Thanks for moving your existing catalogue of music over to us here at co:brand - we’re looking forward to getting this all in our system and helping your music management by having all of your releases under one roof. We understand that this can sometimes seem like a daunting process, particularly with the amount of metadata we require, so we’re created this guide to make you aware of the process, what we will need from you, and how long this might take.
Note that in most cases, our team at co:brand will be able to assist with catalogue transfers, but these can also be carried out by your own organisational team through using the ‘Import’ feature in your release dashboard - the rest of the process is the same as what we will outline here.
Timeframe: most catalogue transfers can take time to complete, so if you are moving catalogue in response to a contract ending with a previous label or distributor, please allow at least 4 weeks+ for the transfer to be complete before notifying other parties of taking down releases. Please also consider the amount of time that you will need to gather the appropriate metadata materials for the transfer(s) to be properly initiated.
Existing streams: once transfers have been initiated, it can take 3-5 working days for stream counts to sync between the existing release and the transfer - we ask that you allow this process to complete before initiating any takedowns so that you maintain the correct stream counts
Release dates & Metadata (see below)
Spotify for Artists, and other artist release management platforms or apps: it is likely that artists or management teams will receive a notification once a transfer has been initiated suggesting that this release will be ‘released soon’ or is ‘upcoming’. Whilst this may appear incorrect, some DSP’s register catalogue transfers as new releases. You should not be alarmed here, it is standard procedure for transfers, and no action needs to be taken in response to this.
Beatport (for Dance music): if you have releases live on Beatport on your label page, the transfer process for these is not the same as for other DSPs. Rather than co:brand importing the releases, and uploading them as duplicates, Beatport label ownership can be transferred and these releases automatically claimed by the new owners (co:brand). It is imperative that labels/distributors are aware that Beatport catalogue should be transferred, not taken down. For specific releases (i.e. not entire label catalogues on Beatport) being transferred, please contact the co:brand team in advance so that we can advise on appropriate next steps. It is likely in this case that a new label page will need to be set up, and these releases manually uploaded to Beatport, before the old label/distributor takes down those releases from their owned label page.
Social Media sound clips: TikTok and Meta social sounds will need to be delivered (in the same vein as full products) with the same UPC and ISRC pairing as the historic deliveries. Once a new delivery with active rights is received, the system will automatically link the new delivery with the previous record under the same UPC-ISRC pair and a clip and its accumulated usage will be reinstated. This means that all transfer products with associated social sound clips will require metadata showing specific timestamps, UPCs, and ISRCs in order to upload. Otherwise, when previous label/distributors issue takedowns, it is likely that all social sounds associated with releases being transferred will also be removed from social platforms (and any creates associated).
Release Dates & Metadata:
Transfers will only be successful if metadata is IDENTICAL between the ‘new’ transferred release and the existing (already live) release. This includes:
Release date (this may sound odd, but we want to enter the correct and same release date for the transfer as it initially had (i.e. if the release was 3rd Jan 2018, we would want to keep this the same) - this allows for DSPs to backdate, the release to go live ASAP, and also be registered as the ‘same’ release
Credits: Artist, performer, producer, songwriter, label, and copyright credits
Product Codes: UPCs + ISRCs must be listed
Artwork (for every product being transferred)
N.B. co:brand’s catalogue import system can typically pull artwork from live releases, however, we ask for this as occasional circumstances call for manual uploads. Artwork should be shared through a link to dropbox/Google drive/similar, as aspect ratio of 1:1 (perfect square cover art), minimum 1500 x 1500 pixels & maximum 6000 x 6000 pixels, and in TIFF, JPG or PNG format.
Masters (for every product being transferred)
N.B. Where possible, we ask for these as individual links per track (see metadata template sheet listed below) to avoid confusion when uploading masters. This is particularly relevant for products where an extended version also exists, or sped-up/slowed versions. All masters should be shared through a link to dropbox/Google drive/similar, and in .wav or FLAC format. MP3s are not permitted.
DSP’s that the release is being uploaded to - for each product (UPC) we require the exact list of DSPs that this UPC was delivered to. This is particularly important for Beatport specific products, Spotify only products, or cases where 1 product has been delivered to all DSPs at once.