Switching music distributors has always meant starting from scratch. Labels re-upload their catalogues, retype their metadata and rebuild in tandem with their new distributor the infrastructure their releases depend on, track by track, before a single song reaches a digital service. For independent labels and artists, that friction isn't a minor inconvenience. It's a barrier to making better distribution decisions.

For a distributor willing to solve that problem, the opportunity was significant. Symphonic is a 100% independent company offering digital music distribution, video distribution, royalty collection and music promotion services for creators. When labels sign with Symphonic, or move to them from another distributor, the question has always been the same: how do you get the content there cleanly, quickly and without putting the burden back on the label?

Challenge

Every time Symphonic onboards a new label, whether signing a new artist or receiving a label migrating from another distributor, the conventional process requires that label to redeliver their entire catalogue from scratch. Audio files, metadata, artwork, credits: all of it re-uploaded and reingested before distribution can begin.

The risks compound at every stage. Metadata retyped manually introduces inconsistencies that follow a release across every digital streaming platform (DSP) it lands on. Files sourced from fragmented storage arrive in the wrong format. And critically, if the timing between a takedown at the old distributor and re-delivery at the new one isn't precisely coordinated, a label can lose their accumulated playcounts entirely. On platforms where algorithmic visibility is built on streaming history, that loss has direct commercial consequences.

Symphonic had already made significant progress on the metadata side of this problem. What remained was the harder half: a reliable, scalable source for audio delivery that didn't require labels to find, compile and re-upload their own files. Without it, the transfer process could only ever be partially solved. At scale, the process is slow, error-prone and places an unreasonable operational burden on the very labels Symphonic is trying to serve. The content, in most cases, already existed. It just wasn't in the right place.

Two phones showing the Symphonic player, with artist artwork on one screen and playback controls on the other, set on an orange and blue gradient

Approach

Symphonic came to MassiveMusic with an existing transfer infrastructure and a specific gap in it. The metadata process worked. The audio piece didn't, because a source of that scale and reliability didn't exist anywhere else.

MassiveMusic holds one of the largest licensed music catalogues in the industry. For most labels moving to Symphonic, their content, audio files, metadata and associated rights information was already sitting within our systems, accurately structured and ready to move. Rather than asking labels to start over, MassiveMusic completed Symphonic's transfer infrastructure by providing the audio delivery component it was missing. Every file delivered is DDEX compliant, with ISRC metadata handled and normalised across the full catalogue, ensuring the content arrives accurately structured and audit-ready from day one.

When a label signs with Symphonic, their catalogue can be pulled directly from our systems and delivered into Symphonic’s platform without the label lifting a finger. No re-uploads. No manual metadata entry. No risk of the errors that come with both.

The result was a fully operational end-to-end transfer process. Symphonic's existing metadata workflows, now paired with MassiveMusic's audio catalogue, created a pipeline capable of handling a full catalogue migration without the label lifting a finger. The choreography between takedown and re-delivery is managed without gaps, protecting the label's playcount history in the process.

Collage of Symphonic analytics dashboards and streaming charts interleaved with artist portraits

Solution

Together with Symphonic, MassiveMusic brought to life the missing piece that brought TransferTrack to life: a feature that allows labels to bulk import their releases seamlessly without sourcing files or re-entering data themselves. MassiveMusic's audio catalogue provides the foundation that makes TransferTrack fully functional, supplying hi-quality FLAC files and normalised metadata directly into Symphonic's platform for every label that moves across.

The process is as straightforward as it sounds. A label signs a distribution deal with Symphonic. Symphonic pulls the label's full catalogue and metadata directly from MassiveMusic's systems. The content arrives accurately structured and ready for distribution. Symphonic then handles delivery to every DSP in their network.

What used to be a days-long operational exercise, complicated by file sourcing, metadata reconciliation and the ever-present risk of playcount loss, is now a seamless handoff. The label signs and their catalogue is already there.

A group of five artists posing, representing Symphonic

Results

The partnership gives Symphonic a meaningful operational advantage in a competitive distribution market: the ability to onboard labels faster, more cleanly and with less friction than any process requiring manual re-delivery can offer. For labels, it removes the single biggest practical barrier to switching distributors.

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