How to claim Apple Music for Artists and what it tells you about your releases

What to do, in order

1. 1

   Check you can claim

   Your content must have been live on Apple Music for at least five business days. You also need the primary artist role on an album, because featured artists cannot claim the page. If you have no artist page yet, get your music distributed first.

2. 2

   Sign in and request access

   Go to artists.apple.com or open the iOS app, sign in with the Apple Account you want to manage the page with, and choose Request Artist Access.

3. 3

   Find your artist page

   Search for your artist name or an album, copy the link from Apple Music, and paste it into the Find an Artist field. Then select one of your albums to confirm the page. If several pages share your name, check the discography before you choose.

4. 4

   Choose your role and verify

   Choose Artist, Manager or Label Rep and complete the form. Give Apple as much as you can to confirm who you are. Signing in to your social media or distributor accounts is the way Apple suggests to speed this up.

5. 5

   Watch for Apple's reply

   Your request shows as Pending, and updates go to the email on your Apple Account. Apple gives no set review time, so contact them if 10 business days pass with no update. If the page already has an admin, they can review your request, and it expires if nobody acts on it within 30 days.

6. 6

   Set up the page and your team

   Add an artist image that meets Apple's rules, then invite other people using their own Apple Accounts instead of sharing your password. Apple has three roles. Admins can do everything and manage access. Analysts can view data and promote content. Profile Editors can update images, lyrics and artist details.

7. 7

   Check every release is on the page

   Compare the songs and albums on your page with your catalog. A release that is missing was either not delivered to Apple Music, is still processing, or has landed on a different artist page with your name.

What the dashboard shows you

Apple Music for Artists is a reporting and profile tool, not a delivery tool. You cannot upload music from it, but it tells you a lot about how your catalog is doing.

• Plays for each song, plus daily and real-time listeners.
• Song purchases and how a new release performs from release day onwards.
• Shazam activity, which shows your most Shazamed songs.
• Radio spins, showing when and where your music is played on radio.
• Playlist, demographic and location trends, showing who is listening and how they find you.
• Milestones you can view in the iOS app and share on social media.

What it tells you about your releases

If a release should be on your page and is not, something went wrong between your distributor and Apple, or it landed on another page. Plays that suddenly drop to zero are also worth a look, because the release may have become unavailable.

• Missing release: your distributor or label delivers your music, so ask them for the Apple Music status of that UPC.
• Release on the wrong page: this can happen when artists share a name. Contact Apple through Apple Music for Artists, choose Artist Catalog Issues, and give your approval status, artist name, album links and the link to the correct page. Apple may move the album or create a new page.
• Wrong titles, capitalization or release date: these changes must come from your distributor or label, not Apple.

Give your distributor your Apple artist ID

Your artist page has a numeric ID at the end of its web address. Many distributors have a field for it when you set up a release. Delivering with that ID helps your release reach your page instead of a namesake's. Check it before every release.

Claiming as a manager or a label

Only artists and artist managers can claim a page. A label rep has to work with the artist to have the request reviewed or to be added as a user. The first artist or manager to claim the page gets Admin access, so if the artist already has it, ask them to invite you rather than sending a second request.

How Traxure helps

Apple Music for Artists shows you the numbers when you log in. Traxure watches between logins. It checks your releases on Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, TIDAL, SoundCloud and Pandora once a day, alongside Spotify, and emails you when a release stops showing, with the before, the after and a note to your distributor ready to send. One explains how a release is doing, and the other tells you when it goes missing. Monitoring starts with a seven-day free trial.

Questions artists ask