How DistroDad's Artist Audit Works
Most independent artists have at least one song out in the world with a registration gap, a metadata error, or an unclaimed royalty stream. The audit exists to find those gaps before they turn into permanent losses.
Why an Audit Matters
Independent artists release music, get it onto streaming platforms, and then assume the royalty systems handle the rest automatically. They mostly don't. Mechanical royalties require separate MLC registration. Performance royalties require PRO registration of each individual work. International royalties require territorial registrations most artists have never heard of. Metadata errors — a misspelled name, a missing ISRC — can silently break the matching process that connects your music to its royalty streams.
By the time an artist realizes money has been slipping through, some of it is gone for good. Unclaimed royalties have holding periods that vary by organization, and after those windows close, the money gets redistributed.
The audit catches these problems while there's still time to fix them.
What We Review
Distribution and metadata:
Are your releases live on all major DSPs and appearing correctly?
Are ISRCs and UPCs assigned to every release?
Is songwriter and producer metadata embedded in the release — not just listed somewhere, but actually entered into the distribution system?
Are ℗ and © lines accurate?
PRO registrations:
Are you a registered member of a PRO?
Is each song individually registered with your PRO — not just your membership, but each work?
Are splits documented and do they match what was agreed upon with co-writers?
Is the publishing share registered — either to a publisher or to your own publishing entity?
MLC registration:
Are your songs registered at themlc.com?
Are ISRCs correctly linked in the MLC system?
Are there unmatched royalties in your MLC account waiting to be claimed?
SoundExchange:
Are you registered with SoundExchange to collect digital performance royalties from non-interactive streaming (Pandora, SiriusXM, etc.)?
Are your releases registered in the SoundExchange system?
Copyright registration:
Have your songs been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office?
Were they registered within three months of publication (which preserves eligibility for statutory damages)?
We also note anything that looks like a risk — a co-writer situation without a signed split sheet, a release on an old distributor that may not be correctly transferring royalties, or a publishing deal that may be limiting your rights in ways you're not aware of.
What You Get
At the end of the audit, you receive a plain-English summary of what we found. Not a legal document — a clear breakdown of what's in order, what's missing, and what steps would address each gap. You're under no obligation to work with DistroDad after the audit. If your registrations are all in good shape, we'll tell you that too.
The audit is free. It takes us a few business days to complete once we have your release information.
Who It's For
The audit is most valuable for artists who have already released music and are wondering whether everything is set up correctly — especially artists who self-distributed through a major platform like DistroKid or TuneCore without a lot of guidance on the publishing and registration side.
It's also useful for artists who are about to sign with DistroDad and want to start fresh with a clear picture of where their catalog stands. We treat the audit as the first step of the onboarding process — understanding what exists before we build on top of it.
If you've got music out in the world and you're not completely sure every royalty stream is connected, the audit is worth doing. The worst outcome is we confirm everything is fine. The more common outcome is we find something worth fixing.
Ready to find out where your catalog stands? Request your free audit here.