How to fix a wrong or missing artist on a release
A wrong artist on a release can be fixed – but it depends on which role is involved.
Some fixes you can handle yourself in Artists Bez Labelu, for others you need to ask us. Below you will find an overview of what goes where and how to proceed.
The most common causes of the error
A wrong or missing artist on a release most often appears for one of three reasons: A typo or a mixed-up name when filling in the form, an incorrectly assigned role (for example a featured artist entered as a primary artist or vice versa), or a missing featuring that you forgot to add when creating the release. Each of these cases is fixed in a slightly different way.
What you can fix yourself and what we handle
| What is wrong | Who fixes it | How |
|---|---|---|
| Additional primary artist | You | In Artists, open the release or recording edit and correct the Additional primary artist field. Artists on the release and on the recordings are saved separately – so correct them everywhere the artist appears. Save the change and then send the release to distribution again: In the release detail, tick the platforms and click Distribute Selected. Saving alone will not show up on the platforms. |
| Featured artist (featuring) | You | Correct the Additional featuring artist field in the edit of the release and of the recordings where the artist appears. Then save the change and send the release to distribution again, just as with an additional primary artist. |
| Wrong Spotify URI or Apple Music ID of another artist | Us | The form will not overwrite an identifier that is already saved for an artist. Write to us with what needs to be corrected (see below), and we will make the correction for you. |
| Your Spotify URI or Apple Music ID (wrong link to the platform profile) | You | You can correct the identifiers of your platform profiles (Spotify URI, Apple Music ID) in your profile in Artists in the Platform identifiers section. Only change identifiers that are already filled in if you are certain – a wrong change would send your future releases to someone else's profile or to a new one. How to find the correct values is described in the article Spotify URI, Apple Music ID and Amazon Music ASIN. |
| Producer or remixer | You | You fill in both the producer and the remixer yourself when editing the recording. This article focuses primarily on artists – you will find details about the roles in the article All options for entering artists and their roles on a recording. |
| Performer (instrument, vocals and other specific roles) | You | These roles are in the recording form, in the Additional performer roles, Additional writing roles and Additional production roles blocks. They are not switched on by default – write to us to request extended credits. Once they are switched on, you fill them in yourself when editing the recording and send the release to distribution again. You will find all the available roles in the article All options for entering artists and their roles on a recording. |
Always state: The release title and its UPC/EAN, the title of the specific recording and its ISRC (if the change doesn't concern the release as a whole), the artist's name and exactly what the error is. The more precise the description, the faster we can deal with it without unnecessary follow-up questions.
The artist doesn't have profiles on the platforms yet
If the artist you want to add as an additional primary or featured artist doesn't yet have a profile on Spotify or Apple Music, write NEW instead of an identifier in the Spotify URI or Apple Music ID field – we will create a profile for them during distribution. Only use NEW if the profile really doesn't exist, and if there are several artists, keep the same order in all three fields. The whole procedure, including examples of how to fill in the form, is described in the article How to enter another artist who does not have profiles on the platforms yet.
Watch out for the primary artist
The primary artist (you) – i.e. the name under which the whole release primarily comes out – cannot be changed at all, not even before distribution. It corresponds to the artist name set in your account. If you need to change this name, you can do so in Profile → Change artist name; the conditions and consequences are described in the article Artist name: Why to decide on it in advance and when you can change it.
A metadata correction does not show up on the platforms immediately. It is not enough just to save the change – the release needs to be sent to distribution again. After that, bear in mind that the platforms roll out the update gradually – usually within a matter of days. Until everything has settled everywhere, things may look different on different platforms.