METADATA REQUIREMENTS 

Preface

The following important requirements for adding metadata to the DMB is binding and needs to be put into practice without any exception.

This guideline should help you avoid problems which could not be covered by the technical possibilities of the DMB.

Any confusion for the customer (no matter if it is meant or unmeant) will make your products unavailable!

Important: Please contact your label manager if you are unsure, whether you have entered all data in a correct way, before you deliver the product to any store. Otherwise you risk that the affected product will not released on its release date and a need for an elaborate post-process!

Album title

When formatting titles for albums that are part of a series, the information should be presented as follows:

• If you are planning an album as a continuing series, format the title as follows:                                                       

Series-Title: Album Title                                                 

For example: Top of the Clubs, Vol. 50

For example:

• 6x6: The Sixties
• 6x6: The Seventies
• Héroes de los 80: Pasto de Tiburones
• Héroes de los 80: Moviles
• Dreyfus Jazz Club: In the Mood of...Miles
• Dreyfus Jazz Club: In the Mood of...Coltrane

When formatting titles for albums that are part of a series that don't have a specific album name, the information should be presented as follows:

• Series Title: Artist Name

One-track-single album

The album title must match the track title including all information in parenthesis or brackets with the exception of the word “-Single”.

For example:

Album-title: Example
Version: Original Mix

Track-title: Example
Remix title: Original Mix

Track title

Track titles need to be unique! It’s not allowed to have more than one track named identically on    one album. The only exceptions are different versions of a track like Clean/Explicit or Remixes.

(But you need to give these versions a different ISRC!)

Do not use versions that are pointing to the 'Original version' to avoid redundancy:

·       ‘Album Version’ Might only be used if there is a difference between the ‘Album-'   and the 'Single-Version' of the track.

·       'Clean Version' You can declare this via the 'Explicit-Selection'

·       'Explicit Version' You can declare this via the 'Explicit-Selection'

·       Versions like 'Previously Unreleased' are always forbidden.

Bonus Content

In case you have bonus versions, these are the only official ways to name the albums:
• Bonus Track Version
• Deluxe Edition
• Extended Version
• Bonus Video Version
• Bonus Digital Booklet Version
• Audio Version (only allowed to use if the physical release is only available as CD+DVD Box)

Re-Recordings

The album title and each single track must contain one of the following versions:
• 'Re-Recorded Versions' (plural on album-level)
• 'Re-Recorded Version' (singular on track-level)
• 'Re-Recorded'


Artist names

•    Artist names like 'Die Atzen' are allowed as long as this is the officially known name for the artist(s).
•    It is not allowed to make former notations (like ‘(Guitarist)’).
•    Additionally, make sure that the artist’s name is always spelled in the same way!
•    Please list every contributor seperately
•    Please begin the names of the contributors with a capital letter
•    Please only list the Primary and Featured performing artists at the album level.
•    Additionally, only Classical albums and Musical Scores should contain composers at the album level.

Language specific requirements

English, Spanish and Portuguese album and track titles must be in title case format. All capitals must not be used.                        

The first letter of each word must be capitalized except for the articles, coordinating conjunctions and prepositions listed
below.                                                                                   

The words listed below must be lowercase with the following exceptions:

1. The first and last word in a title must be capitalized
2. The first and last word in parentheses must be capitalized
3. Words before and after -, /, or : must be capitalized

“The” must be capitalized when it is the start of an Artist's name
In all other cases, the following words must be lowercase for English:

• a
• an
• and
• for
• from
• of
• or
• the
• to
• in

Intentionally misspelled words must respect the same title casing rules.

For example:

• In da House
• Kill ‘Em n’ Grill ‘Em
• It’s fo’ Realz

The elements of hyphenated words must be capitalized except for a, an, and, for, from, of, or, the, to and in.

For example:

• Down-and-Out Blues
• Just Another Run-of-the-Mill Day

For Spanish and Portuguese, the following words must be lowercase:

• a
• al
• da
• das
• de
• del
• do
• e
• el
• en
• la
• las
• los
• o
• para
• por
• um
• uma
• un
• una
• y

For example:

• The Title of the Album
• Name of Song
• English Albums
• In the Still of the Night
• (You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman
• To Be, or Not to Be
• The One and Only
• God Willing & the Creek Don't Rise
• Some Kind of Trouble
• Love: And a Million Other Things
• Journey: Greatest Hits
• English Tracks
• I Need a Doctor
• Just the Way You Are
• Waiting for the End
• The Ballad of Mona Lisa
• Lost in a Pair of Eyes
• I Got The - Single
• The Love I’m Searching Fo

For titles in German, the capitalization and orthography according to the "New German Orthography” (the accepted, standardized way of writing in German) must be used.
Sentence casing must be used, and the first letter of every noun must be capitalized.

For example:

• Dies ist der Albumtitel
• German Albums
• Was ihr wollt
• So ist das Spiel
• German Tracks
• Ich tu dir Weh
• Dicke Mädchen haben schöne Namen

 

For titles in Swedish, French, and Italian, sentence casing must be used where only the first letter of the first word is capitalized;                                                                                                            the remaining words except proper nouns must be in all lower case. Proper nouns are the names of particular people, places, or things. The first letter of proper nouns must be capitalized:

• The title of the album
• Name of song
• Swedish, French and Italian Albums
• L’amour dans la rue
• Il mondo che vorrei
• C’è chi dice no
• Hoppa upp!
• För sent för edelweiss
• Swing de Paris
• Swedish, French and Italian Tracks
• Jonques de pêcheurs au crépuscule
• Les chants magnétiques
• Il mondo che vorrei
• E adesso che tocca a me
• Kärlek är ett brev skickat tusen gånger
• Sur les monts d'Auvergne

 

Abbreviations

Frequent abbreviations of the original title must not be used to provide additional information about the content.                     

The following abbreviations are acceptable:

• #
• &
• a.k.a. (To be used only in titles. Must not be used in artist names. In the majority of cases this creates a compound artist Critical Error.)
• DJ
• feat.
• No.
• Pt.
• Pts.
• TV
• vs.
• Vol.

The following case-specific abbreviations must not be used:

• Alt.
• Dj
• Ft.
• Feat.
• N.
• Rmx
• Tv
• tv
• V.
• Vl.
• Vs.
• v.
• w/
• w/o

 

Duplicated Albums

It is not allowed to have more than one album named identically. If there is more than one album online named identically, all albums will be taken down!