Jamvana

1. What is distribution?

Digital distribution (also called content delivery, online distribution, music distribution, among others) is the delivery or distribution of media content such as audio, video, software and video games. In this case, Jamvana delivers audio and video to retailers and streaming services also known as DSP’s (Digital Service Providers/Partner or Distribution Service Provider/Partner).
Jamvana delivers in the audio format 44khz/16 bit wav, this is required by DSP’s. Jamvana delivers video in .mov & .mp4 format.
Some DSP’s include but are not limited to: iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Deezer, Tidal, Pandora, Napster, Beatport, Juno, Djshop.de, and more. Jamvana also delivers sample packs to multiple DSP’s

2. Why do I need it?

If you plan to release your music online, you need to have a distributor (Jamvana) package and send your music off to the DSP’s for release. This is a requirement of every DSP. You must use a distributor to release your music so information is packed and processed correctly.

3. Who uses it?

Anyone who has distributed music online on a retailer or streamer is using a distribution service. Artists from Skrillex, The Weeknd, Drake, Audioslave, Kip Moore & many more all use a distribution service.
Records labels distribute music through a distribution. Artists can independently distribute music through a distributor and managers can as well.

4. How do I use the Jamvana system?

Once you contact us, an account manager will get you set up with an agreement. Once the agreement is signed, they will get you an account and you will follow this guide to distribute your music:http://bit.ly/MDSuploadguide
Jamvana offers multiple plans for all different kinds of users; we also offer additional add on services and sub-accounts.

5. When should I use it?

When you are ready to distribute your release and have the required format for distribution.
1. AUDIO: 44khz/16 bit wav (required by DSP’s)
2. ARTWORK: 3000x3000 jpg (required by DSP’s)
3. VIDEO: .mov or .mp4 (Optional service, contact your account manager first before releasing)
DSP’s recommend and require 3 weeks (21 business days) for a release to be put into the distribution system before the actual release date. Some DSP’s work faster than others. In emergencies, Jamvana can help rush a release for delivery, however DSP’s can choose when to put it into the system if it is lesser than 3 weeks.

6. What is an ISRC and UPC?

The International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) is an international standard code for uniquely identifying sound recordings and music video recordings. An ISRC identifies a particular recording, not the work (composition and lyrical content) itself. Therefore, different recordings, edits, and remixes of the same work should each have their own ISRC. Works are identified by ISWC. Recordings remastered without significant audio-quality changes should retain their existing ISRC, but the threshold is left to the discretion of the record company. Read more about ISRC’s here.
The Universal Product Code (UPC) is a barcode symbology (i.e., a specific type of barcode) that is widely used in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and in other countries for tracking trade items in stores. UPC’s can be used for digital distribution to track a certain release.
ISRC and UPC numbers are required for each and every release on every DSP. Jamvana provides ISRC and UPC free to you.

7. What is Spotify delivery lead time?

As per the SLG, we require that inserts are fully delivered at least 5 business days before earliest release date specified in the metadata and that updates and takedowns are fully delivered at least 2 business days before expected live date through our feed.

Spotify for Artists is the free tool that gives artists, labels and distributors the data they need from Spotify by providing streaming stats to understand performance across their entire catalog.

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, custom date ranges, playlist pitching, 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, we encourage you to get in touch with your team admin. If you don’t know who that is, you can submit a request to Creator Support.
Head to artists.spotify.com/claim to get started.

1. What is streaming?

Streaming is generally taken to refer to cases where a user watches digital video content and/or listens to digital audio content on a computer screen and speakers (ranging from a desktop computer to a smartphone) over the Internet. With streaming content, the user does not have to download the entire digital video or digital audio file before they start to watch/listen to it.

2. What are artificial streams?

Streams that are not produced by real people listening to music are called Artificial Streams. This is usually made possible by software programs - bots - that are programmed to play a track over and over again to inflate its stream count and royalties. Artificial streams are also known as streaming fraud, stream-farming, abnormal streaming activity or streaming manipulation.

3. What harm does it do?

Most streaming services operate on a “shared pool” model for royalties, which splits all of their income according to the total number of streams generated. When people manipulate stream counts, they’re practically stealing money from this shared royalty pool. This means legitimate artists get less from their rightfully earned royalties.

4. What is being done to combat this issue?

These days, significant engineering resources and research are put into detecting, mitigating, and removing artificial activity on the streaming services. With Jamvana, we have over the years implemented a sophisticated system to detect and monitor artificial streams on music released through our digital distribution service. Actors like Spotify have for some time practiced withholding royalties generated by artificial streams, as well as requesting release and catalog takedowns to deter people from engaging in streaming fraud. Starting in early 2024, Spotify will start charging labels and distributors per track when obvious artificial streaming is detected on their upload. This means owners of affected releases will be fined in their turn. Please note that these measures from Spotify affect every distributor, not only Jamvana, and this is the only information we’ve been provided with.

