Frequently Asked Questions
Horus Music is a UK registered company that is legally bound by company laws and transparency. Many companies are not registered and that gives you very little legal protection.
At Horus Music the majority of our staff are musicians and have an extensive background in management, publishing and within labels. We pride ourselves on being transparent. We protect your music through Soundcloud fingerprinting and YouTube Content ID technologies. All of our artists are sent to the BPI and AIM trade bodies for copyright protection. Sound Exchange is also included. We distribute directly to over 200 different platforms and work with more stores in Asia than any other provider. There is no fee for adding additional stores when you work with us.
We’re happy to answer any questions you may have, but by reading through our Frequently Asked Questions you may find the answers you were looking for. Please read through the questions and answers below before contacting us as you may find it saves you some time.
You can read more about that here
We’re glad you asked, you can find out more information on our blog: ‘Unlimited Distribution: What it is and how it works‘
You pay an annual fee to distribute your release, and will be paid 100% of your owed royalties from downloads or streams, by selecting one of the package options available below:
Artist Subscription: £20 a year
If you have recorded your music or you have music you own the legal rights to release, then you are well on the way to being able to use our service.
You need:
- music files in WAV format,
- artwork with a minimum size of 3000 x 3000 pixels (square) at 300 dpi,
- metadata information such as genre and performers etc.
You will have probably seen or worked with other companies that accept MP3. We do not accept MP3s at Horus Music and ask clients to send us the best quality music possible, which is a WAV file.
Barcodes and ISRC codes are free, you can enter your own in the metadata or leave it blank and our system will automatically create one for you.
If you would like to release a cover song then please bear in mind that you will need a license or permission from the original copyright owners to release a cover. The territories these are needed for are the USA, India, Japan, Pakistan, Canada and Mexico.
Artists and labels should obtain this license separately for themselves. We cannot distribute a cover for you until we have proof that you have purchased the appropriate licenses. If you need to buy a license we recommend using Affordable Song Licensing.
Yes, we do not charge you for using a custom label name you just need to enter your label on the correct section on MyClientZone. We also do not charge extra for setting up a pre-order, YouTube / Soundcloud protection, barcodes and ISRC codes.
These services are free of charge because they can all be done for free. Consequently, Horus Music do not charge you for these and has no plans to do so!
Yes you can. Horus Music does not charge extra for setting up a pre-order. This function is available within MyClientZone, and is simply done by choosing the date you’d like the pre-order to start.
For Instant Gratification you’ll need to let the distribution team know via email.
All artists and labels at Horus Music are paid as we complete our accounting on a monthly basis. Our aim is to pay you as quickly as possible.
As long as you have received downloads or streams of your music during a given a month, you will receive your royalties as we complete our accounting.
Please note, that many stores take up to 3 months to account to us, so when you first sign up there may be a 3 month delay before you receive your royalties, but you can still log in to your account on MyClientZone so you can keep track of your sales and know how much you can expect to receive.
We pay our royalties safely and securely through Western Union. If you have not signed up to Western Union, we are unable to pay your royalties so please make sure this process is completed at the earliest opportunity.
The payment threshold depends where you are based. If you’re not in the UK there is a £10.00 minimum threshold (due to bank conversion fees etc). For UK based clients there are no minimum payouts.
We deal with all submissions of music releases as soon as we can. Most releases can be delivered to stores within 24-48 hours of us receiving them.
Once received and we have checked that all is correct with your release package (including metadata and file formats), we will begin delivery to our distribution network. Some stores will have your music online the next day and some within a week, few stores may take slightly longer. We have no control over how soon stores will make these releases live on their platforms. Each store has its own ingestion methods and some even use manual ingestion.
Releases that do not meet store specifications will be delayed, which is why we take care with our metadata and will send releases back to you asking for corrections if necessary.
If you have a release that needs to go out on a certain day, it is always best to plan ahead of time and deliver your releases to us 6 weeks in advance.
Once you have purchased your VEVO package, make sure you complete all of the necessary information including the name of your channel. Remember that your chosen name can be no more than 16 characters long. Make sure that your video also meets VEVO’s specifications.
Once complete, we will send this information to VEVO for you. It can take them up to 2 weeks to create your channel (although it is often quicker) so please take this into account when planning your release.
