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Introduction
What the Record APIs do, and which one you need.
Record prepares musical works for registration. You send us a catalogue. We normalise it, validate it, tell you what is missing, and build the submission files that collection societies accept.
These docs cover the two public APIs.
Push works, writers, publishers and identifiers into Record. Write only.
Partner Metadata APIPull album covers and asset metadata as an approved reporting partner. Read only.
Which API do you need#
| You want to | Use | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Send your artists' catalogues to Record | Catalogue Ingest API | You write to us |
| Look up cover art and album data for a statement row | Partner Metadata API | You read from us |
The two APIs share one key system and one error format. A key carries scopes, so one credential can do both if we grant both.
What happens to a work#
You send the work
You post the title, the recording, the writers, the publishers and any identifiers you hold.
We normalise it
We canonicalise identifiers, split writer names that arrived in one cell, and remove text that is not data. The response reports every change. We never change your data silently.
We report gaps and errors
The response carries two reports. gaps lists what is missing. validation lists what is present but
wrong, such as an IPI that belongs to a different person.
You correct and send again
Send the work again with the same client_work_ref. That updates the work. It does not create a duplicate.
We always store works as you delivered them. Neither report blocks the write.
Before you start#
Read Share semantics first. It is the one page where a misunderstanding costs real money. Four different percentages in this domain look interchangeable. They are not.
The Glossary defines every identifier and abbreviation in these docs.