Catalog Diligence Partners
CDP brings institutional rigor to music IP — so your catalog is ready for whatever comes next.
Engagements are scoped by review. The firm accepts a limited number of catalogs each quarter to preserve the depth its standards require.
Catalog Diligence Partners performs music catalog metadata audit work, royalty reconciliation, and music IP rights verification for artists, estates, publishers, labels, funds, and catalog buyers. Engagements cover ISRC registration and identifier coverage, PRO registration gaps, missing ISWCs, ownership splits, and chain of title documentation.
The firm's work is used in catalog due diligence, pre-sale preparation, and post-acquisition cleanup, where records must read consistently across DSPs, SoundExchange, neighboring rights societies, and rights databases. Two engagements are offered: the Catalog Snapshot and the Full Remediation Engagement. Metadata reconciliation and rights verification sit at the center of both.
Our work draws on the same identifier standards and registration frameworks maintained by the institutions that operate the global rights ecosystem, including CISAC, the IFPI ISRC handbook, The MLC, SoundExchange, and the U.S. Copyright Office.
— Who We Serve
01 / 04
Artists and Estates
A life's work sits inside systems that were never built to describe it accurately. We put the record in order so the catalog outlives everyone who remembers how it was made.
02 / 04
Attorneys and Advisors
Billable hours disappear into chasing identifiers and reconciling splits — work below your expertise. We carry it, and hand back documentation you can rely on in writing.
03 / 04
Buyers and Funds
You are pricing an asset whose underlying record you did not create. We tell you what you are actually acquiring before the number is fixed.
04 / 04
Publishers and Labels
Decades of transitions, catalogs, and systems leave a record that no longer agrees with itself. We reconcile it, and keep it defensible going forward.
— Premise
I.
There is money that never arrived. Recordings released without correct ISRCs, works never registered with a performing rights organization, compositions carrying no ISWC — each gap quietly diverts income that was earned and never routed to you. Nothing looks broken on a statement that simply omits what was never claimed.
II.
Deals stall, or close lower than they should. Buyers arrive with their own reviewers, find metadata that disagrees with itself across distributors, PROs, and platforms, and price that uncertainty into the offer — or walk. The discount is rarely about the music.
III.
You cannot prove what the catalog is worth. Without a clean chain of title and a verified platform identity, ownership becomes an assertion rather than a record — and an asset that cannot be evidenced cannot be underwritten, financed, or defended.
— Engagements
Catalog Snapshot
A focused review of up to 15 works. You'll know exactly where you stand.
Full Remediation Engagement
End-to-end review, cleanup, and documentation. Your catalog, institutionally ready.
— Methodology
CDP's methodology covers 150+ data points per work, cross-referenced across performing rights organizations, DSPs, and rights databases. Every engagement produces documentation built to withstand institutional scrutiny.
Our metadata and catalog operations are led by a professional with over 20 years of hands-on experience across Universal Music Group, BMG, Sony Music, ICE International Copyright Enterprise in Berlin, and 21st Century Fox — with deep expertise in ISRC generation, CISnet registration, legacy migration, cross-territory royalty validation, and global digital metadata quality control.
Our data infrastructure is architected by a former Director of Business Intelligence who led a team of 35 at a major energy corporation, scaled data integrations from fewer than 50 to over 260,000 monthly connections, and built a modern Databricks Lakehouse recognized by Databricks for AI-driven pipeline optimization.
Metadata & Registration Integrity
Cross-platform identifier reconciliation and registration gap identification across distributor, PRO, and reporting environments.
Rights & Ownership Alignment
Verification and normalization of publishing and master ownership records across relevant platforms and territories.
Industry Database Validation
Structured review of presence and accuracy across major industry tracking and reporting systems.
Risk & Discrepancy Documentation
Identification and cataloging of structural inconsistencies, unresolved conflicts, and documentation gaps.
Consolidated Deliverable
A single, structured master sheet prepared to institutional documentation standards for use in review, diligence, or internal reference.
Composite Condition Rating
A proprietary composite metric summarizing a catalog's structural condition across metadata integrity, identifier coverage, registration completeness, and cross-platform consistency — an at-a-glance benchmark for transaction and financing readiness.
— Process
Scope
Define catalog boundaries and engagement parameters.
Data Collection
Aggregate metadata, registrations, and revenue data.
Cross-System Review & Signal Validation
Identify inconsistencies across distributors, databases, and DSPs — and evaluate the downstream signals those inconsistencies are distorting.
Reconciliation
Align records to institutional standards.
Delivery
Consolidated audit-grade report with remediation guidance.
Sample Deliverable
Every engagement concludes with a comprehensive structural reconciliation report — documenting pre- and post-alignment conditions across all verified systems.
Structural Reconciliation Report
Catalog Diligence Partners
Structural Health — Pre / Post Alignment
— Position
We establish whether a catalog's record can withstand the scrutiny of the institutions that will review it.
We do not forecast valuation outcomes. We focus on structural clarity, documentation integrity, and transaction readiness. That distinction matters.
The firm is deliberately small. Engagements are accepted selectively, by review, so that each catalog receives the depth its documentation standard requires.
The firm performs structural reconciliation and documentation only. It does not provide publishing administration, royalty collection, or legal services.
— Engagement
Fixed-Scope Diagnostic Engagement
A fixed-scope diagnostic that evaluates structural integrity, identifier health, registration completeness, and cross-platform consistency. This engagement produces a clear assessment of catalog condition — no corrective work is performed in this phase.
Full engagement scopes are determined following the feasibility assessment. Scope, timeline, and investment are discussed directly during the initial consultation.
Each engagement is custom-scoped based on catalog size, structural complexity, and remediation depth. All terms are formally documented prior to commencement. The firm maintains strict scope discipline and does not expand engagements without written authorization.
This is institutional-grade work, and the firm engages accordingly. Catalogs are accepted by review, in limited number, and investment is addressed privately to reflect the technical depth, documentation standards, and compliance rigor required at this level.
Begin Feasibility Assessment— Clarifications
— Insights
Music Catalog Diligence
The structured review of metadata, rights, registrations, and identifiers that determines transaction readiness.
02MetadataMetadata Audit
Reviewing the accuracy and consistency of recording and composition data across platforms and rights systems.
03RightsRights Verification
Confirming who controls which rights, under which agreements, across territories and contractual layers.
04RoyaltiesRoyalty Leakage
Income delayed, misallocated, or uncollected due to structural issues in metadata, registrations, or rights records.
A working index of the diligence disciplines, identifier standards, and structural concepts that define our engagements.
External references: CISAC, IFPI ISRC Handbook, The MLC, SoundExchange, IFPI, Music Business Association, U.S. Copyright Office.