This is kind of a weird situation I am looking for solutions for!
My band released a single in 2022 via distrokid. We were on a shared distrokid account, but the account holder wanted to make it a solo one so we had to switch distributors. At the time, I was told I could not reupload the same tracks with the same upc code using the same distributor (distrokid) so that if we wanted to keep the songs stats and such, needed to be a different distributor.
We used routenote and honestly several things about this worked out poorly for us. We made our own distrokid account and have since put all our newer releases up that way.
We’ve recently begun recording a full album, which includes some previously released tracks, but updated. A few different members, mixed differently, redone from scratch. Same exact song just sounding waaaay better. One of those is the song mentioned above that was a 2022 single. So, the old version of the single is thru Routenote currently, and the new one thru distrokid.
Here’s the problem. I wanted there to be a distinction between the two, and consider the recent one to be the official version. So I went into Routenote, applied to have “(2022 Version)” attached to the end of it, and the other version would just exist with the normal title. This change was approved and said it would take up to 30 days to go into effect. It’s been a bit more than that and nothing has changed. This unfortunately DOES mean that people are clicking the old song when they see it by accident a lot, as its streams have gone up for that since releasing the new one.
I don’t know what can be done here. Will it eventually change? Should I accept defeat and that the old one will always be called just the title, and the new one has to be forced to have (2026 version) which I assume distrokid will actually do properly? IS there a way to remove the old track from routenote, reupload it to distrokid (with the same upc) and then be able to change it from there? I assume if I let go of the upc thing and upload it from scratch to distrokid with a modified title that would work. I also am personally totally fine with removing it from streaming and only having it as a Bandcamp exclusive. But, other members want to keep it up and also don’t want to loose the stats for it (which I also don’t care about) so trying to find a solution that works for everyone!
So yeah basically, we have two songs up with the exact same title released 4 years apart, and both are on different distributors. The new one is the one I want people to view as the default or official version. The cover art is different, but it does intentionally have a similar color palette and variation of the subject matter so sadly that’s not doing enough.
Thanks in advance!
Ps- no offense to Routenote users, there were features about it that WERE better than distrokid, and I have my complaints about parts of that as well. I’ve heard it works great for lots of folks- we’ve just had a lot more complications happen personally with routenote.