Cover Art

Releases with images related to drugs, violence, sex or containing obscene language and insults must have the “Parental Advisory” logo on them. If the cover art is extremely explicit (pornography, racism, violence trivialization or encouragement of the use of drugs) our QC team will ask to change the cover, since the content might be forbidden by the channels. If the cover image contains the logo of “Parental Advisory”, at least one track must be flagged as explicit. Variations of the “Parental Advisory” are allowed, including alternative logos like “Restricted”. The color or shape of it can be changed as long as it maintains the same formula.

Lyrics and Metadata

The “explicit lyrics” box must be checked at the track level when the title or the lyrics have explicit content - especially if they mention topics like sex, drugs, violence or contain obscene language or insults. If the explicit tracks are indicated, the album will be automatically flagged as explicit. If the album is flagged as explicit, the tracks with explicit content must be indicated. Unless the cover image is the only explicit content of the album (and the lyrics and the metadata are clean), the tracks should not be marked as explicit. Please keep in mind that instrumental songs cannot be explicit.

Self-censorship

Self-censorship is not permitted, neither on the cover nor in the metadata. Artist names, track titles, and album titles must be submitted in the original form that was intended. Explicit words are automatically censored in some channels, and would appear as: “f**k” or “s**t”. Do not insert asterisks in the titles yourself.

Hateful Speech

If content is extremely violent towards a minority or vulnerable group, our QC team reserves the right to block the implied users and take down all their content.

Nazi Content

Nazi references are forbidden. This kind of content will be banned in all circumstances and channels, as it is recognized as harmful by the BPjM (Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende medien) and prohibited by German authorities or as otherwise recognized by anti-Nazi laws in any applicable jurisdiction. A release can not contain any kind of offensive symbology to a specific group of people or ethnicities, such as Nazi symbolism. If the content includes the glorification of Nazism, our QC team reserves the right to remove and block the account (with the implications that this might have) and take down all the releases.

Stores are becoming more strict about the content that is allowed to be distributed to their platforms. Generic content is a term to describe content that might generally be considered not coming from a real artist. Here is a list of what our quality control team may check your release for:

1. Genres. Avoid expressions in artist names, albums or tracks titles that make explicit reference to genres, for example: “Rock”, “Pop”, “Trap”, “Reggaeton”, “Latin”, “Hip-hop”, “Lo-fi”, “Electronic,” etc.
2. Generic artists. Generic artist names such as “Chorus”, “Orchestra”, “Singer” or “Band” are not accepted under any circumstances.
3. Basic musical terms. Avoid the use of expressions that make reference to instruments (i.e.: “Guitar”, “Piano”, “Drums”, etc.), musical concepts, or structures (i.e.: “track”, “beat”, “song”, “base”, “album”, etc.).
4. Explicit functionalities. Avoid the use of expressions that reference explicit uses for music (i.e.: “Music for Sleeping”, “Music for Relaxation”, “Music for Yoga”, “Music for Workout”, “Music for Your Baby”, “Music for Focusing and Studying”, “Music for Your Dog”, etc.).
5. Artwork accuracy. When delivering artwork, please provide an original cover, and avoid using generic art templates. Cover art without information about the release on the cover may fall against our generic content guidelines.
6. Ringtones. Albums, artists, or track titles must not include any generic descriptive language for designating artists or titles, such as “Tone", “Alert Tone", "Text Tone", “Ringtone", “Ringtone Version", "Video Game", "Game Music", and so on.

We recommend avoiding this kind of content since it could be identified as fraud-related by our team with its corresponding consequences. Our quality control team reserves the right to disallow the distribution of content that falls under these categories through the platform.

In order to avoid being flagged for generic content, please make sure that your cover art represents you as an artist and the release you are releasing. Generally, picture-only tracks without any release information on the cover will be flagged as generic.

If you are flagged for generic content, we may ask you to confirm your personal and artist profiles on various social media and other streaming sites before we allow you to distribute more music.

In order to avoid being flagged for generic music, please make sure that your music avoids excessive repetition, does not exclusively contain noise, sound effects, or other non-musical content. While other distributors may allow this content, we do not.

If you are flagged for generic content, we may ask you to confirm your personal and artist profiles on various social media and other streaming sites before we allow you to distribute more music.