A number of prominent artists have suffered from ‘fake uploads’ to streaming services recently, including Beyoncé, Rihanna and SZA. Attention has focused on how these artists’ old recordings were uploaded to DSPs as ‘new’ albums under different artist names, with distributors under the microscope.

Now CD Baby has signed a deal that could help it spot infringing uploads before they make it onto streaming services. It’s working with Audible Magic to “identify content rights conflicts prior to delivery to a Digital Service Provider”. CD Baby will thus be comparing uploads from its clients against Audible Magic’s database of more than 30m files, to check for duplicates.

“We work closely with DSPs, and it’s often more of a conversation, not just rules laid down. The heart of the matter is not to restrict as we get them music and data, and to enable search and other discovery methods to help our artists. It’s a growing process,” said CD Baby director of digital operations MJ Woodis.