If you want to control the order of artist names on your track or releases, then this article will explain what you need to know!
First & most important: Beatport and other DJ shops like TraxSource and Juno do NOT support artist name ordering. Learn more about how it works on Beatport here.
But for other platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube, here's how it works...
You can control the Headline Artists which appear at the top of the release page on Spotify & Apple Music. This is configured separately from each track.
You can ALSO configure the order of artist names on each track. These are configured separately from the Headline Artists.
Good to know: If you make a mistake, you can still fix the order of artist names after scheduling your release. Visit our help article here to learn more.
Headline Artists (Artists at the RELEASE level.)
Platforms like Spotify & Apple Music display artists at the top of the release, and give you the ability to control the order in which they appear. On Proton, you can edit this via the "Headline Artists" tool, found in the "Details & Settings" area at the bottom of your release page.
You can have up to 3 headline artists, in any order you like.
If an artist on the release is not set as a headline artist, then your release will only appear on Spotify under their "Appears On" section.
Headline Artists are set automatically by default, so you only need to configure this if you need help controlling the order of artist names, or need to add a Headline Artist (like a remixer) that was not included automatically.
Headline Artists • Really Important for Spotify!
Playlist Pitching on Spotify: Headline Artists are the only artists on a release who can pitch tracks to Spotify's curation team. For example, if you have an EP with several remixers, the remixers will NOT be able to pitch their track in Spotify for Artists unless they are added as a Headline Artist. For releases with more than 3 artists involved, we recommend checking out Streaming Singles to help solve this problem.
Artist Profile Pages on Spotify: When an artist appears on a release, but is NOT configured as a Headline Artist, then that release will NOT be prominently featured on the artist's profile/page on Spotify. Instead, the release will be featured in the "Appears On" area of the artist profile at the bottom. For releases with more than 3 artists involved, we recommend checking out Streaming Singles to help solve this problem.
Spotify Countdown: For releases with more than 1 Headline Artist, only the first listed Headline Artist will be able to enable/setup Spotify Countdown.
If you already scheduled a release and need to change this, learn how here.
Artist Name Order on Tracks
By default, artist names on tracks will appear in the automatic “Beatport Order”, which you can learn about here.
If you want to customize the order of the artist names on a track, start by going to the “Artist & Royalties” tab in the Track Editor, where you assign their roles and royalty percentages.
Hover over the artist you want to change, click the new “Artist Menu” icon, then select “Configure Order of Artist Names”, like this:
This will open a control window where you can configure the order of the artist names, like this:
Pro Tip: Wait until you’ve created all the tracks on your release, then you can save time by updating the artist names only once: we’ll update all the tracks for you automatically.