Music Release Metadata: What Should Be Included

Release metadata is the information a platform uses to understand, index, and pay for a release. It is the most important part of a release, and it is the part most often skipped.

The metadata fields that matter: the exact title, the exact artist name, the featured artists in the correct order, the genre, the track number, the disc number, the length, the copyright year, the ISRC codes for each track, and the UPC for the product.

Every value should be consistent across every platform. A track called 'Lil Indian' should appear the same way on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and JioSaavn. A featured artist should always be in the same position.

The most common metadata errors are wrong spelling, missing featured artists, inconsistent genre, and missing ISRC codes. Each of these can be fixed before release with a short pre-ship check.

The best way to avoid metadata errors is a pre-ship metadata check. It takes minutes, and it prevents the corrections that would take months to reverse.