Distribe - Music Distribution
THE OVERVIEW
Distribe was built to simplify the day-to-day complexity of digital music operations. Instead of splitting release handling, distribution review, analytics, and payouts across disconnected tools, the platform centralizes everything in a single role-aware workspace for teams and artists.
THE CHALLENGE
The main engineering challenge was keeping distribution and royalty operations reliable while processing messy third-party CSV formats and high-volume catalog data. We addressed this with background CSV processing, resilient field mapping fallbacks, explicit status tracking, and admin recovery tooling for unmatched transaction links.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Unified track and release distribution review into a single operational queue, improved analytics usefulness through automated CSV ingestion and caching flows, strengthened admin visibility with role-based controls and reconciliation tools, and streamlined royalty/payout operations for faster day-to-day financial workflows.
TECH STACK
METADATA
- RoleLead Developer
- Year2026
- PlatformWeb Platform
CORE FEATURES
Catalog and Release Management
Supports structured music catalog workflows for tracks and releases, including metadata, assets, and readiness checks before distribution.
Distribution Workflow Control
Combines track and release queues into one admin workflow with filters, status transitions (pending/approved/rejected/completed), and detailed review modals.
CSV-Driven Analytics Pipeline
Processes uploaded CSV reports in background jobs, tracks progress/status, and powers platform, country, revenue, and performance analytics views.
Royalties and Payout Operations
Provides earnings summaries, statement visibility, payout request flows, and balance updates so creators can track revenue and withdrawals clearly.
Role-Based Access and Admin Tools
Implements role-aware navigation and permissions (superadmin/admin/label owner/artist) plus admin utilities to reconcile transaction-user links using ISRC matching.
Production-Ready Media and API Stack
Uses a Next.js frontend with an Express + MongoDB backend, JWT auth, S3-backed media handling, and modular API routes for scalable operations.