8.1 Explicit Releases

The marking of releases as explicit is governed by the Parental Advisory Label (“PAL”) Program, which strikes a balance between freedom of expression and informing consumers (and in, particular, parents) about the contents of releases. Full details are at: http://www.riaa.com/toolsforparents.php?content_selector=parental_ advisory.

For releases that are deemed explicit, please refer to your Aggregator to determine how you should indicate this to them when you supply the metadata. Most aggregators will have a checkbox option to consider a track explicit, which will then be displayed appropriately by Digital Merchants, who use different text, graphics, or symbols to indicate this status.

Do not include (in the track title) the term “Explicit” or similar. The Digital Merchant will apply appropriate marking in their system.

Do not include the terms “Clean” or “Non-explicit,” as these are prohibited by the PAL Program. If a version of a release has been prepared that does not require marking as explicit (by being edited or having a different vocal component), then it should carry the phrase “Edited Version” in the subtitle field.

Do not use the term “Radio Edit” for a version that has been edited so that it is not explicit. This term should be reserved for versions that have been specifically prepared for radio broadcast. The term to be used unless the version has been prepared for broadcast is “Edited Version.”

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CORRECT

INCORRECT

AlbumTitle: Boyz in the Hood Explicit: Yes

TrackTitle: Boyz in the Hood SubTitle: Edited Version

Boyz in the Hood (Parental Advisory) Boyz in the Hood (Explicit)
Boyz in the Hood (Clean)
Boyz in the Hood (Non-explicit)

DDEX: For details on entering explicit values into DDEX, refer to DDEX guide Section 4 Track Release Titles. For the avoidance of doubt, the use of the subtitle is not encouraged. Instead, the relevant flag should be set accordingly.