FAQ area
Find enlightenment in the most common questions in digital music distribution.
General questions
Digital distribution via Rebeat
For digital music distribution we charge a market rate of 15% of the revenue.
You need our Music Enterprise software, which costs EUR 149,-. This amount guarantees you lifetime usage rights and includes all future updates.
You can pay variable costs in the transparent pay-as-you-go model and as a convenient flat fee.
Rebeat Digital is a distribution company. You only assign the digital distribution rights for the respective track (= track exclusivity) and give us the necessary copyright permission for digital distribution. All other rights (copyright, master rights) remain with the musician/producer/label.
We have guidelines from the stores regarding the metadata to which we must adhere as a distributor. For this reason, the metadata is checked both mechanically and manually in our quality control.
If an invalid entry is detected or the cover does not meet the desired quality standard of the stores, you will be issued a ticket in the MES with a note for correction, as well as a notification by email.
If you have any questions about the ticket, please write to customerservice@rebeat.com or reply directly to the email notification about your ticket.
Unfortunately, it takes time between the day the DSPs report a turnover to us and the payout. This is due to the complex process:
Some DSPs report daily sales figures to us, which you can call up in the MES in the Analytics section under “Daily”. In the following month, after the streams and downloads have happened, we receive monthly reports from the DSPs. These numbers are available from the middle of the month under “Preview” in Analytics.
We receive the payment from most DSPs in the following month after we have received the reports. The settlement between Rebeat and the labels or artists takes place two months after we receive payment from the DSPs. The reason for this is that DSPs always change reports afterwards. By delaying payment, we reduce the effort of having to correct settlements after the fact.
Here’s an example:
For sales in January, we receive reports in February and payment from DSPs in March. To cushion possible corrections, Rebeat pays the customers two months later. Therefore, you get paid for January sales with the statement at the end of May.
Copyright levies in the USA
Authors (lyricists, composers, …) have a right to revenue from sales of digital music.
In Europe, most stores pay these copyright fees themselves to the respective copyright societies (AMG, GEMA, SABAM…). In the U.S., the U.S. Copyright Office has contracted the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) to collect and pay copyright royalties. To receive these payments, authors and publishers must register with the MLC.
Your label is not a member of a copyright society? Then unfortunately no copyright royalties can be paid out via Rebeat Digital.
> “MLC Registration” option
- If you are the original author of the works and are not registered with any copyright society.
- If you distribute third-party compositions that are not registered with any copyright society and you want to take care of charging the authors yourself.
> “MLC Opt-out” option
- If it is a cover version of a song.
- If you have already registered your works with a copyright society.
- If you have a publisher who takes care of it.
- If you or your publisher have already taken care of the registration with the MLC.
You can do this directly in the MES when creating a product. Under “Track data” you will find “Publishing rights”. There you can choose between “MLC registration” and “MLC opt-out”. Click the former if you want to register your product.
At the moment, products that have already been published can only be registered for the MLC via a metadata update. However, we are already working on a solution that will make this easier and without additional costs.
For new products, publishing rights is a required field, which means you must choose to either register or opt-out. Already published products are automatically set to opt-out.
Digital Service Providers
You can find a current list of all stores here.
Your data will be sent to the selected stores, then the stores themselves check whether the data is complete and correct. This can take up to 30 days.
We recommend that you upload all data via the MES at least 14 days before the desired release date. This way you ensure that the music will be available in the stores on the planned date.
Please search for the track or album in the respective store. Generally the stores need between 3 to 20 days to check the data and put the music online.
Yes, with the basic function our distribution matrix this is very simple. You can define for each country
- Store
- for streaming and/or download
- Price level
- Release date
Just click on “Distribution Matrix” in the product data and a window will open where you can set your release. You can also easily copy and paste settings for other countries.
The actual selling price is set by the store. But you can define a price category:
- Automatic: the price per track will be approximately between EUR 0.89 and 1.19. This is a price range that experience has shown to be well accepted.
- Budget: These prices are about 50% below the store average.
- Back: The selling price is about 80% of usual store prices.
- Normal: This is the usual selling price as defined by the store.
- Front Plus: Here we try to achieve the highest selling price, which is about 130% of the usual store price. However, a higher selling price does not automatically generate higher revenue, as the number of purchases may be lower.
To set a price category, click on “Sales Matrix” next to the product. A window will open where you can select a category for each country.
It may be that the tracker in the MES does not yet show the current status. The best thing to do is to check the release directly in the store and search for the song or album there. Nothing found? This can have the following reasons:
Release date is in the future
Please check if you might have set a release date in the future. The music will be displayed in the stores from this date at the earliest.
