Artist and contributor metadata defines how creators are credited and how DSPs surface, index, and display your releases. Clean, accurate contributor data is essential for correct DSP attribution, playlist consideration, search visibility, and rights reporting.

Reprtoir separates all creator roles into dedicated fields. This structure ensures that each contributor is exported correctly according to DSP expectations and avoids formatting errors such as adding Featuring or Remix credits directly inside titles.

This page explains how to format all artist and contributor roles, how DSPs interpret them, and how to avoid the common mistakes that lead to delivery issues.

Main Artist

The Main Artist represents the primary performer(s) of the Track or Album. This field determines how DSPs index your releases and how they appear on artist profiles.

Key principles:

The Main Artist must be the primary credited performer. Do not include featured artists, remixers, producers, or songwriters in this field. If multiple artists are equally credited, list each one individually. Do not join names with "and" or "feat." or punctuation. Use one entry per artist.

Correct examples:

Main Artist: Billie Eilish
Main Artist: Drake
Main Artists: Eminem, Rihanna
Main Artists: Disclosure, Sam Smith

Incorrect examples:

Main Artist: Eminem & Rihanna
Main Artist: Drake feat. 21 Savage
Main Artist: DJ Mix by Oliver Heldens

DSP behavior: Most DSPs display Main Artists prominently, group releases under their profiles, and use this field to determine eligibility for charts and editorial placements.

Featured Artist

A Featured Artist is credited when they contribute a secondary performance to a Track — typically a verse, chorus, solo, or a prominent part of the recording. Featuring credits must never appear in the Title field.

Correct usage:

Add Featured Artists exclusively in the "Featured Artist" field. Do not insert "feat.", "featuring", or "ft." in Titles or Subtitles. DSPs usually auto-append featuring information to the display title.

Correct examples:

Title: Love Again
Featured Artist: Dua Lipa

Or:

Title: Summer Rain
Featured Artists: J Balvin, Rema

Incorrect examples:

Love Again (feat. Dua Lipa)
Love Again ft Dua Lipa
Love Again feat Dua Lipa & Rema

DSP behavior: Most DSPs display "feat." automatically using their internal formatting rules. Some display featured artists inline, others list them separately. Properly structured metadata ensures consistency.

Remixer

A Remixer is a contributor who reinterprets or reprocesses the original recording. Remixers must always be credited in the Remixer field, never inside the Title.

Correct format:

Title: Falling
Subtitle: Remix
Remixer: Kygo

Or:

Title: Falling
Subtitle: Kygo Remix
Remixer: Kygo

Either is accepted as long as it is consistent and stored correctly.

Incorrect examples:

Falling (Remix by Kygo)
Falling ft. Kygo Remix
Falling – Kygo Remix (incorrect use of punctuation)

DSP behavior: Most DSPs display remix information inline following their own formatting logic. The Remixer field ensures proper crediting and playlist indexing.

Producer

Producers, co-producers, and additional production credits must be stored exclusively in the Producer field.

Producers must never be added as Main Artists unless the producer is also performing as an artist.

Correct examples:

Main Artist: Beyoncé
Producer: Hit-Boy

Or:

Main Artists: Daft Punk
Producer: Daft Punk (producer-performer case)

Incorrect examples:

Main Artist: Hit-Boy (unless he is the performer)

DSP behavior: Some DSPs surface production credits publicly (Spotify, Apple Music), while others use them only for internal indexing.

Songwriters: Composer and Author

Reprtoir separates Composer and Author fields to match industry-standard publishing and rights-reporting requirements. The Composer is the creator of the musical composition, while the Author is the writer of the lyrics. This separation ensures accurate delivery to DSPs, proper credit display, and correct downstream reporting for publishers, CMOs, and royalty systems.

Correct examples:

Composer: Hans Zimmer
Author: Tim Rice

For a songwriter who writes both:

Composer: Taylor Swift
Author: Taylor Swift

Incorrect examples:

Putting writers in the Title
Putting all writers in the Composer field only

DSP behavior: DSPs combine Composer and Author metadata into their "Songwriter" or "Written by" sections depending on their internal model.

Performer Roles and Classical Contributors

For classical, jazz, and instrumental recordings, contributor roles must be precise. Reprtoir supports dedicated fields for:

Conductor
Orchestra
Ensemble
Soloists (instrument-specific roles)
Choir
Instrumentalists
Arranger

Correct examples:

Main Artist: Berliner Philharmoniker
Conductor: Herbert von Karajan
Soloist: Anne-Sophie Mutter

DSP behavior: Classical DSP sections rely heavily on precise contributor roles for search, work mapping, and catalog linking.

Band Names, Duos, and Groups

Band names must be entered exactly as officially stylized.

Correct examples:

Main Artist: Bring Me the Horizon
Main Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Main Artists: Simon & Garfunkel (duo name, not two separate artists)

Incorrect examples:

Main Artist: Simon, Garfunkel
Main Artist: Red hot chili peppers (wrong casing)

DSP behavior: Band names index artist pages and must match official stylization to avoid duplicate or mislinked profiles.

Non-Latin Artist Names

Non-Latin scripts (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Cyrillic, Thai, etc.) must be entered exactly as the artist officially uses them.

Romanized artist names must follow the language-specific casing rules.

Examples:

Main Artist: 宇多田ヒカル
Main Artist: BTS
Main Artist: Zhang Liangying
Main Artist: Seo Taiji

Incorrect:

Main Artist: ZHANG LIANGYING
Main Artist: Seo taiji

What Must Never Appear in Artist or Contributor Fields

The following must not be added under any circumstances:

Promotional information ("Official", "HD", "Exclusive")
DSP names ("Spotify Version", "YouTube Edit")
Release year or versioning ("2024 Version")
Roles that belong elsewhere ("feat.", "remix", "with")
URLs, social handles, emojis
Decorative typography or ASCII

Reason: DSPs reject these systematically or silently downgrade them.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Adding Featuring artists inside Titles
Adding Remix information inside Titles
Adding Producers as Main Artists
Adding Writers inside Titles
Using all caps for stylization
Adding marketing language inside contributor fields
Merging multiple artists into one field ("Artist1 & Artist2")

These mistakes are frequent sources of DSP rejections or metadata downgrades.

Summary

Artist and contributor metadata is central to how DSPs index, display, and categorize music. Clean separation of Main Artists, Featured Artists, With Artists, Remixers, Producers, and Classical contributors ensures that DSP ingestion works correctly and that releases appear cleanly across platforms.

Reprtoir's dedicated fields are designed to match DSP schemas. Using them properly guarantees consistent deliveries, accurate rights reporting, and clean editorial presentation across all delivery modes.