Music distribution comes with a wall of jargon — ISRC, UPC, DSP, mechanical royalties, Content ID, PRO. This A–Z glossary explains the terms you'll actually meet, in plain English, with links to deeper guides where you want more. Bookmark it and come back whenever a word trips you up.
If you want the big picture first, start with music distribution in India, then use this as your reference.
A–C
- Aggregator — another word for a distributor: the service that delivers your music to platforms and collects your royalties.
- Artificial streaming — fake or bot-driven streams; banned by platforms and a fast way to get a release removed. See artificial streaming explained.
- Catalogue — all the recordings you've released; your body of work that keeps earning over time.
- Composition — the underlying song (melody and lyrics), as opposed to the recording. It earns publishing royalties.
- Content ID — YouTube's system that finds your music in others' videos and pays you for it. See YouTube Content ID.
- Cover art — the square image for your release; must meet platform rules. See cover art guidelines.
- Cover song — your version of someone else's song; needs the right licence. See covers, remixes & samples.
D–I
- Distributor — the bridge that gets your music onto Spotify, Apple Music, JioSaavn and 150+ platforms.
- DSP (Digital Service Provider) — industry term for a streaming/download platform like Spotify or Apple Music.
- EP — a release of roughly 3–6 songs, between a single and an album. See single vs EP vs album.
- ISRC — the unique code identifying a specific recording, used to track plays and royalties. See ISRC codes.
- IPRS — India's main performing-rights/publishing collection body for songwriters and composers.
J–O
- JioSaavn — a leading India-first streaming platform with deep regional catalogues. See getting on JioSaavn.
- Master / master recording — the official recording of a song; the rights in it earn streaming royalties.
- Mechanical royalty — money owed when a composition is reproduced (including streams). See mechanical royalties explained.
- Metadata — the text data about your release (title, artist, language, credits) that platforms rely on. See metadata best practices.
- Monthly listeners — the number of unique people who streamed you on Spotify in the last 28 days. See growing monthly listeners.
P–R
- Performance royalty — money earned when a composition is performed or broadcast publicly, collected via a PRO.
- Pre-save — letting fans save a release before it's out, to drive day-one streams. See pre-save links.
- PRO (Performing Rights Organisation) — collects performance royalties for songwriters. See what is a PRO and how to register.
- Publishing — the business of the composition's rights and royalties. See the music publishing guide.
- Release Radar — Spotify's personalised playlist of new releases from artists a listener follows. See Release Radar & Discover Weekly.
- Royalty split — how a song's earnings are divided among collaborators. See royalty splits.
S–Z
- Sample — a piece of an existing recording reused in a new track; needs clearance. See covers, remixes & samples.
- Single — a one-song (sometimes two) release, the core unit of a modern release strategy.
- Sync licensing — placing your music in film, TV, ads, or games for a fee. See sync licensing.
- Takedown — removing a release from stores, which resets its streams; done through your distributor. Handle it carefully when switching distributors.
- UPC — the unique code identifying a release (a single, EP, or album) as a product. See UPC codes.
- WAV — the high-quality uncompressed audio file you should distribute. See audio file specs.
Still stuck on a term?
This glossary links out to full guides on the big concepts. If you're getting started, the fastest path is to read music distribution in India end to end, then dip back here as needed.
Ready to put the theory into practice? See Grootin's plans.