B sharp, you don’t want to get yourself into treble 🎵

You’re more than welcome to use another distributor as well as RouteNote, but bear in mind that stores will not accept multiple copies of the same release. Please ensure that you don’t select the same platforms on both!

You also don’t need to worry if you have requested removal of the content from one distributor in order to upload with another. This is fine to do!

If you happen to distribute the same release with more than one distributor and choose the same stores, this can result in obstacles further down the line.

📌 Please note! This is also including releasing instrumentals or remastered versions of a release to two different distributors. All references of the same track must be clearly distinct. A remastered version of a track will still essentially be the same track minus the obvious improvement in sound quality. The same is said for instrumental version, there is great risk of these ending up merging with the original due to there being little to no difference from the original.

Regarding remix releases, the majority of the time these tracks will be distinctive from the original and therefore wont end up merged.

Dangers of uploading instrumental or remastered versions of a release to two different distributors:

Case Study

-Please note, we’re unable to publicly reveal the correct track names, artist or company names, so for this reason, we’ve given these false names-

A user got in touch with our support team to ask why one of their top performing tracks, “I Got U” had essentially stopped earnings revenue from YouTube (Content ID) since September 2021 to December 2022. Before that period, the track was averaging between $3-4k per month.

It appears that the artist had initially released the original back in November 2016, and then released a remix release that included a copy of the original track in a remastered version and used a different distributor to release this. When the other distributor added the release to YouTube (Content ID), YouTube’s audio fingerprint software couldn’t differentiate between the original release and the remastered version, due to them not being distinct enough. The original track and the remastered track were identical except for the slight improvement in audio quality. As a result, the new remastered release was deactivated due to duplicate audio and all of its metadata was merged together with the original release.

When the artist removed their release from the other distributor, they then added the same remix album including the remastered version of the track to RouteNote which also resulted in our latest upload being merged due to the duplicate audio.

The result of adding a remastered copy of the same track to YouTube Content ID with another distributor caused the asset to be merged and along with it an ownership claim from the other distributor. This caused the asset to go into conflict and no earnings were generated during that period.

In conclusion, here at RouteNote, we’d recommend that if you want to use multiple distributors, please ensure that all tracks and releases are clearly distinct and there is no chance of overlapping to prevent future risk.

If you have any further queries, feel free to get in touch with us!

See also:
How does YouTube’s Content ID system work?
What if I accidentally upload the same release twice?
Can I upload duplicate track titles to RouteNote?