Releasing Music

This guide explains how to work with the ONCE chat agent to submit your music for distribution.

Starting a New Release

Visit beta.once.app to start a new conversation with the chat agent. The agent will guide you through the entire release process, adapting to your needs and preferences.

Quick Start Suggestions

When you open a new conversation, a scrolling row of suggestions appears between the ONCE logo and the message box. These are example prompts like “I want to get my single to Spotify” or “Walk me through a release” — hover over any suggestion to highlight it, then click to send it instantly. No typing required.

Working with the Chat Agent

The ONCE chat agent is conversational and flexible. You don’t need to follow a rigid set of steps — just tell it about your release and it will ask for whatever information is needed.

What This Chat Is Best For

The release chat is focused on preparing and submitting your release metadata.

If you need general ONCE product help, technical platform questions, or want to submit a bug report, open Note in the app and ask there. Note can also look up your releases, edit metadata, and navigate you to any page in the app — just ask Note about a release by name, ask for a status-based list like your drafts, or say “take me to my releases” and Note will take you there. You can ask follow-up questions or request metadata changes (titles, genres, dates, etc.) and confirm the proposed edits in Note’s edit card. If you ask Note for an action it cannot complete, like a takedown, it can still hand you directly to the matching release page. For initial submissions, ID mapping, and image generation, use the main Chat Agent.

What the Agent Collects

The agent will gather information about your release through natural conversation:

• Release details: Title, artist name, genre, release date
• Track information: Track titles, explicit content flags, optional preview start seconds, songwriter credits, optional lyrics
• Featured artists: Any collaborators on the release
• Artist page links: Apple Music, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Meta artist/profile pages when you want stores to match an existing artist page
• Additional metadata: Record label, copyright information, etc.

If you saved a preferred label during signup, ONCE uses it as the starting label for new releases unless you set a different one in chat. If you do not have a preferred label, ONCE falls back to the release’s primary artist name until you choose a label for that release.

For Various Artists releases, ONCE does not automatically use Various Artists as the label. In that case, it will prefer your saved default label if you have one, or ask you to choose a real label for that release.

Artist Page Links

If your release should land on an existing artist page, you can give ONCE the matching Apple Music, Spotify, SoundCloud, or Meta artist profile link during chat.

• You can paste either a full URL or the raw profile ID/handle.
• ONCE stores the link with your release metadata and shows it on the release page for review.
• If a track uses a different primary artist than the release, ONCE can store track-level artist page links too.

Providing these links helps distribution partners map the release to the right artist page instead of creating a duplicate profile.

For URL patterns, example links, and ID formats for each platform (including what we do not support, such as Tidal), see Artist store links.

Featured Artists

How Featured Artists Are Collected

When you tell the agent about your release, it listens for collaborator keywords — “feat.”, “ft.”, “featuring” — to identify featured artists. For example:

• “The track is called Midnight Drive feat. Asha Patel”
• “It features two artists: Asha Patel and Leo Vance”

The agent only marks someone as a featured artist when you use one of those explicit indicators. Names joined by “and”, ”&”, or “x” are treated as additional primary artists, not featured artists, unless you specify otherwise.

Featured artists can be set at the release level, the track level, or both. For singles (one-track releases), featured artists are automatically applied to both the release and the track since streaming platforms require them to match.

How Featured Artists Are Processed

Featured artists are stored as part of your release metadata and sent to distribution partners when your release is submitted. Internally, featured artist names are converted into contributor entries with a “Featuring” role before being passed to the distribution API.

How Featured Artists Are Displayed

Display varies by platform:

• Spotify — Shows featured artists in the track title line (e.g., “Midnight Drive (feat. Asha Patel)”) and on the artist’s profile page
• Apple Music — Shows featured artists in the track/album artist credit and links to their Apple Music profile if one exists
• YouTube Music — Displays featured artists as part of the artist attribution on the track and album pages
• Amazon Music, Tidal, and most other stores — Generally display featured artists in the artist credit or track title

Note: TikTok does not display featured artists. Your featured artist credits will not appear on TikTok regardless of what is submitted.

You can provide information in any order. The agent keeps track of what’s been collected and what’s still needed in the sidebar.

Title Versions in Release and Track Names

When a release or track includes a title version from your distributor metadata (for example, “Deluxe”, “Remix”, or “Instrumental”), ONCE shows it in parentheses after the main title.

Examples:

• Midnight Drive (Deluxe)
• Ocean Eyes (Instrumental)

This formatting appears on your release pages and in your releases list so title qualifiers are easy to spot.

