This Style Guide contains all the important title and artwork requirements for your release on the leading streaming and download platforms. It summarises the conditions of the various providers so that your release is accepted by all platforms and published there. If you deviate from these requirements with your album and track titles and your cover artwork, your release will be rejected and delayed. If you follow all the guidelines correctly, your release will go live even faster. We therefore ask you to follow the rules below to ensure a smooth release process.

We have separate Style Guides for classical releases, jazz releases, and single releases.

Album and track titles in supported languages must contain all language-specific accents and characters:

German album and track titles may not substitute umlauts like "ä", "ö", and "ü" with "ae", "oe", and "üe"." The same is true for the "ß", which cannot be substituted with "ss". Case sensitivity must always be observed!

Titles should neither be written in all caps nor in all lowercase. Case sensitivity of the language in question must always be observed and used.

For English titles, all words must begin with a capital letter. The following exceptions must be written in lower case:

Prepositions with four or fewer letters should be in lower case:

Unless the word is part of a verbal phrase or is used as another part of speech (such as an adverb, adjective, noun or verb).

This is also the case for intentionally misspelled words, such as: In da House, Kill ‘Em n’ Grill ‘Em, It’s fo’ Realz.

The first and last word of an English track title must always be capitalized. The first and last word in brackets of an English track title must also always be capitalised.

Please be aware that following words must also be capitalzed in English titles:

Exceptions are upper and lower case combinations with your artist name. They are unproblematic, but please bear in mind your artist name must match your cover art. Album and track titles, on the other hand, must always follow the rules mentioned above.

Formatting

Title formatting in a series should be consistent. Abbreviations for descriptors are necessary, the two most common being Part and Volume, which must be abbreviated with "Pt." and "Vol." Titles should be formatted as “Title, Vol. 1” and “Title, Pt. 1".

Example: Beep Beep, Pt. 2
Example: Lyrics to Go, Vol. 1

Numbering
Track titles should not contain any numbering referencing the order of the tracks in the album.

A version is the particular form of a track or release. Here's a link for a summary of our Versions: https://intercom.help/music-hub/en/articles/4791495-versions-explained

If you label your release as "Remastered" or "Radio Edit" your track titles must match the version as well.

Additions such as "Original Version", "Original Mix" etc. are not permitted. There must be no version listed in the track title. If it is the original version there is no need to select a version unless one of those listed applies.

If your release contains a live version, this must be selected with the version field. This will then automatically add the version which will be displayed after the title.

If the version includes time and place, it should be formatted as "Live at Place, Year/Date". This can be added by using a custom version.

In your release, you may also have to specify other roles, e.g. if there is more than one main artist. You also have to observe a few rules, which we will explain to you in the following.

Our goal is to distribute your music precisely and efficiently on the streaming and download platforms.

Each main artist must be entered in separate metadata fields in step 3 of the release process. The only exception is if you release your music as a so-called "Compound Artist" (e.g. "Simon & Garfunkel"). Compound artists are created when two artists release music together as a new group.

Here is an example of a correctly registered single by more than one artist:

On the tracklist page, under "Main Artists", you can select specific roles for additional artists to appear on track level. These roles are: "Main Artist", "Featuring", "Versus" and "With". They must not be entered directly in the title of the track, but must be selected separately.

Information on the author and publisher is not displayed directly at track level. Nevertheless, these details are important for the metadata. On Spotify, for example, you can see this information under "Show credits". For songs that are not purely instrumentals, the composer(s) and lyricist(s) must also be specified. For instrumentals, only the composer must be entered. In any case, it is important that you enter all the information about the release correctly.

Important: Recent changes to the policies of the streaming services mean that composers, lyricists, and songwriters must all be entered with their real name, unless their pseudonym is officially registered at a collecting society, e.g. GEMA.

Your cover artwork must also meet the requirements of the streaming and download platforms. Here we have also compared the specifications of the individual providers so that your artwork meets all the conditions. We highly recommend not using the same artwork for all releases.

The artwork must not be misleading in any way, e.g. it must not include an artist who does not appear on the album. Your artwork must be easily recognisable and must not be blurred, pixelated, uneven, misaligned or rotated, or have other quality problems.

Your artwork file must meet the following specifications:

* File format: JPG, JPEG, PNG

* Aspect ratio: square, minimum: 640 x 640 pixels, maximum: 15,000 x 15,000

* Color profile: RGB

* Maximum size: 50 mb

* Resolution: 72 dpi

If you would like to use text in your artwork, please note that only your artist name and the title of the track or album are included. Further text in the artwork is unfortunately not accepted by the platforms and can lead to your release being rejected. Therefore, album artwork must not contain internet addresses or logos. Also prohibited are additions such as "Reduced Price", "Low Price", "For Promo Use", etc.

In addition, your album artwork must not contain references to its physical form or packaging (e.g. CD or vinyl), the digital product, the various streaming and download services or any retailers.

Pornographic content on your album artwork is always prohibited. Any album artwork with national socialist symbols will be rejected immediately.
​

Please note that albums and tracks that do not meet the above requirements, will unfortunately be rejected. MusicHub has no influence on this process. Likewise, MusicHub cannot make any changes to your album artwork. Therefore, we ask you to follow the requirements of this style guide from the beginning to ensure a seamless release process.

All requirements are set by the streaming and download services. Any restrictions on artistic freedom are not determined by MusicHub. We do not wish to restrict anyone's artistic freedom, but we must adhere to the guidelines of the streaming and download platforms in order to successfully run our service and deliver your music to the platforms.

We thank you for your understanding and wish you all the best with your release.

Your MusicHub Team