Metadata Accuracy and Royalty Matching
Royalty systems do not know who you are. They match strings and identifiers. When those disagree across systems, the money stops moving — quietly, and usually without a notification.
In short
Royalties go unmatched when the identifiers and credits attached to a recording or composition disagree across platforms and societies. The fixes are consistent artist and writer name strings, one ISRC per recording and one UPC per product, complete contributor roles with correct splits, and a pre-delivery QC pass that rejects bad data before it spreads.
How matching actually happens
A platform reports usage against an ISRC. A society reports composition usage against a work registration and writer names. A matching engine tries to join those records to a rights holder. If the join fails, the money is parked as unmatched or unclaimed.
Nothing alerts you. The absence looks identical to a track that simply did not perform, which is why unmatched revenue can persist for years.
The fields that break matching
- Artist name variants — stylised spellings, missing accents, 'feat.' handled inconsistently.
- Recycled or duplicated ISRCs across re-releases, remasters and alternate versions.
- Missing or incorrect UPCs on products, especially compilations and waterfall releases.
- Incomplete writer credits and splits that do not total one hundred percent.
- Missing ISWC or work registration for the composition behind a released recording.
- Version labelling — 'Radio Edit', 'Live', 'Sped Up' — omitted, so distinct recordings collapse together.
A pre-delivery QC pass
The cheapest correction is the one made before delivery. A useful QC pass checks name strings against a canonical list, verifies every identifier is present and unique, confirms writer splits total correctly, and validates audio and artwork specifications.
Rejecting a release for two days to fix metadata is far less costly than chasing unmatched royalties across a dozen territories afterwards.
Auditing a back catalog
For existing releases, work by revenue: audit the highest-earning products first, correct identifiers and credits at source, re-register compositions where needed, then re-check statements one or two reporting cycles later to confirm the money reappeared.
Keeping it accurate over time
Maintain one canonical metadata record per artist and per work, apply it to every delivery, and reconcile statements against expectations rather than accepting them at face value.
Dorpon Media runs metadata QC before delivery, maintains identifiers across the catalog, and reconciles recording and publishing statements so unmatched revenue is found and claimed.
Frequently asked questions
What is an unmatched royalty?
Money a platform or society has collected but cannot attribute to a rights holder because the identifiers or credits do not line up. It sits in a suspense account until claimed or redistributed.
Which single field causes the most problems?
Inconsistent artist and writer name strings. A missing accent, an abbreviated middle name or a stylised spelling is enough to split one entity into two in matching systems.
Can metadata be fixed after release?
Yes, through your distributor and publishing administrator, though corrections take time to propagate and some historical royalties may already have been redistributed.
Sources & further reading
- IFPI — ISRC resources — the recording identifier standard.
- CISAC — Works and ISWC — composition registration and identifiers.
- GS1 — UPC/GTIN — the product barcode standard used for releases.
How Dorpon Media can help
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