# Catalogue import
Source: https://docs.aden.space/docs/help/make-music/org-catalog-import

Labels, publishers and management companies bring their whole roster and back catalogue into Aden from a Spotify playlist or a spreadsheet. A team per artist, their tracks, releases and mixes, their contracts, and an invite so each artist can claim their workspace.
{/* Generated by `bun docs:publish` from docs/features/org-catalog-import.md: edit the spec, not this file. */}

## What it is [#what-it-is]

If you run a label, a publishing house or a management company, your catalogue
already exists: it is just spread across a Spotify playlist, a distributor
export, a folder of signed PDFs and a spreadsheet someone keeps updating. The
catalogue importer brings all of it into Aden in one go.

One artist becomes one Aden team linked to your organisation. Their tracks,
releases and mixes land inside that team. You can attach the contract you
signed with them, and invite them by email so they can claim the workspace
from that point on royalty statements, splits and reporting happen in Aden
instead of over email.

Nothing is created until you have seen a dry run. The importer always shows you
which artists are new, which already exist in Aden, and how many tracks each
one brings, before you commit. Sorting a decade of releases is not a
five-minute job, so your progress is kept in the browser: close the tab, come
back tomorrow, carry on where you stopped.

## Using it [#using-it]

### Starting from your Spotify playlist [#starting-from-your-spotify-playlist]

Most labels already keep one public playlist with everything they have ever
released. That playlist is usually the cleanest catalogue you own. It has the
ISRC, the album and the release date on every track.

1. In Spotify, open the playlist → **⋯ → Share → Copy link to playlist**. The
   playlist has to be **public**: Aden reads it as an anonymous listener.
2. Go to your organisation's **Import catalogue** page (`/org/[orgId]/import`)
   you need to be an owner or admin of the org.
3. Paste the link and press **Read playlist**. Aden pulls artist, title, ISRC,
   album, release date and duration for every track (up to 2000), then hands
   you the same match → review → import steps a spreadsheet gets.

Spotify does not carry email addresses, so artists imported this way have no
invite address. Add the emails later from a spreadsheet import, or invite each
artist from their team page.

### Starting from a spreadsheet [#starting-from-a-spreadsheet]

1. On the same page, drop in a CSV. One row per track: artist, title, ISRC,
   album, release date, label. Exports from your distributor or your PRO work
   as-is. If you would rather start clean, download the template and paste your
   data into it.
2. **Match your columns.** Aden guesses each one from its header. Anything
   marked with a sparkle is a guess you can change or reject. If your file
   covers a single artist and has no artist column, type the artist's name once
   and every row lands under them.

### Reviewing before anything is created [#reviewing-before-anything-is-created]

The review step shows counts (new teams, matched teams, tracks, releases,
playlists) and a row per artist. Per artist you can:

* **Untick them** to leave them out of this run. Useful when a playlist mixes
  in tracks you do not control. Excluded artists appear as chips you can click
  to bring back.
* **Choose where they land**: "Create a new team", or an existing team in your
  organisation when the name in the file does not quite match the one in Aden.

Three switches change the whole run:

* *Create a team for new artists*: off means artists with no matching team are
  left out entirely.
* *Skip what is already in Aden*: tracks matched by ISRC or title are left
  alone instead of imported twice. Leave this on if you might re-run the file.
* *Invite the artists by email*: every artist with an email address gets an
  invite to claim their team.

Then **Import**. You land on a summary with what was created, what failed and
why. Fix the failing rows and import again. Everything already in Aden is
skipped the second time.

### Leaving and coming back [#leaving-and-coming-back]

Everything above: the loaded catalogue, your column matches, which artists you
excluded and where you sent them. Is saved in your browser as you work. Come
back to the page and you get a **Pick up where you left off** banner with
Continue or Start over. Very large catalogues are the one exception: your
matches and per-artist choices still come back, but the rows themselves have to
be loaded again (the page tells you when that happens).

### What lands where [#what-lands-where]

* An **artist** becomes a team named after them, linked to your organisation
  and visible on your Teams page. You are not added as a member of that team
  it is the artist's workspace.
* A **track** with a release date is created as released; without one it starts
  as an idea. Importing a released back catalogue never emails anyone's fans or
  triggers release automations.
* An **album column** groups that artist's tracks into a release, in file order.
* A **playlist column** builds a playlist or mix for that artist from the same
  rows: useful for DJ sets and compilations.

### Bringing in the contracts [#bringing-in-the-contracts]

On the **Contracts** tab, upload each signed agreement and attach it to the
artist's team. Aden reads the PDF and pre-fills the title and the start/end
dates for you to confirm. With the contract in place, the deal, its term and
its renewal live next to the music it covers.

### Inviting the artists on a playlist [#inviting-the-artists-on-a-playlist]

The **Artists** tab flips the playlist read around: instead of tracks, it
lists every artist credited on the playlist, with their Spotify picture,
follower count and how many tracks they appear on. Spotify shares no email
addresses, so you type each artist's contact email, then send the invites in
one click. Every invited artist gets a team (matched by name or created), the
link to your organisation, and their Spotify profile already attached, so
signing up is mostly done before they open the email. Artists who already have
a pending invite or an Aden account are flagged instead of re-invited.

### Royalty statements [#royalty-statements]

The **Royalty statements** tab points at the statement importer. Import your
catalogue first, statement lines match tracks by ISRC, then bring in the
statements you receive from distributors, PROs and publishers. Aden remembers
each source's column layout, so the second statement from the same distributor
takes one click.

### Letting an AI assistant do the sorting [#letting-an-ai-assistant-do-the-sorting]

If your catalogue is a pile of contracts and folders rather than one clean
playlist or spreadsheet, the **AI assistant** tab walks you through connecting
Aden to ChatGPT or Claude as a connector, and gives you a prompt to paste. The
assistant reads your paperwork, structures it, shows you a dry run, and imports
only after you approve. An assistant can never email your artists on its own
invites it creates are saved as drafts on your Invites page for you to send.