Artist Profiles & DSPs
Beatport, Spotify, Apple Music and duplicate-name issues
Label Workflow
Release Process
What Legless Records does, what the label does not do, artist naming, timelines, promotion, assets, and communication expectations.
Beatport, Spotify & Apple
Artist Profiles & DSPs
How artist pages are created, what artists need to do after release, and how duplicate-name/profile issues are handled.
Rights & Permissions
Remixes, Covers & Licensing
The difference between a remix and a cover version, and what permissions must be in place before submitting either.
Submission Rules
Unreleased Material Policy
What Legless Records means by unreleased material, what disqualifies a submission, and what artists must confirm before sending music.
This page explains how artist profiles and release mapping work across Beatport, Spotify, Apple Music and similar DSPs.
Beatport Artist Profiles: Please Read Carefully
This is one of the most misunderstood parts of the release process.
How Beatport actually works
Beatport does not currently provide artists with direct self-service access to artist pages in the way Spotify for Artists or Apple Music for Artists do.
Once your Beatport artist page exists and your release is live, you should use Beatport's official Artist Profile Update form to submit your artist-page information such as your image, biography, and chart-linking information:
https://research.beatport.com/jfe/form/SV_82gmWjpe87NO42q
Official Beatport support article:
Important:
This is not the same thing as having direct self-service control over your Beatport artist page.
Beatport handles artist page image / bio / chart-linking requests manually.
In practical terms, when people talk about "claiming" a Beatport profile, what they usually mean is this:
the artist has completed Beatport's official profile update process for the artist page connected to their release, so that page is clearly identifiable as theirs through their submitted artist information.
When a release is delivered to Beatport, artist information is submitted as part of the distributor delivery process.
If multiple artists are using the same name, Beatport can group releases incorrectly or attach them to the wrong artist page.
Beatport's own label-support guidance states that Beatport does not support multiple artist profiles with the same name, which can result in music being added to the wrong profile.
Catalogue corrections such as:
- wrong tracks on your page
- releases attached to the wrong artist page
- profile merges
- removals
- metadata corrections
are handled through the label / distributor, not by the artist directly inside Beatport.
However, Legless Records will not raise Beatport profile / catalogue correction requests through our distributor until the artist has first completed Beatport's profile update process.
Why this matters:
Until the artist has completed this step and the page can be clearly identified as theirs, there may be no reliable way to confirm which same-name artist page Beatport should ultimately treat as the correct destination.
In practical terms:
- first, the artist must complete the Beatport profile update step for the page associated with their release, which is what we mean when we say they must "claim" their Beatport profile
- then, if catalogue issues still remain, Legless Records can review the matter and decide whether it should be escalated through our distributor
This does not mean the release was delivered incorrectly.
Duplicate-name artist issues can still happen on Beatport even where delivery was correct.
Relevant Beatport support articles:
- Wrong tracks on profile:
- Remove tracks from profile:
https://support.beatport.com/hc/en-us/articles/14763348938388-How-do-I-remove-tracks-from-my-profile
- Merge profiles:
- Metadata corrections:
Spotify for Artists
Spotify artist profiles are created automatically when music is first delivered to Spotify. Artists do not manually create the profile themselves.
This is important:
A normal Spotify listener account is not the same thing as a Spotify artist profile.
Artists use their own personal Spotify account to log in to Spotify for Artists and request access to the correct artist page.
Official Spotify get started page:
https://artists.spotify.com/get-started
Official Spotify support:
https://support.spotify.com/mz-en/artists/article/getting-access-to-spotify-for-artists/
Spotify also states that artist profiles are created automatically:
https://support.spotify.com/jm/artists/article/creating-an-artist-profile-on-spotify/
If you already have a Spotify artist profile
If you already have a proper Spotify artist profile, you must send us the correct Spotify artist link before delivery.
This must be an artist profile link, not a listener / user profile.
In other words:
send us the Spotify artist URL for your actual artist page, not the URL for your normal Spotify account.
If you do not already have a Spotify artist profile
If no valid Spotify artist profile link is supplied before delivery, Spotify may create a new artist profile when the release is processed.
That is normal.
If your music ends up on the wrong Spotify artist page
If your release is attached to the wrong Spotify artist page, or split across different pages, the artist should first get access to Spotify for Artists using their personal Spotify account.
After that, the artist should use Spotify for Artists to report the release as a content mismatch / wrong artist profile issue.
Official Spotify guidance for artist mix-ups:
https://support.spotify.com/sm-en/artists/article/music-mixed-up-with-another-artist/
Spotify also states that metadata and artist information issues may need to be corrected through the label or distributor:
https://support.spotify.com/by-en/artists/article/fixing-problems-with-music/
In practical terms:
- the artist should get Spotify for Artists access
- the artist should report the profile mismatch through Spotify for Artists where possible
- Legless Records can also review the issue and, where appropriate, raise it through our distributor
Important:
Artists should not assume that a normal Spotify listener profile is the correct thing to send to the label.
It is not.
If the wrong kind of Spotify link is supplied before delivery, profile confusion can happen.
This does not automatically mean the release was delivered incorrectly.
Apple Music for Artists
Apple Music artist pages are also created through distributor delivery. Artists do not manually create the page themselves.
Official Apple Music for Artists page:
Official Apple claim guide:
https://artists.apple.com/support/1101-claim-your-account
Apple states that your content must be live on Apple Music for at least 5 business days before you can claim your artist page.
Artists use their Apple Account to request access to the correct artist page through Apple Music for Artists.
If you already have an Apple Music artist profile
If you already have an Apple Music artist profile, you must send us the correct artist page link before delivery.
If you do not already have an Apple Music artist profile
If no valid Apple Music artist page link is supplied before delivery, Apple Music may create a new artist page from the distributor delivery.
That is normal.
Claiming your Apple Music artist page
Once your content has been live on Apple Music for at least 5 business days, you can request access to your artist page through Apple Music for Artists.
Apple says that artists should:
- sign in with their Apple Account
- request artist access
- paste in the artist page link or album link
- select one of their albums to confirm the correct page
- complete the verification process
Apple also states that providing more information, such as distributor connections, websites, and social media accounts, can help speed up review.
If your music appears on the wrong Apple Music artist page
If an Apple Music profile issue still exists after the artist has properly identified / claimed the correct page, Legless Records can review the issue and determine whether it needs to be raised through our distributor.
Spotify / Apple Music / Other DSP Profiles
The same general principle can apply across other stores and streaming platforms.
Sometimes releases can appear under the wrong artist page or mixed profile where:
- artist names are duplicated
- artist pages are not properly identified by the artist
- platforms auto-match metadata incorrectly
- the wrong profile links were supplied before delivery
This can happen even where the release has been delivered correctly.
Artists are responsible for providing the correct existing profile links for Spotify, Apple Music, Beatport and any other relevant platform where those profiles already exist.
Where an artist already has an existing Spotify, Apple Music or Beatport profile, they must supply the correct profile links before delivery.
If they do not, platforms may create a new page, attach the release to an existing same-name page, or auto-match the release based on the metadata available at the time.
Even where the artist has supplied the correct existing profile links and Legless Records has delivered the release correctly through our distributor, platform-side categorisation and profile-matching mistakes can still sometimes happen.
If that happens, please do not panic or assume the release was delivered wrongly. Just send us the relevant details and we will look into it properly. Legless Records will always do its best to help in good faith and, where appropriate, raise genuine issues through our distributor. We simply ask that artists approach these situations with a bit of patience and understanding while we work through them.