User GuideMigrating to ONCE

Migrating to ONCE

Already distributing with DistroKid (or another distributor)? The migration wizard moves your entire catalog to ONCE in one guided flow, without re-typing your metadata and without losing your release history.

Open it at beta.once.app/migrate, or from My Account → Quick Actions → Migrate to ONCE.

How It Works

The wizard walks you through five steps. Your progress is saved as you go, so you can leave at any point and pick up where you left off.

1. Connect your Spotify artist profile

Paste your Spotify artist link (e.g. https://open.spotify.com/artist/…). ONCE imports your full public catalog from Spotify:

  • Every release (albums, singles, EPs and compilations) with its title, type and original release date
  • Full track listings with track numbers, durations and explicit flags
  • ISRCs for every track and the UPC of every release
  • Label names and copyright (℗ / ©) lines
  • Cover art

Duplicate regional variants of the same release are automatically collapsed.

2. Review your catalog

Check the imported list and untick anything you don’t want to move. Track counts, release dates and UPCs are shown so you can verify everything matches what’s live in stores.

3. Add your music files

Drop all of your audio files in one go. ONCE matches them to your tracks automatically using the file names and durations; anything it can’t match confidently lands in a tray where you can assign it by hand. You can also upload a file directly on any track row, or reuse an already-uploaded file (useful when a single also appears on an album).

While you’re here, each release needs two things Spotify doesn’t provide:

  • Genre: pick one per release (there’s an “Apply to all” shortcut)
  • Songwriter credits: full legal names, comma separated (also with “Apply to all”)

Audio quality: WAV or FLAC at 16-bit / 44.1kHz or better is recommended. MP3, AAC, M4A, OGG and AIFF are accepted and converted automatically.

Cover art: Spotify’s images max out at 640px, but stores prefer 3000×3000. Hover any cover and choose Replace to upload your original artwork. This is strongly recommended for best quality on store pages.

4. Initiate your takedown

Before ONCE redelivers your music, you need to take it down at your current distributor so stores don’t receive duplicate deliveries. The wizard pauses here:

  1. Log in to your current distributor (e.g. DistroKid) and request a takedown for each release you’re migrating.
  2. Keep that account active until the takedowns are processed.
  3. Come back and confirm; you don’t need to wait for the takedowns to complete.

5. Approve

The final step shows exactly what will be submitted, along with the credit cost (the normal 1 credit per track). Hit approve and ONCE submits every selected release through standard distribution. You can follow each release’s progress on your releases page, and you’ll get the usual status emails as they go live.

If any release fails to submit, the wizard shows what went wrong. Fix it and approve again; already-submitted releases are skipped.

What Carries Over (and What Doesn’t)

  • ISRCs are preserved. Your tracks are redelivered with the same ISRCs Spotify reports today, so stores recognize them as the same recordings, so play counts and (on most stores) playlist placements carry over.
  • Original release dates are preserved. Store pages keep your original chronology instead of showing everything as released today.
  • UPCs are regenerated. Industry rules don’t allow reusing UPCs across distributors, so each release gets a fresh one. If you use smart links or pre-save tools keyed to a UPC, update them after migration.
  • Metadata comes from Spotify. If something is wrong on Spotify (a typo, a wrong label), it’ll be imported as-is. You can edit any release in ONCE after it’s created using Edit & Redistribute.

Things to Know

  • Migration needs an active ONCE account and enough credits for the catalog (1 credit per track). Credits are checked up front, so a migration never stalls halfway.
  • One migration can run at a time per account. You can cancel an in-progress migration at any point before approving.
  • Only releases on your Spotify artist profile can be imported. Anything not on Spotify can be released normally through the chat agent.
  • Expect a brief window where a release is down on some stores while the old distributor’s takedown and ONCE’s delivery overlap. Approving promptly after initiating your takedown keeps that window small.
Releasing MusicArtist store links