How to Audit Your Back Catalog Metadata (and Fix It)
To audit back catalog metadata, pull every release into one list, then check each track for a valid ISRC, correct titles and artist names, complete writer splits, and the right ISWC. Fix what you can through your distributor's edit request, which takes 1 to 2 weeks to reach stores. Never delete and re-upload.
If you've been releasing music for a few years, there's a good chance some of your older tracks have metadata problems you've never looked at. A typo in an artist name, a missing ISRC, writer splits that were never filled in. None of it is obvious from the outside, and your catalog keeps streaming, so nobody goes back to check. That's the gap this page is about.
Treating your back catalog as an asset means doing the boring work of making sure every old release is collectible. This guide is the retroactive fix: how to audit what you already put out, what you can correct in place, and what you can't. Pre-release metadata hygiene (getting it right before you upload) is a different job covered elsewhere. This page is for music that's already live.
One thing to set straight up front: your back catalog isn't a dead archive. Catalog tracks, anything older than 18 months, made up 72.4% of total US music consumption in the first half of 2022 by Luminate's count. The old stuff is most of what people listen to. If its metadata is broken, you're leaking money on the majority of your listens.
of US music consumption was catalog (18+ months old), H1 2022 per Luminate
length of an ISRC, the code that matches plays to you for the recording's whole life
for a distributor edit request to propagate to all stores
Key takeaways
- Audit every track for six things: a valid ISRC, correct title, correct artist names, complete writer splits, the right ISWC, and the genre and explicit flags.
- An ISRC is the linchpin. Without one, SoundExchange, SOCAN, and Re:Sound can't match plays to you, and the money sits in an unmatched pool.
- Most text fields (titles, some credits, lyrics language) can be corrected in place through your distributor's edit request. Changes take 1 to 2 weeks to reach all stores.
- Never fix metadata by deleting and re-uploading. That mints a new track URI and wipes your streams and playlist placements.
- ISRCs identify recordings. ISWCs identify compositions. Your PRO assigns the ISWC when you register the song, so a metadata audit and a PRO registration pass go hand in hand.
What does it mean to audit your back catalog metadata?
It means going release by release through everything you've already put out and checking that the data attached to each track is correct and complete. Not the music, the data: the codes and text fields that collecting societies and streaming platforms use to figure out who gets paid and whose catalog a track belongs to.
This is different from getting your metadata right before you upload. When you're prepping a new release you control every field from scratch. A back catalog audit is retroactive cleanup on music that's already live, already streaming, and already earning (or failing to earn) somewhere. The fixes are more constrained because the track has history you don't want to break.
The reason it's worth doing: metadata errors don't announce themselves. A track with a missing ISRC keeps playing on Spotify just fine. The problem is invisible until you notice a collecting society has no record of plays you know happened. By then the money's been sitting in an unmatched pool for years.
The six fields to check on every track
Build one list of every release you've ever put out, then go through each track and confirm these fields. This is the whole audit. Most of it you can pull from your distributor dashboard.
| Field | Why it matters | |
|---|---|---|
| ISRC | Present and consistent across all stores | Identifies the recording at every collecting society. Missing means unmatched royalties. |
| Song title | Correct, consistent everywhere | How DSPs and PROs match the track. A typo can split your data. |
| Artist names | All credited, spelled right | Stream credit and neighbouring rights routing. |
| Writer splits | All writers, legal names, percentages | How your PRO routes performance and mechanical royalties. |
| ISWC | Present on registered compositions | Identifies the composition at your PRO, separate from the recording. |
| Publisher and split | Listed with the writer share | Performance and mechanical distribution on the composition side. |
| UPC, genre, explicit flag | Set correctly | Catalog ID, playlist matching, and platform compliance. |
The single most important line in that table is the ISRC. An ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is a 12-character identifier permanently attached to one sound recording for its entire commercial life. Without a valid one, SoundExchange, SOCAN, and Re:Sound can't reliably match plays to the rights holder, so the money lands in an unmatched pool instead of in your account. Look up each track in a tool like the Soundcharts ISRC Finder or your distributor dashboard, and confirm every track has an ISRC and that it's the same code across all stores.
ISRCs vs ISWCs
These get mixed up constantly. The ISRC identifies the recording, the master. The ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code) identifies the underlying composition, the song itself. Your PRO (SOCAN, ASCAP, or BMI) generates and assigns the ISWC when you register the composition. So if an old song was never registered, it has no ISWC and no claim on PRO royalties at all. That's why a metadata audit usually turns into a registration job too.
How to fix metadata on a release that's already live
You submit an edit request through your distributor while the release stays live. You do not take it down. Which fields you can change depends on the distributor.
DistroKid lets you request post-release edits to song and track titles, artist names, and some credit fields through its Edit Release workflow. The changes can take 1 to 2 weeks to propagate to all stores, so don't expect Spotify to update the same day. TuneCore lets you edit lyrics language and contributor fields through the pencil icon in your discography, though it locks the Primary Artist, Featured Artist, Remixer, and Producer fields. Check your own distributor's help docs for the exact list of editable fields, because it varies.
