FAQ for digital music distribution at Rebeat
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We make your job easier because we know the challenges labels are facing. We create workable solutions, which help you to handle your daily work faster and better. We are proactive, adventurous and fair to work with.

We work with large and small labels alike. We even have some digital music distributors as clients, who use our software.

We do not give any names, because we are convinced that the only important criterion is, how well we can cover your needs. Contact us to see, if we are the right partner for you.

Within the heart of our services lies our Music Enterprise Software. It enables labels to use our services for digital music distribution, royalty accounting, supply chain management and data analysis.

Over the years we developed powerful add-ons for your software to handle specific tasks such as sublabel accounting and management of different revenue streams.

Install MES on every standard computer. Please make sure, that the system fulfills the following requirements:

• Windows 8.1 (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows 10 version 1803+ (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows 11 (64-bit)
• .NET Framework 4.7.2+
• 550 MHz+
• 1+ GB free RAM
• Standard audio device
• 150 MB free hard disc plus size of upload files in wav format
• High Speed Internet (ISDN, DSL, cabel modem or fast connection)

If you use Mac/Apple, you can work with MES via Boot Camp or Parallels.

Existing customers can anytime download the latest version of our Music Enterprise Software for free. You only need the e-mail address which you registred for th account.

New customers receive a download link via e-mail after registration and validation of the contract.

You can install Music Enterprise Software MES on several computers without buying another license.

Simply download the software another time and install it on the computer. You can access MES with your normal login data.

Your uploaded products will not be visible at first, because all user data (audio files, cover, metadata, …) is saved by default on the computer used for uploading. There are two possibilities to make uploaded products visible:

1. Copy manually the filestore of the computer used for uploading and transfer it to the filestore of the new computer (e.g. via USB).
2. Import products directly into MES in the menue item “Product data” > “Load from server”. All data – except audio files – will be transfered from our server to your computer. In general you do not need the audio date in your filestore, except if you want to change pre-listening

Your Music Enterprise Software MES comes with an automatic update function. After each start MES checks if there is an update available on our server and starts updating. All updates are free of charge for our customers.

In order to use Music Enterprise Software MES you need to register a credit card, even if you bought MES on CD. Why?

Security
We have customers all over the world and credit cards are a fast and easy way of validation.

Payment of Pay-as-you-go services
If you for example buy EAN or ISRC Codes directly in MES, then you can settle these Pay-as-you-go services with your credit card. The same goes for customers, who use MES to manage their supply chain (read more about it here). In this case we invoice any storage fees or statement lines via credit card.

Use MES instantaneously
Payment via credit card is fast, you can use MES instantaneously.

You do not have access to a credit card?
A safe and convenient way to use MES is with a prepaid credit card. Charge the card with the budget you want to allocate to MES. In this way you have absolute control over your spendings. If the deposit is spent, you get an information as soon as you want to use pay-as-you-go services.

Start your Music Enterprise Software MES and click on “Forgot your login data?” in the login window.

A secure web page with a form opens. Please give your first and last name as well as the e-mail address, which was registred for the account.

You will receive an e-mail with a link. Click on the link to open a page with your new login data. If you do not receive this e-mail, please check your spam.

Please handle your login data with care and do not forward it to others!

If your e-mail address, billing address, bank account, etc. have changed since registering with us, please send an e-mail to support@rebeat.com with subject “change master data” with the required changes.

We will update your master data in our system.

Important: Please write from the e-mail address that is registered with us or send us a copy of your photo ID in the attachment.

Simply contact our support, we change the e-mail address for you.

Tel: 0043 2272 61892-0
Mail: support@rebeat.com
Monday–Thursday 9am–3pm
Friday 9am–1pm

For security reasons only our support can change bank account details. Please contact us, we will gladly change it for you:

Tel: 0043 2272 61892-0
Mail: support@rebeat.com
Monday–Thursday 9am–3pm
Friday 9am-1pm

If you experience problems during upload of tracks, please check:

Is the audio file correct?

