About Album Titles

The album release title should be spelled correctly and match the cover art. Album release titles should not have extra information that is not necessary to identify the content. See the Capitalization, Casing, and Abbreviations section for capitalization standards. Artwork should accompany all release types.

The album release type (the same applies to a Single or an EP) should be communicated using the ReleaseType field within DDEX and not added to the release title (check with your preferred aggregator for clarification on ReleaseType entry). Some services will automatically concatenate “Single” or “EP” to the release title. Content owners should allow the Digital Merchant to concatenate tags as they deem necessary and should utilize individual tagging for their content where available.

Albums that have been remastered or reissued, should consider utilizing a subtitle tag where available. The Subtitle field within DDEX should be used to distinguish different versions and/or variants of the same release.

For example:

• AlbumTitle: The Dark Side of the Moon
• SubTitle: 40th Anniversary

Album Titles in Reprtoir

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2.1 Single & EP

In theory, a single or EP can contain 1-∞ sound recordings, which is up to the discretion and creative intent of the respective artists (and/or the rules that apply to the specific territory into which the Single/EP is to be released). For example, a single comprised of one original track accompanied by ten remixes of the original track. However, Digital Merchants have specific rules around ingestion that may conflict with the creative intent of the content owner. In these instances, it is advisable to communicate with your Digital Merchant on the best possible solution for content ingestion.

DDEX: For singles, EPs, and other such Releases, please use the AlbumTitles (potentially with a ReleaseType) as shown in the DDEX section 2 Album Titles.

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2.2 Albums in a series

Artistic intent should be maintained for album titles in a series. Where possible, formatting titles for albums that are part of a series is advised:

For example: "Series Title: Album Title"

• 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:

For example: "Series Title: Artist Name"

• RCA Country Legends: Charley Pride
• RCA 100 Años de Música: Marco Antonio Muñiz

DDEX: For details on how DDEX maintains this data, please refer to DDEX section 3 Albums in a Series.

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2.3 Complete and partial album releases

In general, all tracks are required. For the digital version of an album release, all tracks that exist on the physical version must be delivered digitally and the track numbering should match. DDEX provides guidelines on how to express the order of the tracks in a release. In the event that specific tracks are chosen to not be made available, please consult with your Digital Merchants on options to restrict access.

Complete album releases are required, and an album release is considered incomplete if it is missing tracks that are available on the physical version (in the same market). For example, if the physical version of an album has ten tracks and the version provided to Digital Merchants contains eight tracks, the album could be flagged as partial and may not be available for purchase in digital stores. Licensing issues in different territories can cause challenges with partial album releases, especially for soundtracks and compilations. In these cases, a partial album release may be available at the Digital Merchant store. Any differentiation in track listings between digital and physical release must be clarified by a differing UPC code.

DDEX: For in-depth DDEX information on Album Titles, please refer to DDEX guide section 2 Album Titles.