I recently ran across this label Hush Sounds that puts out music by pseudonymous artists. All works associated with this label’s releases are credited to “Hush Sounds” in rights society databases. This entity has its own IPI number, so I can’t just use “unknown” or “anonymous” to credit the composer of these works; at the same time, certain editors will chew me out if I create a “Hush Sounds” artist for this purpose. Up until now I’ve been crediting the release artists as composers (since metadata found on these releases already does this), which experience tells me may not be the right thing to do. What should I do in this case?
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I think the writer credits found on for instance apple music, or rights societies, mainly refer to who should receive the royalties, rather than who actually composed the tracks.
I think there are three possible options:
-it’s dubious who composed them → don’t enter a composer credit
-we don’t know who composed them → [unknown]
-the composers deliberately operate anonymous → [anonymous]
I think the first option is the safest choice, unless you can find out some more info from the label (you might try to contact them?)
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