Catalog

Artist Metadata in Velveteen

Updated June 11, 2026

The short answer

Artist metadata covers all fields on your artist profile. Fields like name, bio, and avatar are distributed to DSPs as part of your artist presence. Others, like contact details and booking agent, are internal only. A few control delivery behaviour directly.

Core profile fields

Name

Required. The performing name as it appears on DSP store pages and in release credits. Changing this after delivery updates future releases but not ones already live.

Biography

Plain text bio distributed to DSPs that accept artist bios. Helps listeners find context and influences algorithmic placement on some platforms.

Avatar

The artist photo shown on DSP artist pages. Separate from release artwork. Minimum 1400×1400px, JPEG or WebP.

Country of origin

ISO country code. Affects store availability rules on certain DSPs and is included in FUGA delivery metadata.

Internal fields (not sent to DSPs)

These fields are stored in Velveteen for your own reference and are never included in delivery payloads.

Contact details

Free-text field for any contact information you want to associate with this artist for internal use.

Booking agent

Name or contact for the artist's booking representation. Internal only.

An email address associated with this artist. Not used for login. Login belongs to your user account.

Industry identifiers

ISNI

International Standard Name Identifier. Populated automatically via FUGA delivery sync when DSPs return it. Not a field you fill in on the artist form.

IPN

International Performer Number. Issued by collecting societies. Required by some organisations to route performance royalties for session work. You can enter this directly on the artist form.

Distribution flags

distribution_enabled

Controls whether this artist can be used for delivery. Must be true for any release to be submitted. Set by Velveteen staff. Contact support if incorrectly disabled.

public_profile_enabled

Controls whether the artist has a public Velveteen profile page. Does not affect DSP delivery.

Heads up

If distribution_enabled is false, releases attached to this artist cannot be delivered even if the release itself is fully complete. Check this flag first if deliveries are unexpectedly blocked.

Frequently asked questions

Which fields appear publicly on DSPs?+

Name, bio, avatar image, country of origin, and genre tags are distributed to DSPs that accept them. Contact details, booking agent, and email are stored in Velveteen only and never sent to platforms.

What is ISNI and where does it come from?+

ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier) is a global identifier for public identities including performers and authors. Velveteen receives and stores ISNI values via FUGA delivery sync when DSPs return them. It is not a field you fill in directly on the artist form.

What does distribution_enabled do?+

When distribution_enabled is false, no releases associated with this artist can be delivered, regardless of the release's own readiness or the artist's approval_status. These are two separate gates: approval_status must be approved, and distribution_enabled must be true. This flag is set by Velveteen staff. Contact support if your releases are blocked and you believe this is an error.

What are pending_changes and locked?+

These flags are set by Velveteen staff during a review or correction process. locked means the artist record cannot be edited until the review is complete. pending_changes indicates there are admin-initiated changes staged for the record. The notes field explains what is being changed.