How to Get Your Credits Right
By Written by Peter McVeigh
Credits get you hired and can affect who gets paid. How to collect them, what to include and how to avoid the common mistakes.
A credit is proof you did the work. It's how a future client finds you, how collaborators get recognised and, in some cases, part of how people get paid. Yet credits are often left until the week of release, when somebody tries to remember who played the tambourine.
Getting them right is mostly a matter of collecting them early and keeping them in one place.
What to collect
For every track, try to record:
Everyone's name, as they want to be credited.
Their legal name, if it's different and needed for registrations.
Their exact role, and any instrument played.
Writers and their agreed shares.
Publishers, if there are any.
The ISRC for the recording, and the ISWC for the song if there is one.
Our Credits and Metadata Sheet holds all of this and exports a PDF or spreadsheet.
Be exact about the role
"Engineer" could mean a few jobs. "Recorded by", "mixed by", "additional production by" and "assistant engineer" all say different things. Ask each person how they'd like it worded, and agree it before release. Don't inflate a credit. It's a small industry and people notice when somebody claims to have produced a record they only assisted on.
Why it can affect money
Credits and royalties aren't the same, but they do overlap. A collecting society may need evidence of who performed on a recording before it pays them. In the UK, PPL pays for performer roles, so recording who actually played matters. A wrong or missing writer can also send songwriting income to the wrong place, or leave it unclaimed.
When to collect them
The easiest moment is at the end of each session. People are in the room and everyone remembers what happened. Ask for names and spellings then, and add new people as they arrive. Waiting until the mastering stage is when details start to go missing.
Where credits go
Different places want credits in different ways:
Your distributor asks for some credits at upload. Fill in what's asked accurately.
Streaming services show credits in their own way. Check what they display once the release is live.
Physical artwork and sleeve notes give you the most room, so proofread them carefully.
Collecting societies need their own registrations. A credit on a streaming service doesn't register anything.
Your own website is under your control, so keep a discography.
Common mistakes
Spelling a name differently from one place to the next.
Forgetting assistant engineers, backing singers or the person who programmed the drums.
Crediting a band as a whole when a society needs individuals.
Assuming a label or distributor has done it.
Leaving out a contract's required credit wording.
Not checking again after the release date.
If you've been left off
Start politely and directly: send the person responsible the details and the correct wording. Mistakes do happen. If your contract includes a credit clause, it may say how errors should be put right. Our practice contracts, for example, say an accidental miss isn't a breach, but should be corrected going forward where practical.
Build your own record
Keep a personal list of every project you've worked on, with your exact role, links and contact details. It helps when you're updating your website, applying for work or checking whether you've been credited and registered correctly. You'll be glad of it when someone asks what you've done in the last five years.
What to do next
Open a new sheet for your current project and fill in what you know today. Then ask one person who's missing to check their details. Five minutes now can save a long search later.
Disclaimer
General information, not professional advice. Every session and client is different, so adapt this to your own situation.