Music Release Metadata: How to Fill In Titles, Credits and Codes
Metadata is everything attached to your song: title, artist name, contributors, genre, language, year, rights holders and the codes stores and accounting use to recognize your track. When it is wrong or incomplete, stores reject the release, credits go to the wrong person or your song ends up on another artist's page. This guide walks through the most important fields in order, the same way they appear in the OGRECORDS™ release wizard.
Title and artist name: only what belongs there
The title field holds the name of the song and nothing else. Stores reject additions like "prod. by", "Official Audio", "Free Download" or emojis. A guest artist does not go in brackets after the title but in the featured artist field. The stores then add the "feat." in their own format. Version labels such as "Remix", "Acoustic" or "Live" are fine as long as the track really is that version.
Write titles in normal case, not all caps, unless the capitals are part of the actual name or an abbreviation. Make sure your artist name is spelled exactly the same on every release. One extra space or a different letter can be enough for a store to create a second artist page. And whatever is printed on the cover has to match the title and artist name in the metadata.
Credits: who wrote, performed and produced it
Every track needs at least one composer and one lyricist. Stores will not accept the release without both. Apple Music also requires credits for performance, meaning who sings or plays, and for production. With OGRECORDS™ you enter all of this per track in the Credits & Splits step.
Songwriters are entered under their legal names, first and last name as on their ID. Composition rights are matched through those names. Producers and engineers may use their artist names. Fill in the credits as completely as you can. They show up on the stores' credit pages and are often how other musicians find you.
℗ and ©: who owns what
The ℗ line names the owner of the sound recording, the master, together with the year of release, for example "℗ 2026 Your Name". If you release your music yourself, that is your artist name or the name of your label.
The © line names the rights holder of the release as a whole, mainly the artwork and accompanying text, also with a year. For self releases it is usually the same name as the ℗ line. With OGRECORDS™ the agreement is non-exclusive and you keep 100% of your masters, so the ℗ line carries your name, not ours.
Genre, language and explicit content
Choose a main genre that matches what listeners expect in that category, plus an optional second one. A wrong genre puts your song in lists and recommendations next to music that has nothing to do with yours. The obvious genre usually serves you better than an unusual one that hardly anyone browses.
Enter the language of the vocals and mark tracks with explicit lyrics as explicit. A missing flag can cause a store to send the release back. For each track and for the cover you also state whether and how much AI was involved. In the OGRECORDS™ wizard this is part of the process and should be answered honestly.
ISRC and UPC: the codes for recording and release
An ISRC identifies a single recording, a UPC identifies the whole release. Stores use these codes to assign streams and earnings to your song. One rule matters: a recording keeps its ISRC for good. If the same song later appears on an album, it uses the same ISRC there, not a new one. The glossary has more on the ISRC.
With OGRECORDS™ we assign ISRC and UPC automatically. If you already have an ISRC, for example because the song came out through another distributor, just enter it. Hyphens are removed automatically, so you can type it exactly as it appears on your old statement.
Splits and the final check before you submit
If several people worked on the song, you decide in the same step who gets which share of the earnings. You can add as many recipients as you need, per track or for the whole release. Invitations go out to your split partners once the release has been delivered. More on royalty splits.
In the last step the wizard reviews your details before the release goes to the stores. Take the time to read titles, names and credits once more. Anything that needs changing after delivery takes far longer than a typo you catch beforehand. The music distribution page shows the whole process.
Create your next release with OGRECORDS™ and work through the metadata step by step in the wizard.