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The Library

Permissions

Collaboration access and ownership are separate concerns. This page documents the supported Observer role: a person who is part of the process but does not receive an automatically allocated ownership split.

The Observer Role

Section titled “The Observer Role”

Choose Observer (no splits) when someone needs to participate in the process without taking a cut of the track’s master, publishing, or writer allocations. Typical examples include managers, A&Rs, and trusted listeners.

The Observer option is available in the collaborator-role controls and is stored as the observer role for both the central roster and the track-specific collaborator record.

Split Behaviour

Section titled “Split Behaviour”

Observers do not participate in split allocation:

  • Their master, publishing, and writer split values are set to zero.
  • Split inputs are disabled while the Observer role is selected.
  • Changing a collaborator to Observer clears the visible split values.
  • Changing the role away from Observer re-enables the inputs, starting from zero.
  • Auto allocation excludes Observers, so adding one does not redistribute other collaborators’ splits.

In the collaborators view, an Observer has a muted role label and em dashes instead of numeric split values. This makes the no-splits boundary clear without hiding the person from the team.

Sharing Is Still Manual

Section titled “Sharing Is Still Manual”

Choosing Observer does not create a share, send a notification, or grant access by itself. If an Observer needs access to a track, use the normal sharing workflow and make the access decision deliberately.

This distinction matters: role describes split treatment, while sharing determines whether a person can access the shared work.

Tips

Section titled “Tips”
  • Use Observer for people who should be visible in the collaboration but should not receive an ownership allocation.
  • Confirm the required sharing scope before sending files; assigning the role alone does not share anything.
  • If a person’s rights change, change their role first and then set any appropriate splits through the normal collaborator workflow.
Section titled “Related”