Releasing a Compilation through Spotify

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We want to publish a compilation through iMusician on Spotify. We don’t own all the rights for the tracks on the compilations – we’re going to sign license agreements with the respective rights holders. There are still a few questions that are not 100% clear to us, maybe anyone can help?

  • Is there a template for the kind of license iMusician needs to allow upload of the tracks?
  • What about tracks not uploaded to streaming platforms yet?
  • Once we license the track, how will the royalty mechanism work on Spotify since most of these tracks may already be on these platforms - will there be any confusion with ‘plays’ and ‘royalties’ going to 2 different places?
  • Does the concept of ‘master’ vs ‘publishing’ rights come into play here? I.e. the division of royalties between the artist and the label / publisher?
  • How exactly does track linking work on Spotify? Who gets the royalties? Does this method create a kind of alias of the original upload or another upload - what does one need to be careful about in this case to not create confusion?

Many thanks for any help! Best wishes
Hannes

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Hello and welcome here!

@Carlos might be able to answer these questions (not me, unfortunately).

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Hello @norientsounds,

  1. You can refer to this article to see the kind of document rquired : What Contract/License Do I Need when I Buy a Beat, Sample, or Instrumental Composition Online or From a Third Person? | iMusician

  2. Same thing, if the work is not yours, you need an authorization to exploit it commercially (even if it’s not already online).

  3. I’m not sure I understand your question, but as a distributor we only monetize streams and downloads (Master-related). Copyright-related royalties are collected by Collecing Societies. More info on this here: What Are Collection Societies? | iMusician

  4. Yes. Again, we only collect revenues that are linked to your “Master” and do not collect any publishing rights. The split of revenues depends on the agreement you have with the parties involved.

  5. Unfortunately I’m not familiar with the internal processes of Spotify and how their track linking function works. I found this article that might answer your question, but I would still recommend asking their support directly :slight_smile:

Best,

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Thank you @Carlos for these answers!

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