What Is a User in Velveteen
Updated June 11, 2026
A user in Velveteen is an authenticated account with a profile. Your profile holds your email, display name, avatar, and a global role: either 'user' (standard) or 'admin' (Velveteen team only). Users log in, manage entities, and receive royalties. They are separate from artist profiles (performing identities) and from People records (credits-only metadata with no login).
In Velveteen, the word "user" means a specific thing: an account holder with a profile in the profiles table. It is distinct from the performing identities you create (artists) and the metadata records you add to track credits (people).
What a profile contains
When you sign up for Velveteen, an entry is created in the profiles table. That record holds your email address, your display name, an optional avatar URL, and a global role field. The global role is either user (standard, assigned to everyone) or admin (Velveteen team only). The admin flag is not grantable to other accounts and has no bearing on entity-level access.
Your login address and the identifier other users can use to add you as a collaborator or shareholder.
full_name
Your display name in the dashboard and in any notification emails sent on your behalf.
role
'user' for standard accounts, 'admin' for Velveteen team members. Not grantable.
managed_by_label_id
Set when your account was created by a label as a managed sub-user. Points to the label that manages your account.
Users, artists, and people
Three concepts in Velveteen carry similar-sounding names but mean very different things.
User
An account holder with a login. Manages entities, receives royalties, and can be granted access to other users' entities. Lives in the profiles table.
Artist
A performing identity: the name on DSP pages and release credits. Not a login. One account can own multiple artist profiles.
Person
A credits entity: a composer, lyricist, or performer on a track. No login, no account. Purely a metadata record in the people table.
Your account is not your artist profile
The distinction matters in practice. When you create an artist in Velveteen, you create a separate entity with its own name, metadata, and approval lifecycle. Your user account is the administrative wrapper. You can log in with one email, manage three artist profiles, and grant collaborators access to specific artists without sharing your login.
Tip
Your account is not a person record
A Person in Velveteen is a credits record: a composer, lyricist, or performer who appears in track metadata. Person records have no email login, no dashboard access, and no subscription. If you write and perform your own music, you may need to create a Person record for yourself (to carry your IPI number in publishing credits) while also having a user account to manage your releases. They are independent entities that can coexist.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a user and an artist?+
Your user account is your login. An artist is a performing identity that appears on DSP pages and release metadata. One account can manage many artist profiles. Changing your login email does not affect any of your artist profiles.
What is the difference between a user and a person?+
A person is a credits entity (composer, lyricist, performer) with no login. Users have accounts; people do not. The same real individual may have both a user account and a person record if they log in to Velveteen and also appear in track credits.
Can I have more than one account?+
Velveteen does not prevent multiple accounts tied to different email addresses, but managing everything under one account is simpler. You can grant collaborator access to entities across accounts rather than maintaining multiple logins.
What does the admin role mean?+
Admin is a Velveteen platform role for team members. It grants access to all entities and admin dashboards across the platform. It is not a role you can assign to another user. Entity-level admin (on a specific artist or release) is a separate concept covered in user permissions.
What happens if I change my email?+
Your login email is the address tied to your profile. Changing it requires email verification. It does not affect artist profiles or person records, which are separate entities. Shareholder records tied to your old email are not automatically updated.
Related articles
Overview
Account model, entity permissions, label membership, and access control for everyone who uses Velveteen.
Users, people & roles
Two distinct concepts: a Person is a credits entity on a release; a User is an account holder with scoped access. Neither implies the other.
What is an artist?
The performing identity: separate from your account, owned by a label, and the name listeners find on DSPs.