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A catalog transfer moves releases that are already in stores to AMM Distro. Each release keeps its existing UPC and ISRCs, so stores treat it as the same release and keep its play counts, playlists and history. Releases in a transfer are grouped under a transfer ID you choose, and submitted together.

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What’s different from a new release

A transfer release must have:
  • transfer, naming the transfer it belongs to;
  • upc: the release’s existing UPC;
  • originalReleaseDate: the date it first came out (not in the future);
  • isrc on every track: each recording’s existing ISRC.
originalReleaseDate is when it first came out. releaseDate is when it should go live through AMM Distro.
Send each artist’s existing spotifyId and appleMusicId. Without them, a store may put the release on a new, empty artist profile instead of the artist’s existing one.

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Steps

1

Create the transfer (optional)

You can skip this: the transfer is created the first time a release names it.
2

Send each release

PUT /delivery/releases/{releaseId} with transfer.batch set to the transfer ID, as above.
3

Check progress

Run validate on each release to find what’s still missing.
4

Submit the transfer

Every release in the transfer is submitted at once. If any release isn’t ready, nothing is submitted and the response lists each release’s problems:
Once submitted, a transfer is closed. Send any further releases under a new transfer ID. Releases in a transfer can’t be submitted one by one.

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Timing the switch

Plan releaseDate so the release is live through AMM Distro before your previous distributor takes it down. Schedule the takedown at your previous distributor only once the releases are live here, so they’re never missing from stores. See the transfer checklist.

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Codes that belong to someone else

If a UPC or ISRC is already used by a release outside your account, the release is refused with 409 upc_in_use or 409 isrc_in_use. Contact your AMM Distro representative if the codes are yours.