For obvious reasons, you should use an artist/band name that doesn't already exist in streaming services. Having several artists with the same name just causes all kinds of confusion. Imagine if there were two Led Zeppelins, or two Dave Matthews (a common name no doubt).
But sometimes this can't be avoided. Here are the main questions people ask when there's another artist with the same name as them.
Will I get paid? Or will that guy with the same name as me get paid for my downloads?
You'll get paid for your downloads. Technologically, artist names are totally independent from earnings tracking. So you're all good and have nothing to worry about.
My albums are being listed alongside the other artists' albums. So it looks like we're the same person. Can you separate them?
Streaming services sometimes group artists together who have the same (or similar) names, or create a new artist page instead of using your existing page. We can help!
Please visit https://www.distrokid.com/fixer, where we'll walk you through getting things fixed up!
Ideally, if someone already has the name, you should come up with a different name. In the world of actors, for example, no two actors are allowed to have the same name as each other and both belong to SAG (the actors union). That's why Samuel L. Jackson is Samuel L. Jackson, and not Sam Jackson or Samuel Jackson -- those names were taken. If you want to look like a pro, suck it up and come up with a different name if yours is already taken.
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