5. How can I avoid being affected by artificial streaming activity?

Don’t use third-party-promotional services that guarantee streams, views or followers, and be extra careful about which other services you use to boost or market your music.

6. I used a service that now seems suspicious, how do I fix it?

If you've recently embarked on a promotional spree and Spotify gives you a heads-up or we warn you about some fishy activity, it's time to hit the brakes. Pause any ongoing promotion as soon as possible. Keep an eye on those playlists. You can dive into your Spotify for Artists account, click on Music, then Playlists, and check under 'Listener - Playlists made by Spotify listeners'. Watch out for red flags like playlists featuring only unknown artists but boasting a ton of followers, or playlists with suspiciously low followers but raking in sky-high streams. And beware of playlist names that sound too good to be true, like "Top Tracks in USA" or "New Drake Music". If something smells fishy, it probably is. Here are some other signs of sketchy playlists:
- They only feature unknown artists but have a hefty following.
- They have a small number of followers but somehow manage to rack up a massive number of streams.
- The playlist name seems off or misleading.
- Certain artists dominate the playlist, or the same artists pop up in multiple playlists from the same curator.
- The curator has a bunch of playlists with similar follower counts, but their own follower count is suspiciously low.
- The curator's followers have odd, often similar names and no profile pictures.
If you’re an Jamvana artist, or label, our support is always here to give advice. We also appreciate any tips of illegitimate promotion services, so we can help other artists stay clear from them. Do your homework before diving into any promotional activities. Research the heck out of them to make sure they're legit. Trust us, it'll save you a world of trouble down the line.

7. My music seems to have been added to some suspicious playlists. How can I fix this?

If you find yourself on a suspicious playlists, don't panic. Reach out directly to us, or the DSP to get yourself removed from the playlist.

8. What platforms are streaming services?

Music Streaming platforms consist of but are not limited to Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, IHeartRadio, Napster, Tidal, Deezer, Saavn, and others.

9. How does streaming benefit my brand?

Streaming is the largest revenue generator for artists and labels for the last two years in row. Digital downloads have been declining while streaming is on the rise. We highly recommend distributing your releases to streaming platforms.

10. Everyone keeps talking about playlists, do I need one?

Many streaming platforms utilize playlists; users can make a playlist of their favorite tracks. Brands found that if you were to offer or trade spots on a playlist, it could help promote their new release or artist. We recommend utilizing playlists to not only promote your own releases but to trade promotion with other brands.

1. What is publishing?

Music publisher (or publishing company) is responsible for ensuring the Artist or Songwriters and composers receive payment when their compositions are used commercially. Through an agreement called a publishing contract, a songwriter or composer "assigns" the copyright of their composition to a publishing company. In return, the company licenses compositions, helps monitor where compositions are used, collects royalties and distributes them to the composers. They also secure commissions for music and promote existing compositions to recording artists, film and television. The copyrights owned and administered by publishing companies are one of the most important forms of intellectual property in the music industry. (The other is the copyright on a master recording which is typically owned by a record company.) Publishing companies play a central role in managing this vital asset.

2. What are the different types of publishing?

There are four (4) different types of royalties, each derived from a separate and distinct copyright. The four potential sources of royalty revenue in the music recording and publishing industry are:
1. Mechanical royalties: paid from record companies for record sold based on the exclusive to reproduce and distribute copyrighted works.
2. Public performance royalties: paid by music users for songs in the operation of their businesses and broadcasts based on the exclusive right to perform publicly copyrighted works.
3. Synchronization fees: paid by music users for synchronizing music with their visual images based on the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute copyrighted works and to prepare derivative works of copyrighted material.
4. Print music income: paid by music printers for sheet music and folios based on the exclusive right to distribute copies of copyrighted material.

3. How do I collect publishing royalties?

You must sign up with a publishing company to collect your publishing royalties for you. Each country has different agencies.

4. What agencies are there?

In the United States, there is ASCAP, BMI, & SESAC. We recommend signing up with one of these agencies and also signing up with Harry Fox Agency or Music Reports for synch licensing and publishing.

1. What is copyright?

Copyright is a legal right created by the law of a country that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights for its use and distribution. This is usually only for a limited time. The exclusive rights are not absolute but limited by limitations and exceptions to copyright law, including fair use. A major limitation on copyright is that copyright protects only the original expression of ideas, and not the underlying ideas themselves.
Copyright is a form of intellectual property, applicable to certain forms of creative work. Some, but not all jurisdictions require "fixing" copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is often shared among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rightsholders. These rights frequently include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and "moral rights" such as attribution.

2. Why do I need to follow it?

Following copyright laws in your country and guidelines for releasing music on DSP’s and websites is extremely important. If you infringe upon copyright your music can be removed or copyright striked. In some cases you can also get fined or sued. Your music should be 100% royalties free and original, this includes your artwork and videos too.

3. Do I need an agreement?

YES. For every single release you promote, even if it’s free, you MUST secure a signed agreement. This IS required. If you do not have an agreement signed to release, do not release it.

