Song Registration

Our platform supports a collaborative, multi-step registration process for songs. This system ensures that ownership, metadata, documents, and approvals are properly collected before a song is submitted to Worth for final review and publication.

What is Song Registration?

Song registration is the process of formally documenting a song on the Worth platform with:

• Ownership shares and rights holders
• Artist contributions and roles
• Metadata (ISRC, publisher info, etc.)
• Supporting documents (split sheets, contracts)
• Approval from all stakeholders

Once registered and approved, songs can be linked to projects, tracked for revenue, and included in fundraising campaigns.

Song Status

Status	Description
Approved	All required approvals are complete. Can be linked to projects.
Public	Visible in search and public pages. Revenue tracking and distribution enabled.

Who Can Register Songs?

Organization Admins can register songs on behalf of their organization. The registering organization becomes the "Song Registrant" with full control over the registration process.

Roles and Permissions

Song Registrant

Members of the organization that creates the song have certain privileges:

• Organization Admins in this organization can edit, approve, and submit the song
• Organization Viewers can view the song but cannot edit or submit

Organizations with Ownership

When you add organizations to the ownership structure:

• They are automatically assigned the Song Admin role
• Their Organization Admins can edit and approve (but cannot submit)
• Their Organization Viewers can only view
• They must approve the song before submission

Need custom permissions? Contact the Worth team to adjust roles for your organization or registered songs.

Registration Workflow

Step 1: Initial Creation

Organization Admins initiate the registration process:

1. Click "Register Song"
2. Enter basic information:
   • Song name
   • Primary artist (select existing or contact us if you need a new artist profile created)
   • Initial ownership organizations and percentages
3. Submit to create the song

The song is created and you can now add additional details.

Step 2: Add Collaborators and Ownership

Define who owns economic rights to the song. Songs track two independent types of rights:

• Recording rights (the master) — the specific recorded performance, typically owned by the artist and/or their record label
• Publishing rights (the composition) — the underlying words and melody, typically owned by the songwriters and their publishers

These are tracked separately because they often have different owners and different revenue streams. The Ownership tab on the song page shows both.

To set ownership:

1. Add organizations with their ownership percentages for each rights type
2. Percentages should total 100% per rights type
3. An organization must be registered on Worth before you can add them
4. All organizations with ownership stakes must approve the registration

Step 3: Provide Metadata

Add detailed information about the song:

Standard Fields:

• ISRC (International Standard Recording Code)
• Spotify ID
• Publisher information
• Recording year
• Release date
• Genre and language
• Explicit content flag

Recording Details:

• Recording Location (Studio name and/or city)
• Recording Date
• Mastering Studio
• Mixing Studio
• Display Artist (Formatted artist name for display)

Custom Metadata: Contact us to add additional information specific to your needs.

Pro Tip: The more metadata you provide, the easier it will be to match revenue from distributors and track performance across platforms. Note that ISRC is required to collect revenue.

Step 4: Add Artist Contributions

Document all artists who contributed to the song.

Step 5: Upload Documents

Attach supporting files to your song registration:

Common Document Types:

• Split sheets
• Publishing agreements
• Recording contracts
• Copyright certificates
• Distribution agreements
• Audio files (WAV, MP3, FLAC, etc.)

Audio File Metadata: When you upload audio files (like WAV, MP3, or FLAC), our system automatically extracts technical details such as sample rate, bit depth, and format. This helps ensure your music meets distribution standards without requiring you to enter this technical information manually.

Upload Options:

• Internal Files - Upload directly to Worth (stored securely)
• External Links - Link to documents stored elsewhere (e.g., for highly sensitive files)

All documents are private and only accessible to organizations with Song Admin or Song Viewer roles.

Step 6: Collect Approvals

Before submitting to Worth, all stakeholders must approve the registration.

Organization Approvals:

• All organizations with ownership stakes must approve
• You can add additional organizations to the approval list even if they don't have ownership
• Any admin in the organization can approve on behalf of the entity
• Approval is recorded with the approver's name and timestamp

Important: Approval Reset If any of the following fields are edited after approvals are collected, all approvals are reset:

• Ownership percentages
• Adding/removing organizations
• Metadata changes
• Document uploads or deletions

This ensures all parties have approved the final version of the registration.

