When a track's metadata, like its songwriter or publisher credits, is missing or wrong, royalty collection bodies can't match the money owed to the right person. That unmatched money is called the "black box." The US Mechanical Licensing Collective alone currently holds over $424 million in exactly this kind of unpaid royalties. StreamWays reviews metadata before delivery specifically to keep your releases out of it.
More than you'd think. A single track can owe splits to the performing artist, one or more songwriters, one or more publishers, and a producer, and that's before accounting for the fact that mechanical royalties and performance royalties are collected through entirely separate systems. Getting all of that registered correctly is exactly what our payee split tools handle.
Most platforms review and publish within one to seven business days after we deliver. Because we run a metadata QA pass before delivery, we recommend uploading at least two weeks ahead of your target release date.
Yes, entirely. StreamWays delivers and administers your music, we never take ownership of your masters or publishing.
Every upload is reviewed before delivery. As AI-generated tracks have come to make up a large share of daily uploads on some platforms, DSPs like Spotify and Deezer have introduced their own labeling and spam-detection policies, and we require accurate disclosure of any AI involvement in a release consistent with those platform policies.
A pre-save campaign lets fans add your unreleased track to their library ahead of release day, which can boost first-day streaming numbers. A smart link is a single shareable page that routes each fan to whichever platform they actually use. Both are included on Growth and Roster plans.
Yes, at any time from your dashboard. Most platforms remove the track within a few days, though cached listens or playlist adds made before the takedown may take a bit longer to fully clear.
No, and you should be cautious of any service that promises otherwise. With over 100,000 new tracks uploaded daily, distribution gets you in the room; our trend insights and growth tools are meant to improve your odds, not guarantee an outcome.