Charlie Hayz Music Production

Before you register at a PRO, decide what your publishing side is called. Two separate things get confused here constantly. First, a publisher name, which is what you need to register as a publisher at your PRO and collect the publisher's share. That share is roughly half your performance royalties and it goes uncollected if you never set it up. Second, a business entity like an LLC, which is a legal and tax decision about liability and how income flows to you. You do not need an LLC to register as a publisher. Plenty of songwriters register a publishing name and operate as a sole proprietor. But if you are earning real income, an entity is worth a conversation with an accountant. Pick a publisher name nobody else has, check it against your PRO's directory before committing, and use that exact name everywhere afterward.

Required to collect performance royalties from radio, streaming, and live venues. You need TWO registrations at your PRO: one as a Songwriter (to collect the writer's share) and one as a Publisher entity (to collect the publisher's share). If you only register as a songwriter, you are leaving 50% of your performance royalties uncollected.

One account covers both your Rights Owner and Performer registrations, just select "both" when asked which type of account to create. Initial approval takes 2-6 weeks due to W-9 verification and manual review by their team, but you will know you are approved when you get that sweet email that gives you access to SX Direct. That is where you can upload your metadata and watch your royalties come in!

A publishing administrator registers your songs with the MLC, collects your mechanical royalties from streaming worldwide, and handles sync licensing administration. Without one, you are leaving money on the table every time someone streams your music. Most admins take 10-20% of what they collect, but lets break it down. For perspective, there are 195 countries in the world. Each of those probably has some type of pay source or society for writers, and some have more than one. You would have to first affiliate yourself with all of them, and then register each new song individually with each pay source as they were released. That is a monumental task for entire organizations of people and luckily for us, those people exist! It is their full time jobs to do it. Let them do their jobs so we can have the time and energy to do ours: make music.

Your distributor delivers music to all streaming platforms. Set this up before you reach the Distribute stage.

Seven questions about your world: what it represents, who the characters are, the rules of your universe, your visual language, what stays constant across eras, how fans get in outside the music, and who sounds adjacent to you. Every content generator on this platform reads these answers, so filling them in is the difference between ideas that sound like you and ideas that sound like a generator. Nothing here is required and nothing is locked, because your world is supposed to change between eras. This item verifies itself automatically once you have answered at least four of the seven.

Set up a clean and consistent folder structure in your storage for every song. Do it once, benefit forever.

Required for editorial playlist pitching, analytics, and Canvas. You cannot create this profile yourself. Your distributor's delivery generates it, then you claim it. You can claim before release day: ask your distributor for your Spotify artist URI once they have delivered, and paste it in the field below.

Access analytics, manage your profile, and verify your Apple Music presence. Unlike Spotify, this cannot be claimed before release. Your music has to be live on Apple Music for at least five business days first, and Apple verifies your identity using your website and social accounts. Only the primary artist on a release can claim.

Links your music videos and topic channel under one verified profile. Needed for Content ID and YouTube Music.

Access analytics, Alexa voice-request data (Daily Voice Index), and editorial pitching. Reaches listeners through Echo and Alexa devices. Claim once your first release is live to avoid delays at editorial pitching time.

Free DIY marketing tools: AMPcast audio messages, Featured Tracks, Pandora Stories, and Campaigns. Required to access Pandora editorial and algorithmic radio. Claim review takes a few days — start before pitch windows open.

Strong indie hip-hop and R&B audience with free streaming + monetization. Authentication (gray check) requires at least 2 uploads and 25 followers, and is required before you can submit to Audiomack editorial playlists. Use the growth playbook below to hit the follower threshold, then DM @audiomackartist on Instagram from your official artist account to apply.

Strong for hip-hop and R&B discovery, reposts, and community engagement. Worth claiming even if it is not your primary platform because many fans discover and share through SoundCloud first.

Strong presence in France, Brazil, and parts of Africa. Free editorial submission tool and Deezer Backstage analytics. Lower priority than Spotify/Apple, but a quick claim once your release is live.

Higher-fidelity audio and a smaller but engaged listener base. TIDAL Artist Home gives you analytics and editorial submission. Lower volume than the majors but worth a quick claim, especially if your sound benefits from high-fidelity playback.

Your direct line to fans! Launch your "Welcome Sequence" and any other correspondence with the people who support you right from here.

Sell music, merch, and physicals directly to fans. Keep 85-100% of revenue vs. streaming fractions. Choose a platform below based on your needs.

Your baseline fan profile, generated once and reused as the starting point for every release. Each project can pull this in automatically and tweak it for that specific drop.

Set your posting rhythm, days, funnel mix, formats, and hook style in the Social Media Strategy tab. This weekly template is the foundation the idea generators build on. This item verifies itself automatically once you save a strategy.

Before your first official release, lock in the editing tools and workflow that fit how you actually work. Figuring this out mid-campaign costs you days you will not have. Consistent content is one of the highest-leverage things you can do for your brand, so make the making of it as frictionless as possible now.

Have a profile somewhere not listed above like Anghami, Boomplay, JioSaavn, NetEase, KKBOX, or anywhere else? Add it here so it is in one place when you need it for distributor metadata or smart-link setup.