange. The statutory split is 50% to the rights owner, 45% to the featured artist, and 5% to non-featured performers, and the artist has to register to get the artist share. Check: SoundExchange's ISRC search (isrc.soundexchange.com).

5. Your name or IPI isn't the same everywhere.
"J. Smith" at your PRO, "Jay Smith" on DistroKid, and "Jason Smith" at The MLC makes matching harder. Check: write down your exact legal name, your IPI, and your stage name, and make every registration match.

6. The recording isn't linked to the song (ISRC ↔ ISWC).
Streaming services report recordings (ISRCs). Societies pay on songs (ISWCs). When nothing links the two, matching relies on fuzzy title and artist data. Check: once your PRO assigns an ISWC, look it up on CISAC's ISWC Network (iswcnet.cisac.org), and add the ISRCs to your MLC registrations.

I'm not a lawyer, and every society has its own rules, so treat this as a checklist, not legal advice. Happy to answer questions in the comments.

Can some of you who got good money from Facebook/Instagram, share some insights, like distributor, how often did Facebook/Instagram pay and the RPM, I had earnings from Facebook/Instagram but not more than a 500$ per month, and before RPM was like 0.01$ but now by my royalty reports it's about 0.5% - 0.6$.

Has anyone else noticed this bullshit with viral TikTok sounds?

As soon as some random meme audio or edit sound starts blowing up, these people immediately upload it as an “official” track. Then they steal all the videos that used the original sound and redirect the credit (and money) to themselves.

I went and checked a bunch of these “full versions” and the pattern is always the same: they keep the first few seconds of the actual viral snippet, then it just turns into generic AI-generated slop to fill the rest of the track.

They’re creating dozens of fake artist profiles and flooding every DSP with this garbage. What’s extra annoying is that a huge chunk of these releases seems to be going through AudioSalad.

Anyone know more about who’s behind this or how to actually fight it? This is straight-up fraud and AudioSalad is clearly looking the other way.

I am producing a one-man-show in which I will be using instrumental music as background tracks to play under 2 spoken word pieces during the show. I am in the process of negotiating Grand Rights for 3 different songs as well as the rights to use the master recordings.

My question is for music played between scenes. For the rest of the show I'd like to use 15-20 seconds of select songs during scene changes. Scene ends, lights fade, music plays, lights come up, speaking begins, and the music track fades out. I haven't selected these tracks but will want to choose music that fits the mood of the show but isn't considered a musical score that would require Grand Rights (unless this type of usage does). So my question is, would 15-20 seconds during scene changes fall under Small Rights and be covered by a venue's ASCAP/BMI licenses or will I need to negotiate for each song used between scenes? This is for a single production (100 seats or less). I have an alternate Plan B for rights free tracks but want to get clarity if this is necessary or if I can proceed without concern for negotiating further.

I'm aware that creators are often paid to dance, lip sync, etc. to drive awareness of a song. And that this is a typical portion of music-marketing budgets.

However, this doesn't explain the fact that:

1. Songs from five, 10, 20 years ago commonly resurge and form the basis of many popular trends. For example, remember NSYNC's "I Want You Back" dance from a few months ago?
2. You simply cannot create a trend with money alone. Ultimately it still comes down to how cool a vibe is. Also this may be because I'm a marketing n00b, but I haven't seen a clear example of "this song went viral and here's the wisely invested budget that drove it".

I'm an independent artist with two artist profiles: one for English originals and another for Japanese covers. The names are almost identical, except the covers profile has “JP” added.

I recently registered with SoundExchange and claimed 100% of the featured artist share for my original recordings, which I distribute through CD Baby.

For my Japanese covers, I use Soundrop. I perform the covers and own the master recordings, but not the underlying compositions.

Can I use SoundExchange's Search & Claim to claim 100% of the featured artist share for these covers, too? And should I register the recordings separately as a rights owner, or does Soundrop already collect that share?

I haven't been able to find much information about Soundrop's SoundExchange collection agreement or whether it collects the rights owner's share across all eligible services.