Fix Your Metadata Before You Submit Anywhere: A Pre-Submission Checklist
Editors, curators and radio hosts often see your release for the first time as a link, a title and a cover. If the artist name is inconsistent, a credit is missing or the cover is low resolution, the first impression is weaker than the music deserves. Metadata is dull, but you set it once and it travels with the release everywhere. Here is a checklist drawn from Spotify's published metadata guidance and the official ISRC site.
Names and spelling
Keep your artist name identical everywhere. Spotify's guidelines say to keep the spelling and formatting of artist names consistent from one release to the next, including any punctuation, abbreviations or acronyms.
List each artist separately. Spotify says to add the names of all the artists who contributed to the release and its tracks, with each name in its own field, and to consider the order you want them displayed in.
Do not put names or SEO terms in the wrong place. The guidelines say you should not include artists' names in track or release titles, and that artist names using SEO terms such as "Christmas Hits" or "Sleep Music" are not allowed.
Roles and credits
Set roles at both track and release level. Spotify says roles decide who is credited and how the music appears on each artist's profile. They should include performers and non-performers, with main artists, featured artists, remixers, composers, lyricists and producers as the key roles.
Fix credits at the source. Spotify's credits page explains that it shows credits from the metadata your label or distributor sends, and that to add or correct credits you ask them to resend the track's metadata, after which credits usually appear within seven days. That means a missing credit discovered on release day is not a quick fix, so check before.
Dates and availability
Choose a live date with room to pitch. Spotify recommends setting your live date at least seven days in the future so you have time to pitch an unreleased song to its editors. It also says it can take a few days for distributors to deliver new music, so allow for that.
Set the countries deliberately. The guidelines tell you to add the countries where you want the music available, or to set worldwide availability.
Mark explicit tracks as explicit. Spotify shows an E icon for these, and you should not add the label to the title yourself.
Artwork
Meet the cover art specification. Spotify's requirements: TIFF, PNG or JPG format with lossless encoding, the highest resolution available, between 640 and 10,000 pixels wide and tall, a 1:1 aspect ratio, and an sRGB colour space. It also says not to upscale images.
Recording identifiers
Understand your ISRC. The official ISRC site says each distinct recording should have its own unique ISRC, and that any new or materially changed recording needs a new one. It lists different versions with different playing times, and different mixes or edits, as examples of material changes. Practically, that means your radio edit and your album version may not share a code. Check with whoever assigns your codes, usually your distributor.
Before you send a pitch
Once the metadata is clean, do a last check on the thing you are actually sending:
- Open the link in a private window to confirm it works without logging in.
- Check that the title and artist name in the pitch match the platform listing exactly.
- Confirm the release date in the email matches the release date on the service.
- Keep a record of where the same release is listed, so you can supply a correct link on request.
Why this belongs in promotion
Pitching is about reducing friction for busy people. A consistent name, a correct credit and a sharp cover cost nothing at submission time and are expensive to fix afterwards. Once that is done, you can spend your attention on choosing the right targets and writing a clear message. For a route-by-route look at where to send a release, read Virtual Publicist's rundown of places to submit music.