One of the most important pieces of metadata for an album or track is the Artist name. The Primary Artist that you submit for an album and track is used by the music stores to map content across their platforms. Therefore, it is imperative that when you submit a Primary Artist (Or any type of artist) that you are consistent with the spelling, capitalization across all content for that artist. Not adhering to this can cause serious problems with the stores mapping content to the correct artists.
Additional rules and guidelines for Artist names:
- The Artist name must not include any additional information, such as role, date, instrument, former band, website, tv show, contest etc.
- If there are four or more primary artists listed on the album, the album-level primary artist must be "Various Artists" or their language specific equivalent (ie: "Varios Artistas" for Spanish).
- "Various Artists" must never be used at the track level.
- Each artist field must only contain one artist name. Providing two or more artist names in the same artist name field is not allowed. If there is more than one Primary Artist, each artist must be listed individually (The only exception to this is artists who are generally listed together as a band (ie: "Simon & Garfunkel", "Hootie & The Blowfish").
- Never list individual members of a group or band as Primary Artists or Featuring Artists. These members can be submitted as additional contributors. For example, "John Lennon" would not be considered a Primary Artist or Featuring Artist for an album by "The Beatles" because he is a member of the band.
- The use of "...and Friends" in an Artist Name is not allowed. And the actual artists that "...and Friends" is implying should be submitted individually as Featured Artists or Additional Contributors. Learn more
- Generic Artist Names such as "Yoga", "Workout", "Meditation", "Baby", "Christmas", "Top Hits", "Chorus", "Orchestra", "Singer", etc are not allowed.
- Generic Artist Names that are simply a description of the underlying content is not allowed.
- Cast names for musicals or plays must be specific to a given show or production. When you do not have a specific artist name or are working with studio musicians, submit the production house, label name or studio as the Primary Artist.
- Artist names can never be URLs, website addresses, email addresses, etc.