• Data format: WAV or AIFF
• Sampling rate: 44.1 kHz
• Bit depth: 16 Bit
• Channel: Stereo

AIFF or AIF Audiodatei?
AIF is an obsolete audio format, whereas with Music Enterprise Software you need to import AIFF audio files (it is not enough to simply rename the ending from AIF to AIFF!)

Are the AIFF files conform with AIFF-C standards?
Problems might occur if AIFF files do not comply with the official AIFF-C standards.  In general your audio editor software should create AIFF-C standard compliant AIFF files. However, it might be possible that some programs do not fulfill these requirements.

Workaround: Burn your audio files first on CD and then rip the CD. By burning a CD, you create AIFF-C compliant AIFF audio files. Mac users can copy audio files directly from CD to their desktop.

Please search in the store for your track or album. In general it takes stores between 3 and 30 days to validate the data and publish the music online.

The profiles are assigned automatically by the stores when a product is first delivered. If there is already an existing artist of the same name, the new product will be added to this profile.

If you want to have your products assigned to a different profile, we can request this for you at the stores.

Please write to support@rebeat.com and state

• the artist name
• the link to the artist profile and
• the products that should be assigned to a new or existing profile.

You can view and download most of the documents directly in the MES. Click in the menu bar under “Quick Steps” on “Invoices/Statements”. A new window opens where you can view and download the requested document.

If the document you are looking for is not available in the MES, please write a message to support@rebeat.com.

For digital music distribution we charge 15% of the revenues, which is a standard in our industry.

In order to distribute via Rebeat you need our Music Enterprise Software, which costs EUR 149,- one-time. This amount grants you indefinite usage of the software including all future updates.

Additional services can be used within a transparent pay-as-you-go scheme or with a convienent flat-fee.

Rebeat Digital is not a record label, but a distributor. You only asign to us the digital distribution rights for the track (= track exclusivity) and provide us with a copyright agreement essential for digital distribution. All other rights (copy right, master rights) remain property with the artist/producer/label.

The track exclusivity applies only to store with which we have a contract. Other than those you can sell your music on your website or platforms like Bandcamp directly. We even recommend you to do so, since it can push sales in stores as well.

What about Youtube & Facebook?
As long as the tracks are not offered for streaming or free download, you can upload them to Youtube, Facebook and others. For Youtube you will receive the message “Rebeat claims your content”. This means, that we own the digital distribution rights for this content and thus we are allowed to monatize it. We collect those revenues for you and transfer them to you, minus 15% revenueshare.

We are specialists for digital music distribution, therfore we can not offer you a physical distribution.

There is a longer delay between the first report of streams and downloads and the payout. This is due to the complex process:

Some stores send us “Daily Sales” which you can see in the MES under Analytics as soon as we have received them. The following month, after the streams and downloads happened, we receive the monthly report from the stores. Those numbers are available from the middle of the month in the “Preview” section of the Analytics.

Rebeat receives the payout from the stores the following month after they have sent us the monthly report. The billing between Rebeat and our labels and artists takes place two months after receipt of payment by the stores. The reason for this delay is that the portals quite often make subsequent changes to the reports. By delaying the payout we reduce the risk of having to correct invoices afterwards.

Here is an example:
Sales from January are reported in February and paid to Rebeat in March by the stores. In order to cushion possible corrections, Rebeat pays the customers with a two months delay. Therefore, you will receive your sales from January with the statement at the end of May.

As distributor we have to follow the guidelines from the stores regarding the metadata. For this reason, the metadata are checked automatically as well as manually in our quality control.

If an invalid entry gets detected or the cover does not meet the quality standards of the stores, you will receive a ticket with a note for correction in the MES, as well as a notification per e-mail.

If you have questions regarding the ticket please write to customerservice@rebeat.com or reply directly to the notification e-mail of the ticket.

Authors (composer, lyricist, …) own the right to claim revenues from digital music sales.

In Europe most stores directly pay those fees to the national society for musical performance and mechanical reproduction rights (e.g. AMG, GEMA, SABAM…).