Do not delete and re-upload to fix metadata
This is the mistake that costs people their whole catalog. Stores don't let you swap metadata by taking a track down and re-uploading a corrected version. Doing that creates a brand new track URI, which breaks every playlist placement and resets your entire stream history to zero. Always submit an edit request on the live release instead. The only time a re-delivery makes sense is when an error genuinely can't be fixed in place, and even then you weigh it against losing every accumulated stream.
What a missing or wrong field is costing you
Walk through it from the money's point of view. A play happens. A platform or society tries to match that play to a rights holder using the metadata attached to the recording. If the ISRC is missing, there's nothing to match against on the recording side, and the royalty goes into an unmatched pool. If the writer splits were never entered, your PRO has no instructions for routing the performance and mechanical money on the composition. If the artist name is misspelled on one store, that store's plays may credit a different (or non-existent) artist profile.
Here's what a clean audited entry versus a broken one looks like.
BEFORE (broken): Title: midnight drive Artist: (typo) Reyna Vox ISRC: (none) Writers: Reyna Voss (split blank) ISWC: (none) AFTER (audited): Title: Midnight Drive Artist: Reyna Voss ISRC: CA-XYZ-23-00042 Writers: Reyna Voss 100% ISWC: T-123.456.789-0
- “ISRC: (none)”
- With no ISRC, SoundExchange, SOCAN, and Re:Sound can't find these plays. This is the field that quietly pools your money.
- “Writers: Reyna Voss (split blank)”
- A blank split gives your PRO nothing to route on. Even a solo writer needs 100% entered explicitly.
- “ISWC: (none)”
- No ISWC means the composition was never registered at a PRO, so it has no claim on performance or mechanical royalties.
A registration pass at your PRO fills in the composition side (writer splits, publisher, ISWC), which is why people usually run a catalog audit and a PRO registration sweep together. The mechanics of registering songs you put out years ago, in both Canada and the US, are their own walkthrough in the PRO registration guide for this cluster.
When a re-release is the only fix, and what it costs
Most metadata problems are fixable in place. A few aren't. If a recording has an error your current distributor simply won't let you edit (a wrong artist name baked in, or no ISRC that can be attached), a re-delivery through a new distributor might be the only route. Understand the tradeoff before you do it.
If you re-deliver the exact same audio with the same ISRC, Spotify's track-linking can merge the stream counts and keep playlist positions, as long as title, duration, artist, and audio all match. That's a clean fix. But if a new ISRC gets assigned (or you upload with none and the platform generates one), the new delivery starts from zero plays, zero saves, and the old playlist adds don't carry over. The algorithms treat it as a cold-start release. The full decision tree for reusing versus minting a new ISRC lives in the re-releasing old music guide.
So the order of operations is always: try the edit request first, reuse the ISRC if you must re-deliver, and only accept a new ISRC when the error is bad enough to justify losing the streams. For most catalog cleanup, you'll never get past step one.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take for a metadata edit to show up on Spotify and Apple Music?+
Plan on 1 to 2 weeks for an edit request to propagate to all stores. Some stores update faster than others, so you may see the change on one platform days before another. If it's been more than two weeks and nothing has moved, that's worth a support ticket with your distributor.
Will fixing a metadata error reset my stream count?+
Not if you fix it through an edit request on the live release. Edit requests change the data on the existing track and leave the URI and stream history alone. Streams only reset when a track gets a new URI, which happens if you delete and re-upload, or re-deliver with a new ISRC.
Can I add an ISRC to an old track that never had one?+
It depends on the distributor and whether the track is still hosted with them. Some distributors can attach an ISRC to an existing delivery; others can't, and the only path is a re-delivery, which risks your streams. Check your distributor's support first. If a re-delivery is the only option, reuse a single new ISRC and keep it consistent everywhere going forward.
Do I need to audit tracks that barely get any streams?+
Prioritize. Sort your catalog by streams or revenue and audit the top earners first, because that's where a missing ISRC or blank split is costing real money. The long tail can wait. That said, registering the compositions at your PRO is cheap and worth doing across the board, since a sleeper track can pick up later.
Is auditing back catalog metadata the same as registering copyright?+
No. A metadata audit makes sure your tracks are collectible by societies and matchable by platforms. Copyright registration with CIPO in Canada or the US Copyright Office is a separate, optional filing about proving ownership in a dispute. It doesn't get you paid on its own. They're complementary jobs, and copyright registration is covered in its own guide in this cluster.
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Keep reading
Pillar guide
Catalog strategy guide
How to treat your back catalog as a revenue asset: metadata audits, PRO registration, re-release decisions, catalog valuation, and copyright registration in Canada and the US.
Related guide
Copyright registration
What copyright registration actually requires from musicians in Canada versus the US, including the US deposit rule, the lawsuit prerequisite, and what both systems protect.
Related guide
PRO registration
How to register back-catalog tracks with SOCAN, ASCAP, or BMI, including what happens to performance royalties already earned before you registered.
Related guide
What is an ISRC
What an ISRC code is: the 12-character ID for one recording, why a remix needs a new one, and how to carry it across distributors so you don't split your streams.
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