WHITEHOLE — Artist Onboarding

Version 1.0 · Effective 2026-08-17 · SAAAD LABS LLC d/b/a WHITEHOLE

Two lists. The first is what WHITEHOLE itself needs from you to open an artist account and put a release live. The second is the set of industry registrations every working artist should hold — with the order that saves you backtracking — because WHITEHOLE pays your recording money directly, but your songwriting money flows through the collecting societies, and only you can claim it there. Artist accounts are provisioned by WHITEHOLE; during the invite-only period the conversation starts at contact@saaadlabs.com.

1 · What your artist account requires

Who you are. Identity verification (real documents) and a tax form — W-9, or W-8BEN if you are outside the U.S. — before any payout. No tax form on file means U.S. backup withholding of 24% applies, so do this early.
The uploader agreement, signed. Non-exclusive: your masters stay yours, and your composition rights are not part of the deal at all. Acceptance is recorded with the exact version and a content hash — it is a real signature. During the invite beta, a short direct licence for the composition rides alongside it so your music can stream lawfully before the platform's blanket licences complete.
Recordings you own or control. The master, as audio (WAV preferred), plus artwork. If anyone else holds a share of the recording, you need their authority before it goes up.
The paper trail, per track. Who owns the recording (the ℗ line: owner and year); every songwriter with their share — shares must total exactly 100% — and their IPI numbers if they have them; the publisher, if there is one. This is not bureaucracy for its own sake: it is what routes the songwriter money to the right people when usage is reported.
Splits. How the recording's earnings divide among its payees, totaling exactly 100%. One artist keeping everything is a one-line split.
Identifiers. One recording, one ISRC, forever. If a track was ever released before, bring its existing ISRC — never mint a second one. New, never-released recordings are assigned identifiers (ISRC, and a UPC for the release) as part of onboarding.

Uploading and releasing costs nothing — WHITEHOLE has no pay-to-play, ever. What each side pays and earns is on the Account Types page.

2 · The accounts every working artist should hold

These are third-party registrations, not WHITEHOLE products, and this is orientation — not legal or financial advice. The order below exists because later steps use numbers the earlier steps issue.

1Join a performing rights organization (PRO)

ascap.com or bmi.com — pick one (SESAC and GMR are invitation-only). Your PRO collects performance royalties when your songs are played publicly. Performance money is paid in two halves — a writer share and a publisher share — which is why this step is two accounts, not one.

1.1The songwriter (writer) account

Join as a songwriter first. Membership issues your IPI number, the identifier the whole publishing world uses for you, and it is where you register your songs (your "works") — registration is what produces an ISWC for each composition. The writer share of performance royalties is paid to this account. Everything downstream goes easier with the IPI in hand, which is why this comes before all else.

1.2The publisher account

The publisher share is paid to a publisher — and if nobody publishes you, that is you. Self-published writers open a publisher account at the same PRO, under a publishing company name of their choosing; it gets its own IPI, and your works are registered naming it so the publisher half has somewhere to land. The exact rules and fees vary by PRO, and a writer who signs with a publisher or a publishing administrator later can skip this — but an unclaimed publisher share is money that waits, so decide on purpose rather than by default.

2Join The MLC

The Mechanical Licensing Collective — themlc.com — pays U.S. mechanical royalties from audio streaming and downloads, WHITEHOLE included. Membership is free. Register your works there (your PRO registration does not do this for you). One caution: if a publishing administrator already collects for you — TuneCore Publishing, Songtrust, a publisher — they handle the MLC side, and double-claiming creates conflicts instead of money. One route per song.

3Register with SoundExchange

soundexchange.com — free — pays digital performance royalties for the recording when it plays on non-interactive services (internet radio, satellite radio). That is a different stream from anything WHITEHOLE pays or the societies above collect, and it is unclaimable without the registration. Register as both featured artist and rights owner if you own your masters.

4Identifiers: bring or receive

Gather the ISRCs of anything you have released before — from your old distributor or the original releases. The code travels with the recording for life, and reusing it is what keeps your royalty history in one place. Never-released recordings get their codes during WHITEHOLE onboarding, so there is nothing to buy yourself.

5Tax and payout details

A completed Form W-9 (U.S. persons) or Form W-8BEN (outside the U.S.) — both straight from the IRS — and, when payouts open, somewhere to send the money. Without the tax form, 24% backup withholding applies to every payout — the single most avoidable loss on this page.

Why all of this exists

Every recording carries two copyrights: the recording (yours as the master owner — WHITEHOLE accrues and pays this side directly) and the composition (the song itself — WHITEHOLE reports its usage to The MLC and the PROs, and those societies pay the writers and publishers). WHITEHOLE never takes custody of your composition money; the registrations above are how you claim it. Registered, you collect from both sides of everything you make here. Unregistered, the composition side waits in accounts you have not opened.

3 · Not required

6Creator tools worth knowing

Nothing in this section is needed to release on WHITEHOLE, and none of these are WHITEHOLE products or affiliates — they are tools working artists use alongside the accounts above.

soundcredit.com — Sound Credit: credit and split-sheet management. Recording who wrote, played, and produced what — and who gets which share — at the session, while everyone agrees, is what makes the paper trail in section 1 painless later. Free account creation also issues a free automated ISNI — the international name identifier for music-industry individuals, one more number that keeps your credits unambiguously yours.
muso.ai — MUSO.AI: a verified credits profile and analytics across services. Useful for keeping your credits attributed to you everywhere your name appears.