Metadata Formatting

An important aspect of distributing music through UnitedMasters is the release information, known as metadata, that is submitted along with your audio and cover art. 

This information must be formatted in a specific manner in order to follow guidelines set out by digital streaming platforms, such as the Apple Music Style Guide. 

Apple Music/iTunes is respected as the industry standard when it comes to formatting metadata. They have been enforcing their style guide since the launch of iTunes, and keep it updated every year.

Apple will remove your music from the store until errors are fixed, so it is best practice to ensure you are submitting metadata to their guidelines to prevent your content from being proactively removed by Apple.

General Rules

• Please do not include quotations ( " " ) in any metadata field.
• Please do not include Emojis in any metadata field.
• Please do not use non-standard fonts or unnecessary punctuation.
• Please do not include names of artists that are not on the release or that you do not have permission to include on the release.

Release Title

• Please do not include EP in the release title.
• Please do not include artist names in the release title.
• Please do not include .mp3, .mp4, or .wav in the release title.
• Please do not include "single" in the release title.
• Please do not include "Clean Version" or "Radio Edit" in the release title of songs marked “Clean”.
• Descriptors like Part and Volume should be abbreviated with “Pt.” and “Vol.” Titles should be formatted as “Title, Vol. x” and “Title, Pt. x,” where X is a number.
• Please put “remix”, “deluxe”, “bonus” and other track information in parentheses ( ).
• Please don't censor track titles unless it is the “clean” version of the release. 
• Please do not include any artist information such as primary artist names, featured artists names, producer names, or any other extra information.
• Please do not enter release titles that have more than 255 characters (including spaces).

Track Title

• Please do not include artist names in the track title. 
• Please do not include .mp3, .mp4, or .wav in the track title.
• Please do not include “single” in the track title.
• Please do not include" Clean Version" or "Radio Edit" in track titles of songs marked “Clean”.
• Descriptors like Part and Volume should be abbreviated with “Pt.” and “Vol.” Titles should be formatted as “Title, Vol. x” and “Title, Pt. x,” where x is a number.
• Please put “remix”, “deluxe”, “bonus” and other track information in parentheses ( ).
• Please don't censor track titles unless it is the clean version of the release. 
• Please do not include any artist information such as primary artist names, featured artists names, producer names, or any other extra information.
• Please do not enter track titles that have more than 255 characters (including spaces).

Label 

Label traditionally refers to the record label which is distributing and marketing your content. If you operate your own label, you should enter the name of the label here. If you are effectively self-released, you should enter either your name or legal entity that controls the rights associated with your music. 

Ultimately, whoever owns the masters for the sound recordings should be entered into this field. UnitedMasters will also use this field to populate the copyright information for any submitted release.

• Please do not use existing label names, genres, popular song lyrics, or reference popular artist names in the label name field. 
• If you do not have a label name to enter in this field, please leave it blank and your artist name will automatically be filled in here.
• As UnitedMasters is not a record label, and does not control any rights, please avoid using UnitedMasters in the label field. 

Songwriter

• The songwriter field should only contain songwriter names. It should not contain roles or any other extra information (such as prod by, remixer, songwriter, pianist). 
• Please separate release credits (songwriter names) with a comma ( , ) or enter on separate lines.

Featured artist 

• Please do not put the primary artist name in the featured artist field.
• Please put a comma ( , ) between featured artist names, or enter on separate lines.
• If there are no featured artists on a track, please leave this field blank.

Producer

• The producer field should only contain producer names. It should not contain roles or any other extra information (such as prod by, “@”, "prod", remixer etc.). 
• Please put a comma ( , ) between producer names, or enter on separate lines.
• If there are no producers on a track, please leave this field blank.

Audio Type

• If the song has lyrics, please select “No, this track is not an instrumental”.
• If the song doesn’t have lyrics, please select “Yes, this track is an instrumental”.

Audio Content Rating

• Explicit means that the content contains explicit language or themes. 
• If your music contains explicit material, please mark your release as “explicit.”
• Clean means the content initially was explicit, but has been edited to remove or obscure the explicit content.
• If your release is a clean version of an explicit song, please mark your release as “clean.” 
• **You should only use "clean" if you also are releasing an "explicit" version.
• Not Explicit means that the content does not contain any explicit themes. 
• If your release is not-explicit and there is no explicit version, please mark your release as “not-explicit.”

It’s confusing, we know. You can thank the PMRC. 

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