If you have releases live in stores that were distributed with us, we know the most important thing on your mind will be what to do with these releases before our service change comes into effect on December 1st 2022.
If you’ve never transferred distributors before, please don’t worry, it's very commonplace and easy to do while maintaining your streams and playlist positions – and we’re here to tell you how to do it.
We’ve got a step-by-step process for you to follow, but before you take down your releases from Spinnup we recommend choosing your new distribution service as timing can be a factor. Haven’t found your new distribution service? Check out this article which may help!
How to transfer your releases to a new distributor
1. Download all your release assets
We’ve created a new tool in your artist account to help you download all your audio and cover art files. This will download the original files you uploaded when creating your releases. You may already have these saved on your computer, but we recommend downloading these anyway as you must use the exact same files when re-uploading to a new distributor to help your releases match and keep your streams & playlist positions.
All you need to do is:
- Login to your account
- Go to the My Releases tab
- Next to each release click the download button,
- A window will pop up and you need to click the filename of each cover art file (JPG or PNG) and all audio files to download. If your release has multiple audio files, you will need to click on each track individually to download
**Please note** once your releases have been taken down you cannot download your release assets (and neither can we). On December 1st 2022, all live releases from Spinnup artists leaving the service will be taken down, so if you need to download your assets, please do so before this date.
2. Copy your release metadata
Your ISRC and UPC codes will not be downloaded as a part of your release assets when you use the tool above, so you should make a note of your original release metadata, as some platforms may require you to include these when re-uploading your releases.
- Login to your account and go to My Releases
- Next to each release you will find its UPC, original release date, and the ISRCs for every track in that release
- Copy and paste the UPC, release date and ISRCs somewhere safe, for example in a Word document, or the notes app on your computer or phone
3. Re-upload your releases with your new distributor
This is where the information may change depending on the new service you have chosen, so we highly recommend you go to the Help Centre or support articles of your new distributor to check their guidance on how to upload.
As a general rule, you must create the release using the exact same release assets (audio and cover art files) and metadata – so your artist name stylisation, track titles and spelling must match the original release exactly. And often you will need to supply the original ISRC & UPC codes - but not always, so don’t panic if you’re issued with new codes by your new distributor.
**Please Note** Every distributor will have a different lead time for releases. We recommend you re-upload your new releases as early as possible before December 1st 2022, to make sure you have enough time to get your new releases live on stores before they are taken down from Spinnup.
4. When your new releases are live
Wait until your new releases are live so you can check that your streams have matched. As soon as this has happened you can log back into your Spinnup account and take down your releases from our service.
**Please note** on December 1st 2022, all live releases from artists leaving the service will be automatically taken down, so if you’re re-releasing your tracks, we advise you do it before this date.
If your releases aren’t live with your new distributor by the 1stof December 2022 don’t panic, it’s still possible for your re-uploaded releases to match so you can keep your streams, but best practice for this to be successful is to upload your new releases as early as possible.
5. Takedown your releases
Once your releases have matched you can take down your releases from your Spinnup account. Whether you have re-released your tracks or not, any live releases will be taken down on December 1st 2022, please be aware of the cut-off date.
To takedown your releases from your Spinnup account and remove them from stores:
- Login to your Spinnup account
- Go to ‘My Releases’
- Click ‘Subscription’ next to the release/s you want to remove
- Go to ‘Remove Release’
After you have deleted your release from within your Spinnup account, you will receive an email from our team confirming this. Then it will take approximately 1-7 days for your release to be taken down from the stores.
6. Collect your royalties
Because of the delay in sales reporting, it can take some months for you to receive all the royalties you earned from your tracks when they were live on Spinnup. This is totally normal, and unfortunately something we have no control over. As soon as the stores report the streams and downloads to us, we pay the royalties to you.
All Spinnup artist accounts that are being closed as part of the service change announced on October 4th 2022 will remain open for 12 months to give you plenty of time to collect and withdraw all remaining royalties owed to you.
We hope that helps give you some reassurance on how to navigate transferring your releases to another distributor. We want to give our sincerest thanks for choosing Spinnup and letting us be a part of your music career.
If you have any other questions not answered in this article don’t forget to use the search bar to find your answer in another article or reach out to our support team who are on hand to answer any of your questions.