Recorded music might be the only type of product that one can release and distribute at global scale without being able to verify who the owners are. Unlike with film and TV, music data is much more fragmented and siloed across multiple sources, including but not limited to labels, publishers, performing rights organizations (PROs), and recording studios.

“The way many of these companies are trying to match and verify their data? Hundreds of emails,” says Dae Bogan, founder and CEO of TuneRegistry, a rights management platform for indie artists. “Many labels are still using old software and systems to manage their digital catalog, and their rights department is different from the one responsible for metadata, which is different from the one responsible for collecting royalties. There’s a lot of bureaucracy involved.”

On the corporate level, inaccuracy around ownership leaves billions of dollars on the table. Spotify has faced two copyright infringement lawsuits over the past three years, adding up to $1.75 billion, for allegedly failing to secure the necessary licenses for certain songs. An estimated $2.5 billion is currently sitting in pools of “black box” royalties, some of which are collected when streaming platforms are unable to identify who owns a song.

While who exactly is “responsible” for this problem remains an open debate, one indisputable fact is that artists and producers aren’t capturing as much ownership information during the creative process as they used to. Even the phrase “at the source” itself has diluted in meaning, as collaborators are increasingly recording verses in hotels or bedrooms while on tour on opposite hemispheres of the world, rather than together in the same studio.

“Producers need to take initiative in the studio from the beginning and say, ‘I think what I’ve added has X value to this project,’” says Deborah Mannis-Gardner, owner and president of DMG Clearances, which has handled global music rights clearances for clients like DJ Khaled and Eminem. “The problem is that once you have six to eight writers or producers on a track, everyone has their own opinion on what percentage everyone gets. I don’t think people are being intentionally combative, but it’s hard to get that many people on the same page.”

In addition, remote work norms often put indie artists at a disadvantage in contract negotiations. “If you’re an indie producer working with a major label and not everyone’s in the same room to sign a split sheet, you don’t have a lot of leverage,” adds DJ and artist manager Adam Golden, who manages emerging producer Yung Skrrt. “Labels will get the sound they want, regardless of whether the original producer is willing to cooperate with them.”

As a result, securing the proper credits for songs is often retroactive, even at the major-label level. Lawyer sources say that many major rap albums, including Drake’s Scorpion and Migos’ Culture II, are still securing the proper clearances weeks or even months after release.

The credits problem is also arguably a chicken-or-egg dilemma with respect to producers’ business models. Industry sources say that producers today can command four- to six-figure upfront checks per track. At those rates, producing even just three songs a month can already lead to substantial annual income, to the point where said producers might not necessarily be prioritizing proper credits or metadata.

That said, “if you’re getting an advance, you should also be getting a contract with details about how many points, mechanical royalties and other basics you’re getting on the backend off the song,” says Burn One. “If someone tells me they have an advance but no royalties, that’s telling me they didn’t get the proper deal in place.”