Playbook: establish an artist's streaming presence via CD Baby (Spotify/Apple/TikTok claim + cross-ref + analytics cadence)

[JoshuaVSherman]

Goal

Produce a repeatable, documented playbook for taking an artist from "nothing live" to a fully claimed, cross-referenced streaming presence via CD Baby — and a defined analytics review cadence. Written generically so it's a reusable offering; Josh & Maria Sherman is the first worked example.

Deliverable: a markdown playbook in docs/ (a step-by-step checklist), with each step clearly tagged MANUAL (artist-in-browser) vs ASSISTABLE (Claude can help draft/track). Josh has said he doesn't yet fully understand the manual steps — surfacing and explaining them is part of the work.

First instance — context (Josh & Maria)

• New artist identity going forward: "Josh & Maria Sherman" (fresh profiles, clean slate).
• Should cross-reference the two OLD identities on the existing (old) CD Baby account: "Josh Sherman Band" and "Josh Sherman Solo Acoustic."
• A pre-purchased CD Baby album credit already exists (distribution is pre-paid; artist name is NOT yet committed — it's set when the release is actually built).
• First album is in progress, not yet released.

The staged sequence (the playbook backbone)

Hard dependency: profiles can't be claimed until the album is distributed — Spotify/Apple auto-create the artist page only after music goes live. Only Step 1 is time-critical.

1. Distribution-time setup (CRITICAL, MANUAL). When building the release in CD Baby, declare "Josh & Maria Sherman" as a NEW artist — do NOT let CD Baby auto-attach it to the old "Josh Sherman" profiles. Getting this wrong is painful to unwind. Use the pre-paid album credit here.
2. Profiles appear (automatic, ~days after go-live). Spotify + Apple generate the new artist page on their own.
3. Claim the pages (MANUAL). Spotify for Artists + Apple Music for Artists — verify ownership to unlock bio/photo editing, listener analytics, and playlist pitching. TikTok: music auto-lands in the library, but set up a duo TikTok account for posting. ("/etc." platforms TBD.)
4. Cross-reference the old projects (ASSISTABLE drafting + MANUAL entry). Bio links + shared member/performer credits connecting Josh & Maria Sherman ↔ Josh Sherman Band / Solo Acoustic. (Note: true profile merging isn't possible; cross-referencing is via bios/credits/member links.)
5. Analytics review cadence (ASSISTABLE). Define how often to review the for-Artists dashboards and which metrics (streams, listeners, geography, playlist adds). Starting proposal: weekly for the first month post-release, then monthly.

Acceptance criteria

• A generic docs/ playbook covering Steps 1–5, each step tagged MANUAL vs ASSISTABLE with plain-language explanation of what the artist actually does.
• The Josh & Maria specifics captured as the first worked example (new identity + cross-ref to the two old identities + pre-paid credit note).
• The critical "declare NEW artist at distribution" warning called out prominently.
• A defined analytics review cadence with metrics.

Notes

• Most execution is blocked until the first album is distributed; Step 1 guidance should be ready before then so the launch uses the right identity.
• This is a real-world/admin task (artist-in-browser), not app code — assistance is drafting, checklisting, and tracking.