If you see an error message next to your songwriter, please double check the songs you have previously submitted for the following mistakes.
There are various different reasons you may find that your writer is experiencing an error. Our Copyright team performs regular reviews of all accounts and songs that are entered into our system and will flag a writer if their account exhibits one of the following issues listed below.
Excessive Ownership Overclaim: This is if we suspect that you are registering songs in your account where there are clearly co-writers (Spotify writer credits or distribution details shows numerous writers), but you are registering the work as if you own 100% of the publishing rights.
HOW TO SOLVE:
If you would like to register a song but you do not know the full splits of a given work, adding yourself as the 100% owner is not a viable solution. Instead, you will need to confirm and establish the splits with all parties involved before registering it with us. To move forward with collecting for your writer that is experiencing this error message, please submit a Support Form that lists all songs where you made this mistake and the correct splits. Make sure you are adding all outside writers to your account as well that we will need to include on the songs when we are editing them.
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Suspected Fraudulent activity: This is if we suspect you are simply claiming songs that are clearly not your own. For example, a Rihanna song at 100%.
HOW TO SOLVE:
Our team will be working through an internal review process of these issues and we will notify you once we are done. There is no action requested of you at this time unless our Conflict Prevention team reaches out to you to confirm splits.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Non-Musical Work Claims: Songtrust can only administer works that have a musical element so we will not be able to register non-musical works like sound effects, nature sounds, water falls, ocean waves, animal calls/sounds thunder/lightning. white noise, car horns, traffic, door bells, ringing noises etc.
HOW TO SOLVE:
To move forward with taking your writer out of an error state, submit a Support Form with the songs where you made this mistake.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excessive ISRCs: This is if we suspect you are adding one song and then adding numerous different ISRCs that are not associated with that given song. You may add remixes, alternate recorded versions, or acoustic versions, however, it is not acceptable to add ISRCs that do not correspond to the original song.
HOW TO SOLVE:
To move forward with taking your writer out of an error state, go through your songs page in your account and remove all ISRC's that are not associated with the given song. Once you have done this step, you may submit a Support Form confirming you have done this and list all songs you have updated.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Artist name in the title: Oftentimes we find that artists are worried about their pseudonym or artist name not being attached to their registration. Rest assured that your songs will be registered accurately with all artist information as all of this metadata is included in your ISRC and will be linked to your registration. Therefore, you do not have to add your artist name in the title of your song as well. Pay sources will not accept song titles when formatted this way and it will delay registration.
HOW TO SOLVE:
To move forward with taking your writer out of an error state, edit all song titles that are in the processing stage still and submit a Support Form letting us know you have done this step that includes all songs titles you edited.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Duplicate Account: This is if we have found numerous accounts that collect on the same writers and songs– this creates duplicate song registrations and confusion when royalties are set to be paid out.
HOW TO SOLVE:
To move forward with taking your writer out of an error state, please submit a Support Form with documentation and agreements outlining that you are rightfully collecting for the Songtrust writers in your account.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Excessive use of Unknown Writer: When writers wish to collect on their share of a work, but do not have access to the other writer’s names on the song. Instead of adding all co-writers to the work, all of the remaining splits are listed under “unknown writers”. Pay sources do not prefer to register works when songs are registered this way.
HOW TO SOLVE:
To move forward with taking your writer out of an error state, submit a Support Form with the split edits for each song you have an Unknown Writer on. Make sure to add the outside writers to your account that need to be updated to replace the unknown writers on those songs.
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Inaccurate recordings on works: We suspect you have added a recording that does not appear to match the song you attached it to. An example would be adding a song with the title “Love Song” By Artist A but the recording is “Party Song” By Artist A. The underlying copyright, the song, & recording must match.
HOW TO SOLVE:
To move forward with taking your writer out of an error state, submit a Support Form with the edits you need to make for works you accidentally switched the ISRCs for.
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Non-ASCII Characters: You have added songs that appear in different languages or songs that use non-ascii characters. The characters in your account (song titles, songwriter names) must adhere to ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) characters. This may require you to translate your song titles.
HOW TO SOLVE:
To move forward with taking your writer out of an error state, please proceed with adding all new songs only using ASCII characters and submit a Support Form with all of the songs you need to update and their corresponding title changes.
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Inaccurate Song Titles: It is important that the song title closely matches that of your recording title, especially leading characters. Our partners commonly use song title to match against usage so if the leading characters differ drastically from that of the recording you may be missing out on royalties.
Example: Song Title = “Love Song”, The Recording = “The Best Love Song”.
However, if there are differences at the end of a song title that may signify a different version– that is fine.
Example: Song Title = “Love Song”, The Recording = “Love Song (Live Version)”.
HOW TO SOLVE:
To move forward with taking your writer out of an error state, submit a Support Form with the song titles you need to update.
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Inaccurate Splits: Can you confirm that there are no additional writers missing from your claims, and that the splits you are claiming has been agreed upon by all parties? It is important that all credited songwriters and their respective splits (on a 100% scale) are reflected. Failure to do so could result in conflicts, which will block royalty collections.
HOW TO SOLVE:
To move forward with taking your writer out of an error state, you must submit a split sheet or documentation confirming your shares for any song that you know you have entered incorrectly.
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Covers: Since Songtrust handles the underlying composition of a song (its musical content and lyrics), and covers are not considered original material, you cannot register them with us.
HOW TO SOLVE:
If you have registered any covers by mistake, please submit a Support Form listing the covers that need to be removed from your account.
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We want to ensure we are doing our due diligence in making sure the registrations are accurately reflected so that we do not run into registration issues down the road, which will ultimately delay your royalties and extend the timeline of registration even furthe