[Keeping Tempo] — Trust, Safety & Integrity in Music Distribution: Op-Ed from Yoktan Haddad at Revelator

How to Build Systems That Protect Artists and Their Royalties

In a world where anyone can upload a track, open a label, or launch a distribution company, integrity has never mattered more.

Digital distribution has opened the gates for millions of artists around the world. That’s something to celebrate. But with that opportunity comes real responsibility, not just to move music quickly, but to protect it properly.

With unprecedented access has come unprecedented risk: fraudulent streaming, AI-generated content with unclear rights, and a tangled web of metadata errors that lead to misattributed or unpaid royalties.

At Revelator, we believe the future of music depends on building transparent, fair, and ethical systems not just for artists, but for the businesses that support them. Trust is not optional; it’s a critical infrastructure.

A New Era of Risk

The risks are no longer hypothetical. Artificial streaming doesn’t just distort royalty payments; it erodes fan trust and undermines the value of legitimate plays. AI-generated tracks are flooding platforms faster than rightsholders can keep up, raising urgent questions about authorship, consent, and compensation. And inaccurate metadata continues to block revenue from reaching the right creators.

These aren’t edge cases. They’re industry-wide challenges, and they’re not just technical. They’re ethical and economic. Every lost royalty, every delayed payment, every bot play hurts real people: artists, songwriters, producers, and the teams behind them.

Spotify’s recent announcement to strengthen protections against impersonation, spam, and deceptive AI content is a step in the right direction.

They’re tightening rules, improving filters, and introducing AI disclosures in credits. While there’s still a long way to go, it’s a positive sign for the industry.

But distributors, aggregators, and all DSP partners also have a duty of care to the artists, labels, and rightsholders they serve, as well as to fellow Merlin members when participating in collective deals where shared outcomes depend on collective integrity.

Our Responsibility as Infrastructure Providers

As distributors and aggregators, we sit at a critical junction in the music ecosystem. We don’t just move audio files, we manage the flow of rights, metadata, and money. That comes with a responsibility to do more than deliver content. It means designing systems that actively protect it.

At Revelator, we’ve made that responsibility part of our DNA. It’s not part of a department or a policy. It’s who we are and how we build our products. 

• Metadata Inspector: Flags missing or invalid credits before delivery, helping clients catch issues early and ensuring rightsholders get properly paid.
  
• Track Origin & Properties: Identifies composition and master characteristics that impact a track’s clearance requirements and DSP-specific eligibility — including AI-generated content, covers, remixes, and samples.
  
• Artificial Streaming Dashboard: Centralizes DSP fraud alerts to detect suspicious activity quickly and intervene before royalties are lost.
  
• ACRCloud Integration: Uses audio fingerprinting to verify content uniqueness and prevent duplicate uploads across platforms.
  
• Final Review Workflow: For content flagged by our trust and safety checks, a manual inspection is triggered before distribution approval, adding a second layer of protection for clients and platforms alike.
  
• Royalty Statement Review: Given that some violations only become visible through an asset’s usage, monthly royalty statements present an additional opportunity to identify problematic assets based on their performance and earnings.
  
• Trust & Safety Permissions: Allows clients to assign dedicated roles and access levels so that fraud monitoring and catalog protection can be managed securely across their teams.
  
• Industry Collaboration: As a member of the Music Fights Fraud Alliance, we contribute to raising shared standards for catalog integrity and rights enforcement.
  

And these are just the first steps. We’re continuing to invest in the systems, partnerships, and protections that help our clients and their artists operate with confidence.

Building with Integrity, Not Hype

At Revelator, we believe in putting artists and labels at the center of everything we do. That’s not a slogan, it’s a product roadmap.

Designing for Trust

To build trust, infrastructure must meet three core principles:

• Transparency: Rightsholders should be able to trace where their royalties come from and why. Clean data, open reporting, and verified metadata should be the norm, not the exception.
  
• Compliance: As regulations evolve around copyright, AI, and royalties, infrastructure must evolve with them. That means building tools that help clients stay ahead, not fall behind.
  
• Security: Verifying the legitimacy of creators, content, and ownership should be built into the distribution workflow, not an afterthought.

This goes beyond product features. We’re also committed to client education, Helpdesk guidance, and clearer reporting that helps our users stay informed and protected.

When we embed these principles into the platforms that power the industry, we move from policing bad behavior to preventing it altogether.

The Path Forward

The next era of music distribution will be defined by trust and care, not just scale.

The music industry is entering an age of accountability, and that’s a good thing.

The platforms that thrive in the years ahead won’t be the ones shouting the loudest. They’ll be the ones that quietly build smarter systems, protect artist identities, fix broken pipes, and make sure the right people get paid.

This is a work in progress, and while there’s still work to do, we’re clear on where we’re headed and committed to solving what matters most.

We’re building Revelator to be part of a more ethical and resilient future for the music industry, not just as a music tech company, but as a partner to the music businesses, labels and artists shaping what comes next.

Written by: Yoktan Haddad, Chief Rights Officer, Revelator

You can read past “Keeping Tempo” articles via the portal linked here. And, stay tuned for more insightful discussions from our members and partners from across the industry!