Step 7: Submit for Review

Once all approvals are collected, you can submit the song to Worth:

1. Click "Submit for Review"
2. The system validates:
   • ✅ All ownership organizations have approved
   • ✅ All added approvers have approved
   • ✅ Required metadata is complete
   • ✅ Ownership percentages are reasonable
3. Song status changes to "submitted"
4. Worth team is notified for review

During Review: You cannot edit the song while it's being reviewed. If changes are needed, Worth staff will request changes and return it for editing.

Step 8: Worth Approval

The Worth team reviews your submission:

1. Verifies ownership information
2. Checks metadata for accuracy
3. Reviews supporting documents
4. Approves or requests changes

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The Song Page

After a song is created, its detail page is organized into tabs. Here's what each tab does and when you'll use it.

Main Info

View and edit the song's basic details — name, ISRC, Spotify ID, genre, language, recording details, and all other metadata. This is the default view when you open a song.

Agreements

Link agreements (contracts) to this song and import their terms. If your organization has uploaded an agreement to Worth, you can connect it to the song here.

Once an agreement is linked, you can apply its rules — this imports the ownership percentages and payment rules extracted from the agreement directly into the song. You'll see a preview of exactly what will be created before confirming. See the Agreements guide for the full workflow.

Ownership

View and manage ownership percentages for both recording and publishing rights. Ownership is organized by time periods — when deal terms change (a new agreement kicks in, a label deal expires, etc.), a new time period is created to hold the updated ownership percentages.

The system keeps the history so that revenue is always distributed using the ownership that was in effect when it was earned. If a royalty statement arrives for last quarter, the system uses last quarter's ownership, not today's.

Key concepts:

• Time periods define date ranges during which a specific set of ownership percentages and payment rules are in effect
• A song starts with one default time period. New ones are added when terms change.
• Pending time periods can be set up for future business events (e.g., "when recoupment is complete") and activated later by an admin

Payment Rules

Configure how revenue flows through your song's distribution waterfall. Payment rules define the order in which parties get paid from incoming revenue.

Common rule types:

• Deductions — Fees taken off the top before other distributions (e.g., distribution fees)
• Recoupment — Recovering an advance before the artist receives royalties. During recoupment, the artist's share goes toward paying back the advance. Once the advance is fully recouped, the rules transition to the post-recoupment phase.
• Royalties — Fixed percentage payments to specific parties (e.g., artist royalty of 15%)
• Ownership split — Final distribution based on ownership percentages after all other rules have been applied

Payment rules are also organized by time period, just like ownership. This means your revenue distribution can change over time — for example, different rules before and after an advance is recouped.

How it works in practice:

Revenue flows through rules in priority order. Each rule takes its portion, and the remainder passes to the next rule. The final ownership split distributes whatever is left.

No payment rules? If no rules are configured, revenue is simply split according to the ownership percentages. Payment rules are optional and are most useful for complex deals with recoupment, deductions, or multi-party waterfalls.

Registration Approvals

Track and manage the multi-party approval process. See who has approved, who hasn't, and add additional approvers.

Media & Documents

Upload and manage audio files, artwork, contracts, split sheets, and other supporting documents.

Revenue History

View revenue records and charts for this song. Filter by date range and see how revenue has been distributed over time.

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Common Questions

What if a co-owner doesn't have a Worth account? You can add them to the approval list by email. They'll be invited to create an account and approve the registration.

Can ownership change after registration? Yes, but significant changes may require re-approval from Worth staff. Contact support for guidance on ownership transfers.

What's the difference between recording and publishing rights? Recording rights cover the specific recorded performance (the master). Publishing rights cover the underlying composition (the words and melody). They are tracked separately because they often have different owners — for example, a label may own the recording while the songwriter owns the publishing.

Do I need to set up payment rules? Not necessarily. If your revenue distribution is a simple percentage split among owners, the ownership percentages handle it automatically. Payment rules are useful when you have more complex arrangements like advances, recoupment, or distribution fees.