Apple Music Style Guide 2.1.6
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9/28/2020 Apple Music Style Guide Apple Music Style Guide 2.1.6 “Print this Document” Introduction Style Standards and Guidelines Appendices What’s New in This Version? https://help.apple.com/itc/musicstyleguide/en.lproj/static.html 1/76 9/28/2020 Apple Music Style Guide Introduction Overview Music is an emotional experience, and for many of us, an obsession. Hearing the right song in the right moment can create memories that last a lifetime. For you, it’s the bridge that connects you with your fans. From the initial idea to the recording, mixing, and mastering process — it takes effort to get everything just right. That’s why Apple strives to present your music in its most authentic form. The Apple Music Style Guide helps you format music, art, and metadata to enhance the listener's experience and increase your discoverability. To ensure your content meets Apple Music and iTunes standards, our iTunes Quality Assurance team will review your content. Following these guidelines will make it less likely to receive a ticket and help your music get on Apple Music and iTunes more quickly. https://help.apple.com/itc/musicstyleguide/en.lproj/static.html 2/76 9/28/2020 Apple Music Style Guide Content Definitions https://help.apple.com/itc/musicstyleguide/en.lproj/static.html 3/76 9/28/2020 Apple Music Style Guide Term Definition Album A collection of tracks Composer A composer writes music for instruments to play Content A song, album, music video, or ringtone Featuring/With Special guest(s) with a significant contribution but not significant enough to warrant the “Primary” role. Note: The “Featuring” and “With” roles should only be used once per artist for each song/album (that is, an artist shouldn’t have the “Featuring” and “With” roles on the same song). Genre Category of music Lyricist Lyricists only write lyrics Music Video A video for a song Native Field The native language field for album or track metadata, such as a title or artist name Non-Performing Contributors that are not heard on content such as Producer, Remixer, Engineer/Master Engineer, Composer, Songwriter, and so on Original Release Date Date when the album, track, or music video was first released O.S.T. Original Soundtrack Parental Advisory Content may be inappropriate for children Performer Any artist, group, or instrumentalist that can be heard on an album, song, or music video Primary The main performing artist/band Ringtone A standalone audio recording to be used as a ringtone for iPhone https://help.apple.com/itc/musicstyleguide/en.lproj/static.html 4/76 9/28/2020 Apple Music Style Guide Term Definition Snippet Partial segments of songs that are meant to advertise the full-length content. Advertisement tracks are defined as full or partial songs that contain additional audio meant to advertise the album, individual songs, or other content. Soloist Artist or instrumentalist that performs a featured part of a song (that is, a solo) Song An audio recording Songwriter A songwriter can compose the music and/or lyrics Title The name of a song, album, music video, or ringtone as it appears on Apple Music and iTunes Title Version Used to differentiate from the original content title or to add information needed to identify the content. Examples: Live, Radio Edit, and Bonus Track Version Track A song or music video Track Audio Language The language of the vocals https://help.apple.com/itc/musicstyleguide/en.lproj/static.html 5/76 9/28/2020 Apple Music Style Guide Style Standards and Guidelines 1. Essentials General The most critical guidelines to consider when preparing your content for delivery are: Asset quality Artist accuracy and artist formatting Localizations and phonetics Clean or explicit classification The following kinds of content can lead to rejections: Public domain content Misleading content (sound-alike artists or performers) Content with legal or rights issues 1.1. Use of Apple Inc. Copyrighted Terms. Content that is not produced by Apple Inc. must not use Apple trademarks (including the Apple logo, Apple Inc., or Apple product names such as iPhone, Apple Music, or iTunes) in the cover art or metadata in a manner that makes the content appear to be Apple-branded. 1.2. Advertising. Metadata, audio, and cover art should not contain advertising. For example, metadata should not contain references to competitors of Apple Music or iTunes, nor to any URLs, logos, or dates for future product releases. Do not include search terms and keywords in metadata or cover art. 1.3. Editorial Corrections. Apple Music and iTunes reserve the right to correct any errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. https://help.apple.com/itc/musicstyleguide/en.lproj/static.html 6/76 9/28/2020 Apple Music Style Guide 1.4. Complete Albums and Tracks Required. All tracks that exist on the physical version must be delivered and the track count must match. For example, if the physical version of an album has ten tracks, and the version provided contains eight tracks, the album is incomplete. The album will be marked Partial and the Buy Album button will not be displayed on iTunes. 