Metadata style guide

Most rejections come from metadata. Our QC follows the Apple Music Style Guide — the most detailed store rules, and a safe baseline for every other store. Section numbers below refer to that guide so you can check the original wording.

Short version: title exactly as on the artwork, versions in parentheses, one artist per field, featured artists as a role, credits on each track, the right language set — and nothing in a title that isn’t the title.

Titles

Capitalisation (§3.20–3.21). English titles use title case: capitalise the first and last word and every main word; keep short articles, conjunctions and prepositions lowercase (a, an, the, and, but, of, in, on) unless they start the title. Other languages follow their own rules — French, Italian and Scandinavian titles use sentence case, German capitalises nouns. ALL CAPS, all lowercase or random casing is not accepted, even if it’s the artist’s style.

Accents (§3.22). Use the correct characters for the language: Hôtel, Kärlek, Tiếng Việt. Don’t replace them with plain letters.

What doesn’t belong in a title (§1.2, §1.10, §3.1).

• Release dates, prices, “new”, “exclusive”, “limited edition”, “official”.
• Format or quality words: Explicit Version, Album Version, Original Mix, Dolby Atmos, Lossless, 24-bit.
• Producer names, store names, website addresses, hashtags or emoji.
• Generic titles like Track 1 or Instrumental — unless that really is the title.

Versions

Put version information in parentheses after the title, never in the artist field.

Version	Example
Live (§3.15)	Lung Lay (Live at Hoa Binh Theatre, 2026)
Remix (§2.9, §3.13)	Lung Lay (Kewtiie Remix) — the remixer gets the Remixer role
Edits and speed versions (§3.9)	(Radio Edit), (Extended), (Sped Up), (Slowed Down), (Acoustic)
Remastered (§3.11)	(2026 Remastered Version) — include the year
Re-recorded (§3.10)	(Rerecorded Version)
Soundtrack (§3.12)	(Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), (Original Score)

Release type (§3.3–3.4). Stores label releases automatically: 1–3 tracks each under 10 minutes is a Single; up to 6 tracks totalling 30 minutes or less is an EP. You don’t need to type “- Single” or “- EP”. Deluxe or bonus editions say so in the album title: (Deluxe Edition), (Bonus Track Version) (§3.5).

Artist names

• Spell every artist the same way on every release (§2.1). A different spelling, spacing or casing can split the artist into two profiles.
• One artist per field (§2.3). “Artist A & Artist B” as one name is rejected — add each as a separate primary artist.
• No extra information in the name (§2.1): no instruments, band affiliations, dates, translations or “official”.
• Featured artists (§2.13) get the Featuring (or With) role, not Primary. Stores then display Title (feat. Artist) automatically, so don’t type “feat.” into the title yourself.
• Various Artists (§2.7) is used only when an album has five or more primary artists, and then as the only album-level primary artist. Never at track level.
• Generic names that describe a mood or genre instead of an artist (Relaxing Piano, Workout Music) are not accepted.

Credits

Credits describe the recording, so they’re set on each track — the release carries label, UPC, P-line and C-line.

• Songwriting (§2.15): Composer (music), Lyricist (words) or Songwriter (both, or not split).
• Performers (§2.14): name the actual role — Lead Vocals, Guitar, Drums — not a generic “Performer”.
• Production (§2.16): Producer, Mixing Engineer, Mastering Engineer; for Dolby Atmos, Immersive Mixing Engineer.
• Samples and licensed parts (§2.19): a sampled artist gets the Sampled Artist role; a licensed verse or beat gets Licensed Verse / Licensed Beat, not Featuring.

Language

• Metadata language (§1.6) is the language the titles are written in, set on the release.
• Audio language (§1.7) is the language that is sung or spoken, set per track; instrumentals use “no linguistic content”.
• One language per field (§1.9) — no side-by-side translations such as Lung Lay / Sway. Provide translations as localisations instead (§1.8); for Vietnamese titles we can add an English localisation for stores that show it.

Explicit content

• Mark tracks with explicit lyrics or audio as Explicit (§6.1). Don’t write (Explicit) or (Dirty) in the title.
• Mark a track Clean only when an explicit version of it also exists (§6.2). Don’t write (Clean) or (Edited) in the title, and don’t add asterisks to words — stores handle censoring (§6.3).

Genre and release date

• Genre (§4.1–4.2): the first genre is the primary one and drives charts; pick the most specific genre that fits.
• Release date (§5.1): use the date the recording was first released. A remaster keeps the original date; a re-recording or remix gets its own.

Before you submit

• Title matches the artwork exactly, in the right case, with nothing extra.
• Versions in parentheses; remixers, featured artists and samples credited with their roles.
• Each artist spelled exactly as on their earlier releases, one per field.
• Credits added to every track.
• Metadata and audio language set; explicit tracks flagged.

See also Artwork requirements and Audio requirements.

Store rules change. Where this page and a store’s own guide differ, the store’s guide wins — we keep our QC in line with it.