The five questions songwriters ask before signing up.

Content ID is opt-in. Only the platforms, labels, and aggregators that have onboarded it ship fingerprints at all — so anything posted outside that universe is invisible to it. It also relies on reference audio matching reference audio: a fan reupload with a pitch shift, a tempo nudge, a lyric-video remix, a podcast rip, or a Twitch VOD restream routinely slips past. Content ID misses most of the long tail by design. Riffwarden layers a continuous crawl and acoustic fingerprint swarm on top — we catch what Content ID never saw, then file the takedowns or claims those matches need.

When we confirm an unmatched or underpaid use, our PRO and DSP agents pull the match log, identify the publishing entity, draft a claim in the format each society accepts, and file through the right intake — ASCAP, BMI, SOCAN, or the equivalent in your territory. We track every filing through to disbursement, chase rejections, and roll every dollar back into a single dashboard row tied to the original track. Royalties never sit in a black box: you see the filing date, the status, and the moment the money cleared.

Three tiers today. Riffwarden Hobby is free and lets you test the swarm on a handful of tracks before committing. Riffwarden Pro is $89 per month and covers one primary songwriter or sole proprietor with a catalog up to 250 tracks — the same default you see on the home page. Riffwarden Label is for small labels and artist collectives: multi-artist access, scoped co-writer rows, higher track caps, and a small-label pricing conversation rather than a posted number. All three tier sit below traditional publisher commissions and never take a percentage of recovery. Your royalties stay your royalties. Full comparison on the pricing page.

Speed depends on what we are firing. Most matches are triaged within an hour of detection. High-confidence fingerprint hits on platforms with fast DMCA intake — YouTube, Twitch, SoundCloud — usually see a takedown or claim filed the same day. PRO and DSP recoveries move on their own clocks: a filed PRO claim typically clears in two to six weeks, and unmatched mechanical royalties through the MLC take sixty to ninety days. The dashboard tells you where each one sits at any moment.

Three uploads per track, and only what is real. A master file in WAV or AIFF — the actual recording, not a streaming rip — so the acoustic fingerprint is clean. A written agreement showing the composition split for any co-writers or samples, even when percentages are uneven. Optional but recommended: an ISRC for the recording and an ISWC for the composition if you have them, plus a clear note on composition-versus-master shares if you do not control both. We do not accept fabricated paperwork.