1.5. Track Count Limit. An album should not have more than 500 tracks. Language and Localizations Language-specific guidelines can be found in Europe, Russia, and Central Asia Language Guidelines and Asia-Pacific Language Guidelines sections of the guide. Here are some key considerations for languages and localization usage: 1.6. Metadata Language. To ensure that accents and capitalizations appear correctly on Apple Music and iTunes, the appropriate language must be set in the metadata at the album level. Language codes should match the language of the metadata, not the audio. 1.7. Track Audio Language. The appropriate audio language must be set in the metadata at the track level. Language code(s) should match the language spoken or sung in the audio. Nonlinguistic content must be flagged ‘zxx’. 1.8. Localizations. Localizations enhance the discoverability of your content. Provide Artist and Title metadata in the primary language you’ve chosen for your content. Accurate localizations can be provided for all languages you have available, unless you want the metadata to appear in the primary language in all territories. Here are two examples of localized metadata for Hebrew- and Arabic-language albums: https://help.apple.com/itc/musicstyleguide/en.lproj/static.html 7/76 9/28/2020 Apple Music Style Guide Field Name Hebrew English Merotz Hachaim מרוץ החיים Album Title Sarit Hadad שרית חדד Album Artist Hagoral Hatov הגוֹרל הטוב Track Title Sarit Hadad שרית חדד Track Artist Ahava Betochi אהבה בתיכי Track Title Sarit Hadad שרית חדד Track Artist Field Name Arabic English Album Title Ala Fain Ayman Maarouf ا وف Album Artist Habeebi Ergaali ار Track Title Ayman Maarouf ا وف Track Artist 1.9. Side-by-Side Translations. Do not use side-by-side translations in metadata. Use only one language in each entry or localization. 1.10. Emojis. Do not use emojis in titles, artist names, lyrics, or other metadata. Editorial Hides Unlike tickets, editorial hides cannot be fixed by a redelivery or metadata update. For the best possible customer experience, Apple Music and iTunes may hide content from the store for editorial reasons: 1.11. Curated Artist. Content will be hidden using the reason Curated Artist when Apple Music has curated an artist’s page and decided there are sufficient instances of a song or catalog available. https://help.apple.com/itc/musicstyleguide/en.lproj/static.html 8/76 9/28/2020 Apple Music Style Guide If delivering public domain content, send only a version created from the best available source. 1.12. Repeated Submissions. Content will be hidden using the reason Repeated Submissions if multiple copies of the same content and/or audio files are submitted with a slightly different title and/or artist. Do not send duplicate versions of the same content (such as the same album with a rearranged track list, or near-identical greatest hits albums). 1.13. Misleading. Content will be hidden using the reason Misleading if designed to mislead customers by mimicking popular content or search terms. This includes but is not limited to artist name, album, or song titles that are similar or identical to movie, musical theater, book, podcast, social media, studio, and TV show titles or characters. This also applies to the imagery, logos, and fonts associated with those pop culture franchises. Sound-alikes, cover versions, or tribute songs that sound very similar to the original, aren't accepted. Recordings that include a similar name, title, or image of a popular artist in the content title or cover art may be hidden for editorial reasons. This content may not violate copyright law, but it can cause customer confusion. 1.14. Cultural Sensitivities. Content will be hidden using the reason Refusal. It is your responsibility to be knowledgable about local regulations and cultural sensitivities. Content sold must be legal and appropriate for the country or region where the content is cleared. 1.15. Nazi Propaganda. Content will be hidden using the reason Refusal. Content must not depict Nazi symbolism as restricted by the Strafgesetzbuch section 86a if the content is cleared for sale in Germany (DE), Austria (AT), Switzerland (CH), or any other country or region that restricts Nazi propaganda. If content violating this rule is submitted, your entire catalog may be subject to suspension in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and any other applicable country or region. 1.16. Other Content Not Permitted. We can hide the following content using the reason Refusal: Subliminal content https://help.apple.com/itc/musicstyleguide/en.lproj/static.html 9/76 9/28/2020 Apple Music Style Guide Karaoke music videos and ringtones Karaoke tracks with lead vocals or vocal versions Ringtones delivered as tracks on music albums DJ Mix albums delivered as a single audio file Snippets and advertisement tracks 1.17.