FAQ

Once your royalty report is ready, you will receive an email notifying you that the report is ready to view in our client portal.

Your royalty report(s) will be made up of two documents:

• A PDF that displays your overall balance owed.
• A detailed excel spreadsheet that breaks down every stream or download that your music has received over the reporting period.

Once you have accrued $45.00 or more in royalties, you will be able to send an invoice for the amount you are owed to accounts@drm.co.nz

We pay out royalties on the 20th of each month after receiving an invoice from you. Please note that it can take 1-2 working days for the funds to enter your account.

To ensure you are receiving all royalties that are owed to you, we recommend registering your music with APRA and Recorded Music NZ as part of your release preparation.

APRA deals with on-paying royalties due to songwriters. As songwriter royalties don’t flow through DRM, the registering of your material is advised. APRA not only collects royalties for your songs but also for your live performances.

Recorded Music deals with the licensing of music for Radio and Television broadcasters. Through OneMusic, a joint initiative with APRA, they also licence businesses around the country to use members’ music in public places.

While most releases can go live on the DSPs within a few days of release delivery, we recommend delivering your music at least two-three weeks prior to release day.

This buffer ensures there’s sufficient time for store ingestion, metadata verification, quality control, and any corrections needed before your music goes live.

Once our Operations Team has set up and delivered your release to the DSPs, they will provide you with a smartlink that will act as a pre-save link in the lead up to release day.

On release day, this link will update to display links to your release across various DSPs for streaming (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, etc.).

If there are any particular links you’d like added to your release link (e.g., a music video or Bandcamp), let our operations team know!

ISRC stands for International Standard Recording Code.

Every track that has been released will have its own unique ISRC assigned to it. ISRCs are used to identify and track each individual song that has been commercially released. Once an ISRC has been assigned to a track, that code will belong to that specific track in perpetuity.

We are able to provide and assign ISRCs to your music! Upon submitting your release via the DRM client portal, we will assign ISRCs to each track and relay those codes to you.

If your track(s) already has an ISRC, just include it in your release metadata submission.

A UPC is a digital barcode that gets assigned to each release.

A UPC is used to identify and track your release as an entire digital product (as opposed to an ISRC which tracks individual tracks).

Every music release will have its own unique UPC assigned to it. DRM will assign a UPC to your release upon your submission in the DRM client portal.

YouTube Content ID is YouTube’s system that automatically detects when your music is used in videos across the platform.

By using Content ID, DRM can identify and monetise user-generated content that features your tracks, ensuring you earn revenue and your rights are protected – without you needing to do anything manually.

A YouTube MCN (Multi-Channel Network) is an official YouTube-approved organisation that partners with creators, labels, and distributors to help manage and grow their channels.

MCNs provide tools and support that go beyond what a standard YouTube account offers – such as enhanced rights management, improved monetisation options, channel optimisation guidance, and access to dedicated YouTube support teams.

In simple terms: an MCN acts as an additional support layer between you and YouTube.

Being part of an MCN brings several benefits to the artists and labels we distribute:

1. Stronger Monetisation & Rights Protection
MCNs have access to more advanced rights-management tools, allowing us to better track, monetise, and protect your music across YouTube.

2. Faster & More Reliable Support
As part of an MCN, we have direct communication channels with YouTube for faster issue resolution.

3. Better Content Optimisation
MCNs provide additional resources to help improve channel performance and visibility.

4. Increased Stability & Credibility
YouTube only approves reputable, compliant partners as MCNs, reinforcing that your content is handled by a trusted partner.