Metadata rules that stop rejections
The title, credit, genre, language, date and code rules Run's checks enforce, including the wording that fails outright and the wording a reviewer looks at.
Metadata is every piece of text that travels with your music: titles, artist credits, lyrics language, genre, track order, dates and codes. The stores read it literally and they do not tidy it up for you, so Run checks it the moment you submit.
The checks come in two strengths. A hard fail stops the release and sends it back to you with the reason written out. A flag lets the release carry on to review with a note attached, and a person decides. Everything below is one or the other.
Artist names and credits
Credit artists in the Artists section of the release, not in the title text.
- A release needs at least one main artist and at most 4. Beyond that, stores read the release as a compilation. The same artist cannot be credited twice on the same release or the same track.
- Writing “feat.”, “ft.” or “featuring” into a title is flagged. Credit the featured artist as a featured artist and the stores render the credit themselves.
- If an artist profile says it already has store pages, at least one page has to be connected before you can submit. See connecting store pages.
- If a connected store page is named something noticeably different from the artist name in Run, the release is flagged so a reviewer can confirm it is really that artist’s page. This is the check that stops a release landing on a stranger’s profile.
- Two profiles on your roster whose names differ only in spacing, case or accents are flagged too. Delivering under the second spelling splits the artist’s page on the stores.
- On anything other than a compilation, a track that credits none of the release’s main artists is flagged, because that is what a compilation looks like from the outside.
Titles
Write the title exactly as it should read on a store page, and nothing else. Store names, playlist names, chart claims, promotional lines and keywords added for search do not belong in a title, and a title that is not the name of the track does not ship.
| Instead of | Write | What happens |
|---|---|---|
Summer Nights (doubled and trailing spaces) | Summer Nights | Fails: spacing |
SUMMER NIGHTS | Summer Nights | Flagged: ALL CAPS, unless the name really is stylised |
Summer Nights (Official Audio) | Summer Nights | Fails: search-bait wording |
Sad piano type beat 2026 | The actual name of the track | Fails: search-bait wording |
Summer Nights (feat. Ana), Ana not credited | Summer Nights, Ana credited as featured | Flagged: credit the artist |
Summer Nights (Explicit) | Summer Nights, marked Explicit | Flagged: the badge comes from the flag |
Summer Nights (in the style of ...) | Nothing. Soundalikes are not accepted | Fails |
Summer Nights (AI cover) | Nothing. Voice clones are not accepted | Fails |
Also a hard fail: control characters in a title, and karaoke wording such as “karaoke”, “originally performed by” or “as made famous by”. Also flagged for a reviewer: “full album”, “high quality”, “HQ”, “lyric video”, “lyrics”, “tribute to”, and the ambiguous “AI version” or “AI remix” (those can be legitimate, so a person decides rather than the check). See what Run refuses and AI disclosure.
Explicit content
Every track carries one of three markings, and it has to match the recording.
| Marking | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Clean | A recording with no explicit content |
| Explicit | A recording that contains explicit content |
| Edited | A cleaned version of a recording that was explicit |
The marking is your call, but an inconsistent one gets bounced at the stores, so mismatches are flagged for review: explicit language in the title of a track marked Clean or Edited, a title that reads as a radio or clean edit on a track marked Explicit, and the word “Explicit” written into the title. Stores show the explicit badge from the marking, never from the text.
Language and genre
Every track needs its lyrics language, and there is a code for tracks with no words. A language code we do not recognise is flagged.
A primary genre is required on the release and on every track, and it has to come from the genre list in the wizard. A genre that is no longer in the list fails: open the release and pick it again.
Track order
Track numbers must run 1, 2, 3 and on, with no gaps and no duplicates. This is a hard fail, and it is usually the leftover of a deleted track.
Dates
- The release date is the day you want the release out. A date more than two years ahead is flagged for a second look.
- Imported drafts also carry an original release date, which is what tells the stores a re-delivered release is the same release. An original date later than the release date is a hard fail.
Barcodes and ISRCs
The barcode identifies the release and the ISRC identifies each recording. Enter your own or leave the field blank and Run assigns one.
- A barcode must be 12 or 13 digits. Anything else fails.
- An ISRC must be a valid code in the form CC-XXX-YY-NNNNN. Anything else fails.
- The same ISRC on two tracks of one release fails: every recording needs its own.
- A barcode already in use on another release anywhere in our catalog fails. Barcodes are never legitimately reused.
- An ISRC already in use by another account fails. An ISRC already used on one of your own releases is only flagged, because re-releasing the same recording (a single that later appears on the album) is normal practice and a reviewer confirms it is the same recording.
Findings never name anyone else’s release. See ISRCs and barcodes.
Duplicates
If you already have a release with the same title by the same artist, the new one is flagged so you can confirm it is not the same release submitted twice. Fixing anything on this page means reopening the release to a draft first: see editing and resubmitting.