Store has not checked the dates yet
Some stores check every delivered product manually for correctness of the data. This can sometimes take longer, generally you can expect 3 to 30 days until the uploaded track is available.
Store offers only special music genres
There are stores that only offer products of a certain genre. For example, Beatport only accepts Electronic & Dance and only about 80% of that to guarantee a high quality standard for DJs.
It may be that not ALL tracks of an album meet 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 incorrect product data
Especially iTunes has very strict requirements and guidelines on product data. If data is incorrect or incomplete, the music will not be included in the store. In the manual you can find the “Most common data entry errors”.
Missing demand
Some stores (e.g. Juno) reserve the right to remove products that have not generated sales within a certain period of time (usually 12 months).
Explicit song lyrics
In some countries songs with explicit lyrics are not allowed to be sold. These include, for example, Belarus, Burkina Faso, India, Nepal and Uzbekistan.
Normally, TikTok users use music from a sound library that is automatically monetized. However, it can happen that the music is only playing in the background or the music was played live in a video.
In this case, TikTok does not always manage to achieve a correct matching for the artist. For this case there is a form with which you can claim your content.
Please write to support@rebeat.com and we will send you the link to claim the video in question yourself.
General
We make your job easier because we understand the challenges music labels and artists face. We create practical solutions that help you do your job faster and better. We are curious, courageous and fair in collaboration.
Music Enterprise Software MES
The Music Enterprise Software – MES for short – is an integral part of our services. It allows labels to distribute music digitally, manage their supply chain, bill artists and analyze performance.
Over the years, we have continued to expand the MES so that labels can easily handle special tasks such as third-party label billing and accounting for various revenue streams.
You can install the MES on any standard PC. Please make sure that your system meets 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 available RAM
Standard audio device
150 MB free hard disk space plus the file size of the tracks in wav format
High Speed Internet (ISDN, DSL, cable modem or faster connection)
You can install Music Enterprise Software (MES) on multiple computers without purchasing an additional license.
Just download the software again and install it on the new computer. You can log in with your usual credentials.
Your uploaded products will not be visible at first. All application data (audio files, cover image, metadata, etc.) will be saved by default on the computer from which they were uploaded. You have two options to make your existing products visible:
- Manually copy the filestore from the computer where the products were uploaded and load them into the filestore of the new computer.
- Import the products directly in the MES in the menu item “Products” > “Load from server”. All data – except the audio files – will be transferred from our server. Normally you don’t need the audio files in the filestore, unless you want to change the pre-listenings.
Your Music Enterprise Software (MES) is equipped with an automatic update function. Every time you start the program, the software checks if a new version is available on our servers and installs it automatically. All updates are free of charge for you.
In order to use the Music Enterprise Software (MES), you need to register a credit card, even if you bought the MES as a CD at some point. Why?
Security
We have customers all over the world and we can legitimize them easily and quickly via credit card.
Debit pay-as-you-go services
If you order, for example, EAN or ISRC codes directly in the MES, then you pay for these pay-as-you-go services conveniently with your credit card. The same applies if you use the MES to manage your supply chain, for example (more info here). Then any storage fees and booking lines are paid via your credit card.
Use the MES immediately
Paying by credit card is easy and fast, you can use the MES immediately.
You don’t have a credit card available?
With a prepaid credit card you can use the MES safely and comfortably. Load as much credit on the card as you plan to use for the MES. This way you always have your expenses under control. If there is no more credit on the card, you will receive a message from the MES as soon as you want to use a pay-as-you-go service.
Technical questions
Start your Music Enterprise Software (MES) and click on “Forgot your login details?” in the login window.
A secure web page with a form will open. Please enter your first and last name and the email you registered with and submit the form.
You will receive an email with a link to your new login information. If you do not receive the email, please check your spam folder.
Please keep your access data safe and secret and do not give them to third parties!
If your e-mail, billing address, bank details, etc. have changed since registration, please write the desired changes to support@rebeat.com with the subject “Change master data” .
We will change your data in our database.
Important: Write from the e-mail address that is registered with us or send us a copy of your photo ID in the attachment.
Just contact our support team, we will gladly change the email address for you.
Phone: 0043 2272 61892-0
Mail: support@rebeat.com
Monday–Thursday 09:00–15:00
Friday 09:00–13:00
For security only support can change account data. Just contact us, we will be happy to make the change for you:
Phone: 0043 2272 61892-0
Mail: support@rebeat.com
Monday–Thursday 09:00–15:00
Friday 09:00–13:00
If you have technical problems with the song upload, please check the following:
Are the specifications of the audio file correct?
