Metadata displayed on DSPs must follow the casing conventions of the language in which it is written. These conventions apply to all public-facing metadata fields in Reprtoir, including Titles, Subtitles, Artist names, contributor roles, and Version Descriptors.

Metadata must never appear in full uppercase, full lowercase, or with arbitrary capitalization. Exceptions apply only to acronyms, initialisms, officially stylized names, or legally required branding.

Punctuation must follow standard linguistic rules. Decorative symbols, emojis, ASCII art, repeated punctuation, and typographic elements used for emphasis are not accepted unless they are part of an officially registered artist identity.

Below are the accepted casing rules for major languages used in music metadata.

English Title Casing

English titles use Title Case. The first letter of each major word must be capitalized.

The following words remain lowercase unless positioned at the beginning or end of the title:

a, an, and, as, but, for, from, nor, of, or, so, the, to, yet.

Prepositions of four letters or fewer remain lowercase:

at, by, for, from, in, into, of, off, on, onto, out, over, to, up, with.

These words must be capitalized when they act as part of a verb phrase or function as another part of speech.

Correct examples

In the Still of the Night
(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman
To Be, or Not to Be
Lost in a Pair of Eyes

Spanish and Portuguese Casing

Spanish and Portuguese titles follow the same rules as English Title Case, with required exceptions.

The following words remain lowercase unless they appear at the beginning or end of a title:

a, à, ao, aos, as, pra, ou, para, das, de, do, dos, e, pro, um, uma, nas, no, nos, o, os, às, da, pela, pelas, pelo, pelos, por, em, na.

Correct example

O Sol Nasce Outra Vez

French, Italian, and Swedish Casing

French, Italian, and Swedish titles follow sentence case.

Only the first word of the title is capitalized, along with proper nouns.

All other words remain lowercase.

Correct examples

Les nuits sans sommeil
För sent för edelweiss
Sur les monts d’Auvergne
Kärlek är ett brev skickat tusen gånger

German Casing

German titles use sentence case, but all nouns must be capitalized.

Correct examples

So ist das Spiel
Dicke Mädchen haben schöne Namen

Dutch Casing

Dutch titles follow sentence case.

Only the first word is capitalized, except for proper nouns.

Correct examples

Het huis aan het einde van de straat
Dansen in de regen

Danish Casing

Danish titles follow sentence case.

Only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.

Compound words remain lowercase except for nouns.

Correct examples

I morgen er der også en dag
Tid til at gå videre

Norwegian Casing

Norwegian titles (Bokmål and Nynorsk) follow sentence case with capitalization of proper nouns.

Correct examples

Alt jeg ser
Tilbake til start

Finnish Casing

Finnish titles follow sentence case.

Finnish rarely capitalizes anything except the first word and proper nouns.

Correct examples

Kaikki mitä rakastan
Yössä kulkevat

Japanese (Romanized) Casing

Romanized Japanese titles follow sentence case.

Particles such as no, ni, e, de, to, ya, kara, made remain lowercase and proper nouns maintain capitalization.

Correct examples

Kimi no na wa
Sakura saku michi

Korean (Romanized) Casing

Romanized Korean titles use sentence case.

Only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.

Particles and markers such as e, eseo, gwa, wa, ui remain lowercase

Correct examples

Neoui norae
Baram bureo on norae.

Chinese (Pinyin) Casing

Pinyin titles follow sentence case.

Only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.

Tone marks do not affect casing and must not be removed for SEO reasons unless DSP rules require otherwise.

Correct examples

Zài jiàn wǒ de péngyou
Hǎo xiǎng nǐ

Arabic (Transliterated) Casing

Arabic transliteration follows sentence case.

Short particles remain lowercase: al-, bi-, li-, wa-, fa-, fi-, ila, min, ‘an, ‘ala.

Correct examples

Al-hubb fi zaman al-harb
Fi qalbi ghina’