People in Velveteen
Updated August 27, 2026
A Person in Velveteen is a credits record: a composer, lyricist, contributor, or performer who appears on a track. Persons have no login and are not user accounts. They are purely metadata entities that carry industry identifiers used for royalty collection.
What this section covers
What is a person?
The person entity concept: how it differs from a user account and where it appears in the catalog.
Identifiers
ISNI, IPN, and IPI: what each one is, who needs it, and how it affects royalty collection.
Contributors & performers
Role-based contributor credits and instrument-based performer credits on tracks.
Songwriting credits
How a person links to a publishing house as a composer or lyricist on a track.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to create a person record for every collaborator?+
No. Both track contributors and track performers accept free-text names without a linked person record. Creating a person record is recommended for any collaborator you work with regularly, because it stores their industry identifiers (IPI, IPN) once and reuses them on every track. You don't re-enter them each time.
Can a person also be a user on my account?+
Yes, but the two records are independent. A collaborator can have a user account with access to your catalog and also be a person record credited on tracks. You link them manually. Velveteen does not create one automatically from the other.
What can I do on a person record?+
You can store the person's name, industry identifiers (IPI, IPN, ISNI), and control access via person permissions. Once created, the record is reusable: link it to contributor, performer, and songwriter credits across any number of tracks without re-entering the details.
How do people relate to publishing houses?+
A person (composer or lyricist) is linked to a publishing house in the track publishers table. Each row pairs one songwriter with the publishing house that administers their share of the composition. See the Songwriting credits spoke for the full detail.
Related articles
What is a person?
A metadata record for anyone who appears in track credits. No account, no login: purely a credits entity.
Identifiers: ISNI, IPN, IPI
Three identifiers with three purposes: ISNI for name disambiguation, IPN for performer royalties, IPI for composer PRO matching.
Contributors & performers
Role-based contributor credits and instrument-based performer credits: what the difference is and how to add both.
Songwriting credits
How the track publishers join connects a composer to their publishing house, and why it matters for royalty collection.