At 1M Music, we are committed to following the best practices and guidelines established by all Digital Service Providers (DSPs). Therefore, we invite you to work closely with us to ensure that the content you distribute is duly authorized. That is, that you are the owner or legal representative and hold the necessary rights to distribute it, and that it also meets the required quality standards.
Our Release Quality Control team maintains a scorecard for each account as a supportive tool. This system allows us to record any issues that arise, both during the Quality Control (QA) process and once the content is live on DSPs. It is our way of promoting transparency, encouraging continuous improvement, and helping you maintain a healthy and compliant catalog over time.
⚠️ Monitoring Note:
If we detect any issues, we will get in touch with you. Depending on how the issue is resolved, it may or may not affect your scorecard, as detailed in the tables below.
Quick checklist before you upload a release
- Title and artist in the metadata match the cover art exactly
- No more than 10 seconds of silence at the start or end of the track
- If the same track appears on two releases (single + album), the metadata is identical on both
- Cover art doesn't include text, logos, or features that aren't credited in the metadata
- If the content uses fragments of another recording, you have the license and declare it on upload
- Content meets Fingerprint eligibility requirements before it's sent to those DSPs
Real examples of common mistakes
Cover art with an uncredited feature: the artwork says "ft. Artist X" but the featuring credit isn't in the release's metadata — Spotify and Apple Music reject it because the visible text doesn't match the actual data. Fix: add the feature to the metadata or remove it from the cover art.
Silence at the end of the track: the master exported from the DAW carries a 15-20 second silent tail. Fix: trim the final file before uploading — don't rely on the DSP to trim it for you.
Same track, two releases, mismatched metadata: you upload a single and later include it on an album, but the title ends up with different capitalization or the feature only shows on one of the two. Fix: copy the exact metadata between releases instead of retyping it from memory.
📊 What the path to each tier looks like:
Tier A (0 to -5) → business as usual · Tier B (-6 to -10) → stricter manual review on Fingerprint submissions · Tier C (-10 to -15) → limited access to certain DSPs · Tier D (below -15) → suspension. In most cases points don't accumulate forever — keeping a clean catalog for a sustained period improves your scorecard over time.
QA Issues Detected During Release Review
| Detected QA Issues | Points | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Same track with different metadata | -2 | Distributing two or more tracks with differences in metadata, such as the title or main artist. |
| Copyright-infringing music | -2 | Distributing a track that contains full samples of a famous song or is misleading. |
| More than 10 seconds of silence | -1 | A track containing more than 10 seconds of silence at the beginning or end. |
| Cover art doesn't match metadata | -1 | The text on the cover art does not match the text in the metadata. |
| Copyright-infringing cover art | -1 | Cover art that violates copyright rules. |
| Not eligible for Fingerprinting | -1 | Distributing a track to DSPs with fingerprinting without meeting the eligibility requirements. |
| Other QA issues | -1 | Other QA issues not explicitly listed here. |
DSP Issues Detected After Launch Publication
| Detected DSP Issues | Points | Description |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube Content ID ownership conflict | -1 | When two or more users claim rights to the same content and both submit it to YouTube Content ID. |
| YouTube dispute with negative resolution | -1 | When a user owns the rights to an audio track and states that the Content ID claim received on their video is incorrect. |
| Spotify copyright claim with negative resolution | -2 | A third-party claim for copyright infringement on Spotify that is not resolved in your favor. |
| Problematic delivery on TikTok with negative resolution | -2 | Distribution issue on TikTok that is not resolved in your favor. |
| Apple Music copyright claim with negative resolution | -2 | A third-party claim for copyright infringement on Apple Music that is not resolved in your favor. |
| Artificial streams (all DSPs) | -2 | Financial penalty from DSPs for using techniques to generate fake plays (stream manipulation). |
| YouTube Content ID overlap with negative resolution | -2 | Ownership conflicts over YouTube content that result in a negative resolution or removal of the content. |
| YouTube Bad Claim | -3 | When the content does not meet the eligibility requirements for that DSP. |
| Meta Bad Claim | -3 | When the content does not meet Meta's eligibility requirements. |
| Meta conflict with negative resolution | -2 | Conflict that is resolved unfavorably. |
| TikTok ownership conflict | -1 | When two or more users claim rights to the same content and both submit it to TikTok. |
Scorecard Tiers and Consequences
| Points Range | Tier | Consequences |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to -5 | Tier A | No consequences. |
| -6 to -10 | Tier B | Stricter quality control review on new releases. Fingerprinting submissions are placed on manual hold, pending review. |
| -10 to -15 | Tier C | Access to certain DSPs may be limited. |
| More than -15 | Tier D | Account suspension or cancellation. |
If we detect any issues, we will contact you. The penalty is applied once the case is evaluated and closed.