In the U.S., the U.S. Copyright Office has designated the Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) to collect and distribute mechanical royalty payments. In order to receive these payments, authors and publishers need to register with the MLC.

You are not a member of a collecting society? In this case no mechanical royalties can be collected for you.

> option “MLC registration”

• If you are the original composer and have not registered your works with a collecting society.
• If you distribute third party compositions that are not registered with a collecting society and you would like to take care of the reimbursement to the originators.

> option “MLC opt-out”

• If it’s a cover version of another song
• If your works are already registered with a collecting society
• If you have a publisher who takes care of it
• If you (or your publisher) have already registered your works with MLC

You can register directly in your MES when creating a new product. In “track data” you will find “publishing rights”. There you can either choose “MLC registration” or “MLC opt-out”. Select the first one, if you want to register with MLC.

Already released products can only be registered via a metadata update at the moment. We are currently working on a solution that will make this easier for you and at no additional costs.

For new products, publishing rights are a mandatory field, so you will need to either select “MLC registration” or “MLC opt-out”. Already released products are automatically set to “ MLC opt-out”.

List of stores as of October 2020

* Are part of Kanjian
** Are part of Sound Republica
*** Are part of Simfy

Your data is transfered to the chosen stores, then each store validates if the data is complete and accurate. This can take up to 30 days.

We recommend to upload data with MES at least 14 days before the desired release date. In this way you make sure that your music is available in stores when scheduled.

Please search the track directly in the store. Stores generally take 3 to 30 days to validate the data and publish the music online.

Yes, with the free basis function of our add-on “Matrix”. Define per country:

• store
• streaming and/or download
• price level
• release date

Simply click “Product data” in “distribution matrix” to open another window where you can setup your release per country. You can transfer country settings easily to other markets.

The actual price of a track is set by the store. You can define price categories:

• Automatic: Price per track is usually between EUR 0,89 and 1,19. This price range is very well accepted by consumers.
• Budget: Prices are 50% below average store prices.
• Back: Prices are approx. 80% of average store prices.
• Normal: This is the standard price of a store.
• Front Plus: This price category tries to achieve the highest price, which is about 130% of the average store price. However, a higher price does not automatically bring you higher earnings, because in general the number of sales decreases.

In order to chose a price category, click unter “Product data” on “distribution matrix”.  This opens a new window where you can set the price categroy per land and store.

If you cannot find a released track in stores, it might be for one of the following reasons:

Future release date
Please check if a future release date has been set. The tracks will be published by the store at this date at the earliest.

Store has not validated the data
Some stores validate manually for each track if the data is complete and correct. This can take some time, in general allow 3 to 30 days until the track is published.

Store offers only specific genres
A few stores only offer music from a specific genre. For example Beatport only accepts Electronic & Dance and publishes approx. 80 % of all entries to ensure a high quality for DJs.

It is also possible that not ALL tracks on an album fulfill the genre requirements of a store. For example a product with two dance tracks and two pop tracks will not be accepted by Beatport.

Missing or inaccurate product data
Especially iTunes has very high and strict requirements concerning product data. In case of missing or inaccurate date, the store will not publish. Please refer to our manual to avoid the most common errors.

Low demand
Some shops (e.g. Juno) reserve the right to take tracks out of their store, if they generate no sales within a certain time periode (mostly 12 months).

Explicit lyrics
In some countries music with explicit lyrics can not be sold in stores. This includes for example Belarus, Burkina Faso, India, Nepal and Uzbekistan.

For existing artist profiles or as soon as your first product has the status “Exported to stores”, we can provide you with the corresponding Spotify-URI (internal Spotify-Link).

Please write to support@rebeat.com and let us know for which of your artists  and which product you need the Spotify-URI. You will then need the Spotify-URI to claim your artist profile on Spotify.

TikTok Users usually take the music from a sound library which is automatically montized. But it can happen, that the music only runs in the background or the music was played live in the video.

When this happens TikTok is not always able to generate a correct matching for the artist. In this case there is a form with which you can claim your content correctly.

Send a message to support@rebeat.com and our support team will send you the link with which you can claim the affected video yourself.