Every artist and contributor on your release needs to be entered in the correct role — Primary, Featured, or Contributor. Getting these roles right ensures your release displays correctly on Spotify, Apple Music, and other stores, and helps you avoid delays during review.

Quick summary

• Primary Artist is the main performing artist or act — required at the album and track level 
• Featured Artist is used for guest performers and must never be marked Primary 
• Contributors — performers like vocalists or instrumentalists, plus non-performing roles like songwriters, producers, and engineers — are credited at the track level but aren’t marked Primary 
• Artist names must be entered exactly as the artist is known, with no extra info like roles, instruments, geographic location, or dates added to the name field 
• Generic names (like “Yoga,” “Workout,” or a genre name or description) aren’t accepted as artist names 
• A duo, band, group, or collective with a shared name must be entered as that single act — not entering each member as an individual Primary or Featuring artist 
• Songwriter credits must use legal or registered names, since these are matched against PRO (performing rights organization) registrations 

Types of artist roles

Primary Artist: The main performing artist or act on the release. This is the artist name displayed most prominently on stores, and it's required at both the album and track level.

Featured Artist: A guest artist who appears on a track but isn't part of the main act. Featured artists get the Featuring role and are never marked Primary. A Featuring artist cannot also be Primary on the same release.

Contributor: Anyone who contributed to the recording in a non-performing capacity — songwriters, composers, producers, engineers, and similar roles. Contributors are credited on the release but aren't marked Primary unless they also perform on the track.

Performer credits: If someone plays an instrument or performs on a track without being the main artist — vocals, guitar, bass, drums, glockenspiel, and so on — credit them at the track level with their specific instrument or role. We encourage adding these credits whenever they apply. Performer credits are still Contributors, not Primary — the Primary Artist role is reserved for the release’s actual main artist, even when a contributor also performs on the track. 

Naming your artist correctly

• Use the artist's full, standard name or official act name, spelled consistently across your entire release.
• Don't add extra information to the artist name field — no roles, instruments, dates, former band names, location, or website URLs. That information belongs in other fields, not the name itself.

Avoid generic artist names

Your artist name needs to identify you — not a genre, activity, or general category of music. Names like “White Noise,” “Yoga,” “Workout,” “Meditation,” “Christmas,” “Top Hits,” “Chorus,” “Orchestra,” or “Singer” aren’t accepted, and neither are generic genre names used as an artist name, like “Rock,” “Hip Hop,” or “Smooth Jazz.” An artist name also shouldn’t function as a description of the music, like “LoFi Relaxing Coffeehouse Vibes,” “Background Lounge Chill Sounds,” “Study Music,” or “Acoustic Quiet Jazz.

Generic names also cover non-performing entities — you can’t use a record label, studio, genre, album description, organization or business name, venue, or event as your artist name.

If your project is built around one of these themes, make the name specific and distinct rather than generic.

If your submission uses a generic name, you’ll be asked to update it to something more specific before your release can go live. Approval is up to the discretion of our review team, based on our current guidelines and our partners’ requirements. This means that even if a generic artist name was approved on a past release, it may not be approved going forward — our partners’ requirements evolve over time, and our guidelines are regularly reviewed and updated to stay in alignment.

One act, one Primary Artist entry

If a group of artists performs and releases music together under a shared name — a duo, band, or collective — that shared name is the Primary Artist. Examples include acts like Simon & Garfunkel, Brooks & Dunn, or Katrina & The Waves, which are entered as a single Primary Artist rather than split apart.

This also means you can’t list the group name and its individual members as separate Primary Artists on the same release. For example, a release can be credited to "Simon & Garfunkel," but it cannot also separately credit "Paul Simon" and "Art Garfunkel" as additional Primary Artists on that same release. If the individual members truly perform and release as solo artists in their own right, that's a separate release credited to them individually — not an additional set of Primary Artist entries stacked onto the group release.

Similarly, don't list both the main artist and their backing band, or the individual members of a group, as separate credits. If a name is only ever used as a group (not as individual, standalone artists), keep it as one group name.

When to use "Various Artists"

If a release has five or more different Primary Artists across its tracks (common on compilations), the album-level Primary Artist should be listed as Various Artists, with each track crediting its own individual Primary Artist. "Various Artists" should never be used as a track-level artist, and it shouldn't be used for singles or releases with only one artist.

Crediting featured artists

If a guest artist appears on a track, credit them with the Featuring role — not Primary. If that same featured artist appears on every track of the release, they should also be added at the album level in the Featuring role.

Crediting other contributors

Non-performing contributors — songwriters, producers, engineers, and similar roles — should be credited in the appropriate role rather than as Primary or Featured artists. The Primary Artist role belongs only to the release’s actual main artist, even when a contributor performs on the track.

Songwriter and composer credit work a little differently from producer and engineer credit. Enter your Songwriter credit for anyone who wrote the words or music — that entry is what’s used to generate the composer credit shown on stores, so there’s no separate composer field to fill in. Producer and engineer credits, on the other hand, are entered and displayed as their own distinct roles.

Unlike your Primary or Featured artist name, which can be a stage name or nickname, songwriter credits should use the writer’s legal name or a registered pseudonym. PROs (performing rights organizations) track and pay songwriting royalties based on the legal or registered name tied to your PRO account, and a mismatch between your songwriter credit and your PRO registration can cause royalties to go unmatched or unpaid. A pseudonym can only stand in for a legal name if it’s registered with the writer’s PRO and has its own IPI number — an unregistered pseudonym won’t reliably match to PRO royalty data.

Frequently asked questions

Can I list my duo as "Simon & Garfunkel" and also add "Paul Simon" and "Art Garfunkel" as Primary Artists on the same release? No. If the release is credited to the duo, the duo name is the single Primary Artist. Individual members can't also be listed as separate Primary Artists on that same release.

My band has multiple members — do I need to list them individually too? No. If you release music under your band or group name, list only the group name as the Primary Artist. Individual members shouldn't be listed as separate credits alongside the group. You can use Performer credits to note band members and their instruments or contributions to track. For example, use the ‘Guitar’ credit and enter your guitarist’s name. 

How do I credit someone who's featured on just one track? Add them with the Featuring role at the track level only.

Can I use a nickname or stage name as my artist name? Yes — your Primary or Featured artist name can be a stage name or nickname, as long as you use it consistently across your entire release. Songwriter credits are the exception: those must use legal names so they can be matched to PRO registrations for royalty purposes, unless you’ve registered your pseudonym with your PRO. 

Can I name my project after a genre or general theme, like "Meditation" or "Workout"? Not as the artist name itself. Generic names and genre names aren't accepted — make the name specific and creative instead of descriptive, such as "Iron Pulse Workout Mix" becoming "Iron Pulse" and you can title your album "Workout Mixes”.

What if my release has songs by five or more different artists? Credit the album-level Primary Artist as "Various Artists," and list each track's actual performing artist at the track level.

Where do I credit my producer, songwriter, or remixer? Use the dedicated role fields when submitting your release — Producer and Engineer are their own separate roles. For songwriters, use the Songwriter role; that credit is also what generates the composer credit shown on stores, so you don’t need to enter composer separately. For remixes, credit the original artist as Primary and give the remixer their own Remixer role — the remixer shouldn’t be entered as the Primary artist in place of the original artist. None of these contributors should be entered as Primary or Featured artists unless they’re also the actual main artist on the track.