File format: WAV or AIFF
Sampling rate: 44.1 kHz
Resolution: 16 bit
Channels: Stereo
AIFF or AIF audio file?
AIF is an obsolete audio format, only AIFF audio files can be imported via the Music Enterprise software (simply renaming the file extension from AIF to AIFF is not sufficient!).
Does the AIFF file comply with the AIFF-C standard?
AIFF audio files can cause problems during import if they do not comply with the official AIFF-C standard. Usually, any current audio editing program should be able to create AIFF files according to the current AIFF-C standard. However, it is possible that some audio editing programs do not adhere to this standard.
Products are automatically assigned to a profile by the DSPs upon initial delivery. If there is already an artist with the same name, the new products will be added to this profile.
If you want to transfer your products to another profile, we can request this for you at the DSPs. Please write an e-mail to support@rebeat.com with
- artist name
- link to the profile and
- the products you want to transfer.
You can view and download most documents directly in the MES. Click on “Invoices/Statements” in the “QuickSteps” menu bar. A window will open where you can view the desired file or download it directly from the server.
If the desired document is not available, please send us a message to support@rebeat.com
Store specific questions
Spotify
Make sure to enter the artist name with correct spelling in the MES in the tab “contributor management” (in “track data”) and enter the correct artist URI of the Spotify artist page > alternatively you can simply select the correct profile from the suggested list of Spotify artist profiles in the MES.
URI stands for Uniform Resource Indicator. A URI defines a certain element distinctly. In the case of Spotify, URIs define the elements artist, track, album, playlist, songwriter, etc. definitely. Apple uses Apple IDs for this – you can find an example below.
- Go to open.spotify.com in your browser
- search for the respective artist or album and open the artist or album page
- you will find the URI in a slightly changed form as URL directly in your browser input bar.
- URIs always have the same structure: spotify:album:_ID_ or spotify:artist:_ID_
- The ID of the album or the artist profile can be copied directly from the browser input bar and add it to the before mentioned structure
- Alternatively, you can also copy the URI by clicking “…” – “Share”, “copy album link” or “copy artist link”.
On the artist or album page, click “…” and then click “Share”. Now press “Ctrl” and keep the key pressed. Instead of “Copy album link” or “Copy link to artist” now appears “Copy Spotify URI”.
We can provide you with the corresponding Spotify URI (internal Spotify link), provided you have an existing artist profile or as soon as your first product is in “exported to store” status.
Send an email to support@rebeat.com and tell us for which of your artists and which product you need the Spotify URI. You need the Spotify URI to claim your artist profile on Spotify.
Spotify for Artists allows artists, labels and distributors to get the most out of Spotify by understanding their audiences, personalizing their artist profiles, and taking action to build their fanbases.
If you run a label that has music on Spotify, you can now use Spotify for Artists to access a number of features —including album-level data across your entire catalog, custom date ranges, playlist pitching, Canvas upload, and more. Labels will be able to add multiple people to their teams, and see a log of actions taken across their team in Spotify for Artists with a new Activity Page. Both artist and label teams will be able to make changes to an artist profile — whether it’s updating a bio or sharing a playlist through Artist Pick. If you’ve never used Spotify for Artists, you can check out our label onboarding guide here. We’ve also shared all the useful things you can do with the tools, with some helpful case studies on this new site.
To sign up to Spotify for Artists and get access to your catalog, you’ll need a Spotify account and your work email address. If you’re the first person from your organization to request access, you’ll need the URIs of at least 3 tracks that you’ve previously delivered to Spotify. If your organization has already been set up with us, your request will go to your S4A Label Team’s Admin.
Head to artists.spotify.com/claim to get started.
You need a personal Spotify account first. If you don’t have one yet, you can create an account at https://www.spotify.com/signup/. Go to artists.spotify.com in your browser and complete the registration process. In case you need the URI for one of your products in order to verify, just contact us. support@rebeat.com
After the verification and access for Spotify for Artists, you have the following benefits:
- Statistics for your profile
- Editing possibilities for your profile (picture, bio, etc.)
- Spotify support for profile and catalogue relevant questions
- Verified Artist Checkmark
Note: For very recent uploads (or releases that haven’t gone live yet) you may have to wait 1-2 days for a URI to become available.
Log in to your Spotify for Artists account and click on the 3 dots in the top left next to the already verified artist name. A column will then open on the left side of the screen. In this column on the bottom click on the up arrow “^” that appears to the right of your account information. From there, select the “Add team” tab and follow the instructions on the page.
