Import Cleanup
Any time you create a new data import, IC may create new items from your transactional data. When this occurs, you will see a "Needs Cleanup" badge next to the import. Click the badge to use our Import Cleanup tool to help you assign these new items to the proper release or track.
The purpose of the Import Cleanup process is to guide you while approving or rejecting potential matches of items to releases and/or tracks. Items are grouped by the release or track they are matched to. The grey bar along the top is the item created from the metadata in the file you imported. The information in the outlined box below the grey bar is IC's suggested match.
Compare the item metadata in the grey bar to the potential match below. If the match looks correct, select the row, click the blue "Actions" button along the top menu and select "Assign to Match". This will move that item and the related transactions to the release and/ or track suggested.
If the item does not belong to the suggested match, select either "Assign to Release" or "Assign to Track" from the "Actions" menu. From there, you can assign the selected item(s) to the proper release or track by typing the name into the "Select" drop down bar. If the release or track the item(s) should be assigned to does not exist in IC yet, you can create either from the same menu by selecting the "Create New Release" button below the select menu.
Some item(s) do not generate suggested matches at all and are listed towards the bottom of the screen. These items can be assigned using the "Assign to Release" or "Assign to Track" options from the "Actions" menu. Follow the same instructions as detailed above.
In addition, multiple rows can be selected and actioned upon at the same time if needed. If an item is mistakenly assigned to an improper match, those items can always been reassigned via the Catalog Manager.
Import Process in Detail
When a new data import is created, IC looks up or creates
items for each unique set of metadata it finds in the import's transactional data. This includes artist name, release name, track name, catalog number, ISRC, and UPC.
Any new items that are created are then prepared for import cleanup. Each item goes through the following steps. At the end, IC generates its best guess to a potential match.
- Look up pre-existing track matches using ISRC, or artist and track name
- Look up new track matches using ISRC, or artist and track name via Spotify's API
- Look up pre-existing release matches using artist, release name, and catalog number
- Look up new release matches using artist and release name via Spotify's API