In this lesson you will learn: Genre, mood, and language fields used consistently. Explicit and version fields that match the audio. A practical approach to credits vs marketing copy. What you can change after release—and what hurts if you do.
Stores ingest a lot of metadata; not every field changes who hears your song, but sloppy fields hurt pitching, search, and fan trust. This lesson separates “must be perfect” from “nice to optimize” so you don’t thrash uploads at midnight.
Primary genre and any secondary genres your distributor sends—pick what you can defend in a pitch conversation.. Language of lyrics vs language of title (especially for cross-language releases).. Explicit/clean flags aligned with every version you post on short-form and radio.. Release title vs track title for multi-part drops (avoid confusing split releases).
Major metadata changes can reset editorial context in some systems—batch fixes with a plan, not one field per day.. Keep a changelog for your team when you re-deliver.
DSP editorial teams use internal tools; what you type in distributor forms maps to proprietary genre/mood taxonomies per store.. Spotify for Artists, Apple Music for Artists, and Amazon Music for Artists surface analytics and pitch products tied to your verified profile.. Music discovery blends editorial, algorithmic, and social signals—metadata is one input among many (saves, skips, context).