Artist Account Locked, cannot request access. Apple Support has their hands tied, and Apple won't help.

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Artist Account Locked, cannot request access. Apple Support has their hands tied, and Apple won't help.

I created an artist account with Apple late summer of this year. Somehow during September just after I got approval to connect my artist account to my artist page, I could not sign into my account. No warning, no explanation. Originally, I went through the process to iforgotpassword, and changed my password. But even after THAT my account remained locked (see below screenshot).

Recently, I called apple support to try to figure out why the heck my account was locked and how to unlock it. The representative I had was super sweet and really tried to help me, but when she started the process to request an unlock, she ran into a wall with it and suggested I create a new account and try to go through the process I did get access to the artist page the first time.

I follow her suggestion and started over trying to claim my artist page with my new account and I receive the below email from Apple...

I'm super frustrated especially when it says, "it is being reviewed by the artist administrator" BECAUSE I AM THE ADMINISTRATOR. I am the artist, and it is just me as a solo indie artist. And I have never received an email with my other account about the request. And once again, I cannot do anything about it because I CANNOT SIGN IN to my LOCKED artist account.

What's even more frustrating is that I presented my issues to the privacy officer (because I believed my account might have been locked due to privacy or security reason) who only redirected me BACK to everything I had already tried to do, or links that REQUIRE me to sign in (like the Manage your data link)

What really gets me is I still get emails from Apple Music for Artists about stats for the week and whatnot. Just seeing that is torture. And the WHOLE reason why I wanted access to my Artist plage on Apple is so I could go in and update my genre since I create Symphonic Metal music, but when I started making music over a year ago I didn't know what genre I'd find myself in and went with "New Age" for my first song ever... And my Apple profile is STILL categorizing my music as "New Age". UGH. If ANYONE has anything that worked, please tell me. Otherwise, my next step is requesting my music Distributor to remove my music from Apple altogether... Thanks. *sigh*

Posted on Nov 18, 2025 11:38 AM

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Answer 1

Limnos

Level 10

427,343 points

Nov 18, 2025 7:33 PM in response to idyllic_nymph

Sorry I couldn't be of more help but for me the behind the scenes stuff of some of these services is something about which I know little. Since you now mention yet another service I would think they are your Apple Account administrators. I hadn't even heard of that service until you mentioned it in your post so I really have no idea where to start there. It may not be Apple with who you need to speak but Distrokid. You may have what is known as a managed account. That's like a business doing things at a professional business scale with Apple and part of that is getting a set of accounts which the business can then issue to employees and administer directly. If somebody posts on this forum that they cannot do X on their iPhone because the feature is disabled we tell them they have to contact the IT department at their company because they are the ones in control of the account. Apple can't do anything about it. So to me it is sounding like you really need to deal with Distrokid.

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Answer 2

Limnos

Level 10

427,343 points

Nov 18, 2025 12:01 PM in response to idyllic_nymph

Unfortunately this is simply a customer to customer support forum. We can help you with regular technical issues about turning on your iPhone or computer, within our experience, but we have no access to accounts or administration. In fact 99% of the questions we see have nothing to do with anything other than everyday user issues and few of us have any idea about the business interface side of Apple. So I recommend you contact Apple itself for assistance with this. I can't even tell you which department so contact Apple and hopefully they can direct you.

Refer to this page for Apple Support for different countries ➔

Choose your country or region - Official Apple Support

Select your country (if you do not see your country, also look for "other" in regions; e.g., "Other Africa"), then "Choose a product". Click the "show" item under each category for more selections. If you don't see one that handles your issue then keep experimenting with selections until you reach one that gets you a chat session or a telephone call and get the representative to redirect you.

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Answer 3

Limnos

Level 10

427,343 points

Nov 18, 2025 12:35 PM in response to idyllic_nymph

My reading of it (gleaned from other posts) is your account is one of a series set up by a business who then issues them to individuals in its employ. That's what the second message appears to say. I don't know if this is Apple, or whoever. I have seen it mentioned where somebody's employer had a bunch of accounts that were administered by the business and the employer's IT department is the administrator.

As for the first message, that is something I more typically see when somebody has had an account permanently locked because of account misuse, though it could just mean the account is simply locked and the person needs to contact Apple about getting it unlocked.

I have absolutely no idea how Apple does things with artists participating in Apple's Music program or how the above information may tie into this.

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Answer 4

Nov 18, 2025 12:16 PM in response to Limnos

Gosh I see, thanks anyways... Even when I go through that link it just brings me back into a loop where they redirect me to reset password, which I can't even do that at this point because of the account lock. I didn't even go crazy trying to sign in multiple times before... All I ever wanted was to just sign in at least ONCE so I can edit my profile :(

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Answer 5

Nov 19, 2025 5:29 PM in response to Limnos

Unfortunately, I looked into it and Distrokid has nothing to do with taking any ownership or holding any administrative role with this stuff. My locked artist account is the only admin and since it is locked and cannot be accessed, I can either try talking to support again and/or request Distrokid to remove my music from Apple. This but I'd rather remove it than not have any control over how my music is categorized and have it continued to reach the wrong audience. Thanks anyways. 🖤

[Edited by Moderator]

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Answer 6

Nov 18, 2025 1:23 PM in response to Limnos

So, I don't know if this might help, but when I started trying to gain access to my music profile on Apple I had to sign up for both Apple Music for Artists and an Apple Account to tie into that profile. I did a similar thing for Spotify and YouTube, and it basically differentiates your account to being an "artist" rather than a regular "user". When I go to sign in as an Artist, I go to the subdomain artists.apple.com, which has a very similar login interface to just log in to regular apple.com. Since I use the music distributor Distrokid to get all my music released to streaming platforms, I then went through a process to Request Artist Access to my artist profile Distrokid made while logged into the apple account I created. I had to provide proof that I was in fact the artist, signed into my Distrokid account while logged into Apple, and then shared other verifiable proof I am the artist, etc. And then had to wait. After about a week or so they confirmed my account and then that's when I started to receive emails about stats etc.

But then that's when issues started to arise too because after I went to try to sign in the first time, I couldn't. My usual password wasn't working, so I changed it. And then after I changed it and tried to sign in that's when I started receiving the "Your Account is Locked". And it really confused me, because the first time I got that error I selected to request an unlock. But never heard back from them after that. That was in September. I waited until November to try again and now it is just Locked with no other option.

And I cannot fathom a reason to explain why (if account is permanently locked due to misuse) because this account is SO new and I don't even use Apple products of any sort and have had no need to use an apple account other than to sign in and update my Artist profile. Like, I have no explanation that could explain any sort of account misuse. And I had already contacted Apple for an unlock and even THEY said they couldn't do anything about it. The only thing I can think of now is if Distrokid is responsible for my apple artist profile, if they are the "employer" so to speak from your example and my apple account that claimed my Artist page is the "admin". I also got the impression that the representative I spoke to had no prior experience when it came to Apple Music for Artists either so there's that consideration. I may need to dig some more as to who the heck I could even talk to at this point...

But I just hate the Apple makes it so freaking complicated to find the right people to talk to, either by phone or email. Because even with that Security dude, his replies felt so automatic and like he didn't even read or couldn't be bothered to read my thoughtfully written and thorough email only to reply with a short and polished reply that basically said "Go to this link and leave me alone". Gee, thanks dude, are you even getting paid to do anything meaningful whatsoever? I'm getting so much more care and concern from someone on a forum who could be spending their time elsewhere and not even getting paid to reply to me. (Honestly I have really appreciated that you are here trying to help me 😭 Sorry for the lengthy reply)

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