In order for your release to be displayed in your Spotify for Artists account under “Upcoming”, it must be available in Spotify’s system at least one week before the release date.
For a playlist pitch to the Spotify curators, we recommend uploading the release at least two weeks before release date in the MES.
The data from Rebeat must be delivered to Spotify in timely manner so that the release is also available on Spotify on the scheduled date. According to Spotify’s service level guidelines, timely manner means a new release must be delivered at least five (5) days before the scheduled release date. Metadata updates and takedowns must be delivered to Spotify at least two (2) days prior to the release date. Since we carry out an internal quality control of the metadata before delivery to the DSPs, this time must also be taken into account. Under normal circumstances, we need 1-5 business days to verify the data.
Don’t Put Your Music At Risk
As your trusted partner, we wanted to take a moment to warn you about some deceptive advertisements we’ve recently seen for illegitimate music promotion services.
Third parties that promise playlist placements or a specific number of streams in exchange for compensation are likely using illegitimate practices without your knowledge. These services can threaten your hard work, resulting in the potential withholding of streams or royalties, or even complete removal of your catalog from streaming services.
Our streaming partners work diligently to ensure streams are legitimate, meaning they reflect genuine user listening intent. If a service finds that you (or a third party hired by you or on your behalf) have boosted play counts through any automated, deceptive, fraudulent or other invalid means (digital bots, “click farms”, payment for placement on playlists, etc.), the service may permanently remove your entire catalog.
If you’re in the market for a music promotion service, make sure to do your research before you hire them.
TikTok
In order to make a desired snippet of your recording available on TikTok, set the appropriate starting point when entering the data in the MES for “Pre-listening”.
After successful delivery of your product, users can record part of the 60-second section from the set starting point for their TikTok videos.
Linking certain recordings to a profile is currently only possible for verified profiles. If your profile on TikTok is already verified, you can send us a link request to support@rebeat.com
SoundCloud
Send a request to support@rebeat.com and be sure to include the URLs of both SoundCloud profiles, aswell as the information which profile you want to keep.
You can use your access to edit and customize your SoundCloud profile in many ways.
Note: If you have already uploaded your tracks directly to SoundCloud, please deactivate delivery to SoundCloud in the distribution matrix in the MES.
Tidal
Apple Music
Make sure to enter the artist name with correct spelling in the MES in the tab “contributor management” (in “track data”) and add the respective Artist ID of the Apple profile (Apple ID)
Go to music.apple.com, search for the respective artist and open the artist profile.
You will find the ID at the end of the URL in the browser input bar, starting after “/”. E.g. music.apple.com/us/artist/heap/1503567982
Album IDs can be found the same way. E.g. https://music.apple.com/us/album/amour-propre-die-wilde-jagd-remix/1513271302
Go to artist.apple.com in your browser and finish the registration process > In case you need the Apple ID for one of your products or your profile, you can request it from us via e-mail. support@rebeat.com
After verification and receiving your access, you have the following benefits:
- Statistics for your profile
- Editing possibilities for your profile (picture, etc.)
Send us a request via support@rebeat.com and be sure to include the Instagram URL of your profile as well as the ISRCs of the recordings you want to link.
Yes, we can submit a verification request for your artist account. Send a request to support@rebeat.com and be sure to include the URL to your instagram profile.
Yes, we can submit a verification request for your artist account. Send a request to support@rebeat.com and be sure to include the URL to your Facebook profile.
Beatport
If you already have or have applied for a label profile on Beatport, it must be ensured for each delivery that the spelling of the label in the metadata corresponds 100% to the spelling on Beatport > If you do not yet have a label profile on Beatport and you want to apply for one, run the application process via the link in the MES (“Extras” > “Beatport Label Application”)
After a positive feedback on your Beatport label application, your products delivered with the corresponding label will be displayed in your label profile on Beatport, including the transmitted label logo.
Napster
YouTube
Your products are also distributed through us to YouTube Content ID and stored there as audio references. This fingerprinting system from YouTube ensures that your songs are protected from illegitimate uploads by being claimed by us. A claimed video can generate advertising revenue for you. Your own videos will also be automatically claimed, as YouTube does not know that your videos are associated with your audio references. Just send us your channel link and we’ll release our claims on your videos.
We will be happy to send a request to YouTube for you to make your channel an OAC.
Please send us the link to your channel and to your profile on YouTube Music or the link to your topic channel on YouTube and we will do the rest.