The Sidebar

As you chat, the sidebar displays your release information in real-time:

• Release title and artist
• Track list with durations
• Track preview start offsets (when provided)
• Cover art preview
• Upload status for audio and artwork

If a track already has audio, expand that track in the sidebar and click Replace audio to swap in a new file. ONCE keeps the chat upload card in sync, so the updated audio appears there too.

Uploading Files

Bulk Release Context Files (CSV/PDF)

In the chat input, click the + button to attach a CSV or PDF file when you want to provide bulk release context (for example, a track spreadsheet, release planning sheet, or metadata document).

These file additions are for bulk release context only. They are not used for cover art or final audio delivery.

Audio Upload Card

When the agent is ready for your audio files, it will display an audio upload card in the chat. This card lets you:

• Drag and drop audio files or click to browse
• Upload multiple tracks at once
• Edit track titles directly in the card
• Reorder tracks by dragging
• Add or remove tracks as needed

The agent will organize your tracks and let you make adjustments before finalizing.

You can also replace an existing track file later from the metadata sidebar with Replace audio. That uses the same draft state as the upload card, so both views stay aligned.

If you generate a track with ONCE’s AI music tools, its chat preview stays inside ONCE’s protected player and the preview UI does not include a download option.

Generate With AI (OMG)

Every track slot in the audio upload card has two tabs: Upload audio and Generate with AI. The “Generate with AI” tab is ONCE Music Generation (OMG) — our built-in AI music generator. Generation itself is free; you only pay when you distribute (see Credit Costs below).

How to generate a track:

1. Open the audio upload card (ask the chat agent to help you add music or to show the audio card).
2. On any empty track slot, click the Generate with AI tab.
3. Pick a genre — if your release already has a genre set, OMG will start there.
4. Choose Instrumental or With Lyrics:
   • Instrumental — no vocals at all.
   • With Lyrics — you can paste your own lyrics, let OMG write them for you, or leave the field blank and let OMG freestyle.
5. (Optional) Add extra direction in the Freeform text field — mood, tempo, instrumentation, reference artists, etc.
6. Click Generate. Or click Surprise Me to get a curated random prompt that still respects your release’s genre.
7. When the track is ready, preview it inside ONCE’s player. If you like it, click Confirm to attach it to that track slot. If you don’t, generate again or edit your prompt.

When a generation finishes, OMG may also produce lyrics. If it does, confirming the track automatically attaches those lyrics to the track’s metadata — no extra step needed.

Credit costs:

• Base distribution: 1 credit per track (standard ONCE pricing).
• AI surcharge: +1 credit per confirmed AI-generated track.
• So a 1-track single with an OMG-generated song costs 2 credits at submission. A 3-track EP where only one track is AI-generated costs 4 credits.
• The surcharge only applies to tracks you confirm from OMG. You can generate as many previews as you like while experimenting — nothing is charged until you submit the release.

AI disclosure:

Tracks created through OMG are flagged as AI-generated automatically and disclosed to Spotify, Apple Music, and other DSPs that require it — you don’t need to set the AI flag manually.

Why ONCE generates AI music

AI music is already on every streaming platform. ONCE’s position is that if AI-generated music is going to be distributed, it should go through a platform that discloses AI content to DSPs, tracks provenance, and routes a surplus back to artists. The extra credit per AI-generated track funds the Artist Compensation Fund, which compensates the artists whose work makes AI music possible in the first place.

For the full story behind OMG, read once.app/blog.

Cover Art Upload Card

The agent will also show a cover art upload card when it’s time to add your artwork. You have two options:

Upload Your Own Art

Drag and drop or click to upload your own cover art. Use a square, high-resolution image (JPG or PNG).

Generate with AI

You can generate cover art using AI directly in the card. Describe the artwork you want and ONCE will create it for you. You can:

• Provide a text description of what you want
• Request variations or adjustments
• Generate multiple options to choose from
• Use an existing image as a starting point for variations

AI cover art generation uses Nano Banana 2 (1K) by default. Patron supporters can switch between Nano Banana 2 (1K) and Nano Banana Pro (4K) directly in the generator.

AI Content Detection

ONCE automatically detects AI-generated content in your audio files using Vobile’s AI detector. When you upload audio, our system analyzes it and flags tracks that contain AI-generated elements.

This automatic detection ensures your release meets streaming platform compliance requirements (Spotify, Apple Music, etc. require disclosure of AI content).

If AI is detected in a track, you’ll see an “AI Detected” badge in the sidebar. This information is passed to streaming platforms automatically — you don’t need to do anything manually.

Lyrics

You can optionally provide plain-text lyrics for any track on your release. Lyrics are included in your release metadata and sent to distribution partners alongside the rest of your track information.