4. What is fair use?

Fair use is a US legal doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders. It is similar to the fair dealing doctrines used in some countries outside the United States. Generally when releasing music this does NOT apply unless the music has been marked creative commons or was released before copyright existed.

5. What is creative commons?

A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work. A CC license is used when an author wants to give people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that they have created. CC provides an author flexibility (for example, they might choose to allow only non-commercial uses of their own work) and protects the people who use or redistribute an author's work from concerns of copyright infringement as long as they abide by the conditions that are specified in the license by which the author distributes the work.
CC licensed music is available through several outlets such as SoundCloud, and is available for use in video and music remixing.
We recommend checking out https://creativecommons.org/ for more information.

6. What about covers?

A cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a previously recorded, commercially released song by someone other than the original artist or composer. A cover version can also refer to a rerecording of a song by the original artist or performers under a different record company.
Many cover songs are licensed through publishing agencies such as Harry Fox Agency using Synch Licensing. Some songs are not available to create covers. Also refer to creative commons and fair use to understand more about copyright.

1. How do I get paid from distribution?

DSP’s sell your music and collect royalties from it, they take a percentage and then report the sales to Jamvana. We then process it through our accounting and send you our payments

2. When do I get paid from distribution?

This is the general schedule for payments from DSP’s if there is no delay. DSP’s deliver 4 times a year, aka once per quarter.
1. Quarter Schedule: Q1-Jan-Mar / Q2-Apr-Jun / Q3-Jul-Sept / Q4-Oct-Dec
2. Payment Dates (Estimated): Q1: May 10-20 / Q2: August 10-20 / Q3: November 10-20 / Q4: February 1-7

3. How do I get paid from monetization?

You generate revenue from ads, sites that use monetization then report your royalties to publishers (if required) and send us the reports. They then go to our account department to be processed and sent to you.
1. Monetization for audio/video is usually 2 months behind the current month. For example, you’ll receive your August reports in October.

4. When do I get paid from monetization?

For convenience due to delays on many monetization sites, Jamvana uses the same quarterly schedule as distribution.
1. Quarter Schedule: Q1-Jan-Mar / Q2-Apr-Jun / Q3-Jul-Sept / Q4-Oct-Dec
2. Payment Dates (Estimated): Q1: May 10-20 / Q2: August 10-20 / Q3: November 10-20 / Q4: February 1-7

5. How do I get paid from streaming?

Streaming uses ads to generate revenue for you. They use the same quarterly schedule as a regular retailer.

6. When do I get paid for streaming?

You will receive reports four times per year.
1. Quarter Schedule: Q1-Jan-Mar / Q2-Apr-Jun / Q3-Jul-Sept / Q4-Oct-Dec
2. Payment Dates (Estimated): Q1: May 10-20 / Q2: August 10-20 / Q3: November 10-20 / Q4: February 1-7

7. Why does it take so long to get payments?

DSP’s must process and account for sales. With such large catalogs (usually in the millions) it can often take long. They must also pay publishers. Then a distributor must do their accounting and send it to the label or artist.

8. Why do delays happen?

DSP’s all use different reporting and analytic systems to process their royalties that are owed to labels and artists. These systems are not bug prone and often incur delays while upgrading.
DSP’s and Monetization companies can experiences bugs that hide or accidently delete reports. However, they back their systems up to retrieve any lost data. Unfortunately causing delays in report and earnings deliveries.

Register

A. Distribution

B. Monetization

C. Streaming

D. Publishing

E. Copyright

F. Payments

1. What is distribution?

2. Why do I need it?

3. Who uses it?

4. How do I use the Jamvana system?

5. When should I use it?

6. What is an ISRC and UPC?

7. What is Spotify delivery lead time?

Spotify for Artists is the free tool that gives artists, labels and distributors the data they need from Spotify by providing streaming stats to understand performance across their entire catalog.

1. What is Monetization?

2. Why do I need it?

3. What sites allow monetization?

4. Why do I need to know my ISRC?

5. Where do I find my ISRC?

1. What is streaming?

2. What are artificial streams?

3. What harm does it do?

4. What is being done to combat this issue?

5. How can I avoid being affected by artificial streaming activity?

6. I used a service that now seems suspicious, how do I fix it?

7. My music seems to have been added to some suspicious playlists. How can I fix this?

8. What platforms are streaming services?

9. How does streaming benefit my brand?

10. Everyone keeps talking about playlists, do I need one?

1. What is publishing?

2. What are the different types of publishing?

3. How do I collect publishing royalties?

4. What agencies are there?

1. What is copyright?

2. Why do I need to follow it?

3. Do I need an agreement?

4. What is fair use?

5. What is creative commons?

6. What about covers?

1. How do I get paid from distribution?

2. When do I get paid from distribution?

3. How do I get paid from monetization?

4. When do I get paid from monetization?

5. How do I get paid from streaming?

6. When do I get paid for streaming?

7. Why does it take so long to get payments?

8. Why do delays happen?