DistroKid has signed a major deal to help indie artists.
The digital distributor has inked a global partnership with Audible Magic.
Using the content recognition company’s ‘RightsRxTM’ software, DistroKid will now verify new songs and albums uploaded onto its distribution platform. The distributor will automatically cross-check content with those on Audible Magic.
The content recognition company claims to have a registry of over 20 million “media assets.”
The pair-up will help both companies combat the rising trend in “fraudulent artists.” Most recently, uploaders leaked unreleased and fake music onto major music streaming platforms. Affected artists included Beyoncé, SZA, and Rihanna. A leaked Playboi Carti song dubbed ‘Kid Carti’ also reached No. 1 on Spotify’s Viral Top 50 chart.
The leaker used DistroKid to upload the track onto Spotify. Currently, you can still find the track on YouTube.
According to both companies, the strategic partnership will ensure artist-uploaded content remains conflict-free prior to distribution onto major music streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music. Following the Playboi Carti embarrassment, DistroKid says the global deal will help promote artist authenticity. The distributor will also serve as the first digital distribution company to use Audible Magic’s detection tool, Broad Spectrum.
An extension of the content recognition’s company ContentID platform, Broad Spectrum identifies extreme manipulations of rate, pitch, and tempo using small clips of audio.
In response to leakers’ attempts to upload major artists’ unreleased music, DistroKid has also launched DistroLock.
The new service will allow musicians to register their unreleased audio files. The distributor will encode a “unique audio fingerprint” onto Audible Magic’s registry.
Speaking about the partnership, Vance Ikezoye, Audible Magic President and CEO, said,
“In this day and age, it’s imperative for artists everywhere to register their content to not only claim ownership, avoiding impersonators, but to also ensure that they are being accurately credited and compensated.”
Philip Kaplan, DistroKid CEO, added,
“Until now, there hasn’t been a definitive way for artists to say, ‘this is my audio, don’t let anyone else release it.’
“This partnership with Audible Magic and the creation of DistroLock will help artists by ensuring that their original content is uploaded and distributed fairly, with accuracy and speed.”
Featured image by DistroKid.