Adding Lyrics

There are two ways to add lyrics:

• Paste in chat — paste the full lyrics text during your conversation with the agent and tell it which track they belong to. The agent saves them as part of the track metadata.
• AI music generation — when you generate a track with ONCE’s AI music tools and lyrics are produced, they are automatically attached to the track when you confirm.

Lyrics can also be edited on the release page using Edit & Redistribute after submission.

How Lyrics Are Displayed

Lyrics appear on your release page in each track’s detail section. If a track already has lyrics stored in Revelator (for example, from a previous distributor), they are pulled in automatically and shown on the release page.

DSP Support

Not all streaming platforms display lyrics. Whether your lyrics appear on a particular storefront depends on that platform’s own policies and capabilities. ONCE always sends lyrics when available, but cannot guarantee downstream display.

Review and Confirm

Once all information is collected, the agent will present a confirmation screen showing:

• All release metadata
• Track list with details
• Cover art preview
• Credit cost for submission

Review everything carefully — metadata is difficult to change after distribution. When you’re ready, confirm to submit your release.

Streaming and download stores run their own systems and may adjust how metadata appears even after delivery; ONCE does not control those storefronts. See DSPs and release metadata in Things to Know for examples and what to expect.

After Submission

Register Publishing Information

After submission, you can prepare and register publishing details for each track by clicking Register Publishing on your release page.

You can draft details before distribution is complete, but final registration is only available after the release has been successfully distributed to at least one store.

For the full publishing workflow (drafting, validation, PRO/IPI details, and final registration), see Publishing with ONCE.

Add Royalty Splits

Once a release has been successfully distributed to at least one store, the release page also shows a Splits action.

Use it to add release-wide or track-level royalty splits, invite collaborators into ONCE, and give recipients a locked, view-only version of the release in their account.

For the full owner and recipient workflow, see Royalty Splits.

Submission Source

If you submitted a release through an MCP client (such as Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT) or through a partner surface like AI Music Distribution (app.aimusicdistributor.com), the release page shows a small provenance pill alongside the genre and configuration badges:

• via AIMD — the release was submitted through AI Music Distribution. The pill includes the AIMD logo so it’s easy to spot.
• via MCP — the release came in through a generic MCP client.

Releases submitted through the regular ONCE app don’t show a pill.

Status Tracking

Track your release status from the Releases page. Each release page shows a colored Status & Action Bar (STAB) at the top that indicates the current state and available actions.

For a full breakdown of every status, color, and action button, see the Status & Action Bar page.

Retrying After a Distribution Error

When a release enters Attention Needed due to a distribution error (for example, invalid characters in a metadata field), clicking Retry Distribution opens the Fix and Retry Distribution editor. This is the same form as Edit & Redistribute, letting you review and correct any metadata before resubmitting. Once you’re ready, click Save & Retry Distribution to queue the release again — no metadata changes are required if none are needed.

The View details dialog also includes a Fix and Retry Distribution button so you can go straight into the editor from the error summary.

Mastering Retry Options

If a release enters Attention Needed because Peak mastering failed or timed out, the status bar shows two dedicated retry options instead:

• Retry with Mastering — tries Peak mastering again, then continues distribution.
• Retry without Mastering — skips mastering for now and continues distribution using your current audio.

This lets you keep moving your release forward even if Peak is temporarily unavailable.

Making Changes

Before Distribution

If you notice an error before your release goes live, contact support immediately. Changes may be possible.

After Distribution

Once distributed, changes require an “update” or “redistribution” which may affect your release date. See Things to Know for important details about edits.

Use Edit & Redistribute from the release page when you need to make a live change. The modal supports both the Edit Agent and a full manual editor.

• Update release and track metadata
• Replace album artwork
• Replace a track’s audio file
• If you replace track audio or change a UPC or ISRC, ONCE will prompt you to confirm a takedown before redistribution

For quick metadata tweaks (no file replacements), you can also open Note from anywhere in the app. Just ask Note about a release by name (e.g., “check the status of Summer Vibes” or “change the genre on my latest release”) — Note will pull up the release with a visual card showing the cover art and details, then let you confirm any edits before submitting.

Common Issues

Cover Art Rejected

Ensure your cover art:

• Has no streaming platform logos
• Has no website URLs
• Is not blurry or pixelated
• Matches content guidelines

Audio Quality Issues

Make sure your audio:

• Is not clipping (distorted at loud parts)
• Has no excessive silence at start/end
• Is high quality (WAV recommended)

Metadata Errors

Double-check:

• Spelling of all names
• Special characters render correctly
• Track order is correct