You can opt out of territories yes, this can be set on MyClientZone.
It may be possible for you to opt out of stores on a case by case basis and it depends which ones and what your reasonings are and which stores you would like to omit. Please contact us to discuss.
This depends on the size of the label. If you are a registered record label with a regular number of releases each month or year and have good promotional plans, please contact us before signing up. We would be happy to discuss what you require from us and how we can best work with each other.
Our distribution system, MyClientZone, allows labels to have a ‘label’ account so you can manage the artists and the releases that make up your record label. You can assign separate log-ins and permissions for your artists and others on your team to ensure that everyone is only seeing what they have permission to view.
You may also benefit from looking into Custom Music Tools, which was built specifically for record labels.
A lot of artists would like to get on the front page of Apple iTunes and many other stores. This is possible using Horus Music but it does take work on your part too. Just releasing music is not an automatic entitlement to promotion from stores.
If you are interested in promotion on digital music stores, you need to show the stores what you are doing to promote yourself and direct clients to stores.
If you do have a promotions campaign in the pipeline, or would like us to assist in playlisting or other forms of marketing for you, let us know and we can discuss further how to help promote your release.
Yes, we offer playlisting and marketing campaigns through our in-house team. They work with artists on a case-by-case basis through a submission and review process.
Use this form to submit your music for consideration.
The stores control the links, not us, so, unfortunately, it’s not something we can help with. The links will not be available until your music has been released, or until it is available for pre-order.
Many stores have their own ‘Link Maker’ systems which may make things easier for you, like the iTunes Link Maker. You can right click on your release and find ‘get link’ or something similar on most platforms.
Once you have collected your links, you may find it easier to bring them all together using Smart URL. This way, you allow your fans to choose where they would like to download or stream your music. You can add links to Soundcloud and YouTube as well as most of the major platforms.
If your music has not yet been distributed to stores and is not in the processing or published phased on MyClientZone we can un-submit your release so you can make the changes. If your release has been distributed, there will be a small charge per amendment.
The full list of any potential charges can be found within our terms and conditions.
Please note, that by signing up to our distribution services you agree to our terms and conditions.
All stores manage their accounting differently, with some stores paying royalties sooner than others. Many stores can have a 3-month delay in accounting. Until the stores provide us with their latest accounting data we cannot enter how many royalties you have earned.
It may take some time for this section to be updated, but rest assured if you’ve released something through us then the information will be displayed as soon as we are able to.
We have daily statistics available from the stores that offer them and detailed monthly sales analytics and royalty statements which you can download. We also have interactive graphs so that you can easily understand the information you are provided with.
You can then use this data when planning your next campaign or tour dates etc.
We have a separate publishing company called Anara Publishing. They take on artists on a case-by-case basis and are currently accepting submissions.
Yes we do offer this but the team will need to first turn it on for your account, so please reach out to alr@horusmusic.co.uk to request for this feature to be turned on for you.
At Horus Music, all of our staff are trained to deal with any technical issue and if they cannot deal with anything then the query will be escalated through our management process.
We do not have an average time length or ticketing system as we rarely get problems, however, any we do get are dealt with straight away as a priority.
You can find more information on how to reach us on our Contact Page or you can call us on +44 (0) 116 253 0203.
If you need to take down your music, please speak to us first as we may be able to help you and you may not need to take your music down at all. If you would still like to remove your music from stores, we will be very sorry to see you go but please send us an email to ALR@horusmusic.co.uk
Please ensure that you keep an active subscription otherwise your music could be removed from platforms.
In the event that we need to issue a forced takedown of a release due to piracy, the person infringing will be charged and the full list of any potential charges can be found within our terms and conditions.
Please note, that by signing up to our distribution services you agree to our terms and conditions.
We’re always updating our platforms list, so we don’t list it on our website, if you want to get the latest list please email alr@horusmusic.co.uk.
The unlimited distribution accounts are designed for normal use of the system and your usage will be monitored. If your usage is deemed to be excessive, you will be notified via email and asked if you would like to upgrade your account to continue to distribute more tracks. Excessive Usage per year would be anything above 10 albums, 14 EPs and 48 singles per artist profile each year.
If you think you will exceed this, then please contact us before signing up so we can create a custom account for you.
Please follow this link to the contact us page.
