Notes Release Checklist

Lossless, 16- or 24-bit, two channels, 44.1 kHz or above. Every platform re-encodes your master into its own formats, and that encode should start from everything you recorded rather than from a file that already threw part of it away.

Mono audio fails validation outright — stereo is a hard requirement, not a preference. Leaving a little headroom keeps the re-encode from clipping, and a lossy source can't be un-lost: replacing it after release means a takedown and a redelivery.

3000 × 3000 is the size that clears every platform's bar at once — it's Apple's recommended size, and square RGB at 24 bits per pixel is what the rest expect. Don't upscale a smaller image to reach it. Web addresses and social handles read as promotional content and get rejected.

Rejected artwork holds up the whole release, and a rejection close to your date usually means moving the date.

The three categories are Performer, Composition & Lyrics, and Production & Engineering. One person can cover all three — a solo artist who wrote, played and produced the track fills every category alone — but no category can sit empty.

An empty category is a validation failure. It's also the point where one of the three royalty streams that track earns has nobody attached to pay.

An IPI is the number that identifies a songwriter to every collection society in the world, and the legal name is what it's registered against. Add the society each writer belongs to, and their publisher, where you know them.

Stage names in writer credits are one of the most common reasons a release comes back for changes. Beyond that: initials and nicknames match nothing, and publishing royalties for a writer nobody can identify sit unclaimed until someone goes and claims them.

On a writer row that carries a songwriting share. If a track has words, someone wrote them, and that person holds part of the composition.

Composer-only on a vocal track is a blocking failure. It won't pass review.

Version info — Radio Edit, Live, Remastered — goes in its own field, never in the title. Platforms read those two fields separately and display them differently.

Titles can be corrected after release, but the correction goes back through review and propagates unevenly across platforms for weeks. Track order, track count, UPC and ISRC can't be corrected at all once you're live.

The profile URL is what tells each platform this release belongs on the artist page you already have, rather than on a brand-new one with the same name. And any artist who appears on every track has to be listed at release level too, not only on the tracks — that's an Apple Music rule, and it's checked before submission.

Without the profile URL a duplicate page can be created, and the streams, followers and saves land somewhere nobody is following.

The two lines cover the two copyrights in every release: © is the composition, ℗ is the recording. Written out as © 2026 Name and ℗ 2026 Label.

They're what a platform, a society or a licensee reads to work out who to ask when someone wants to use the music. These two are editable after release, unlike most identifiers.

An ISRC is the permanent identifier for one specific recording: twelve characters, unique per track. If a track has been out before, reuse its code exactly and platforms will link the new delivery to the existing content.

A new ISRC on an already-released recording starts it from zero — the play counts, playlist placements and artist-profile links stay attached to the old code. And ISRCs lock permanently once a release is distributed, so this is a fix you can only make beforehand.

Three separate answers on the same four-level scale — none, minor, material, or entirely. Audio covers the sound recording, composition covers the melody and lyrics, artwork covers the cover image. AI mastering or stem separation is "minor" on audio and "none" on composition.

Minor assistance costs you nothing. Material or entirely-AI answers mean some platforms are skipped rather than the release being rejected — your distribution continues to everywhere else. Changing a disclosure after release triggers a re-review.

Sampling someone else's recording needs clearance on both copyrights at once: the recording you lifted, and the composition underneath it. Upload the license alongside the track.

Non-exclusive samples are ineligible for Content ID and UGC monetization — those outlets are switched off for the release rather than delivered and then claimed. Most sample licenses require exactly that.

Recording someone else's song is allowed. Distributing that recording needs a mechanical license so the original songwriter is paid per copy. Credit the original writers rather than yourself, keep the original title with no "Cover" suffix, and leave the publishing with the original publisher.

Fair use does not cover distributing a full cover — a license is always needed. An interpolation is different again: replaying a melody rather than lifting the recording needs a license negotiated with the publisher, not the standard compulsory one. And a mechanical covers audio only, so a music video needs a separate sync license.

The recording side is the performance you captured. Every person with a share of it needs to be on the split, and the total needs to land on exactly 100%.

Splits that don't total 100% can't be registered. Splits nobody agreed to in writing are the single most common reason royalties get frozen months after release, when the money is already sitting there.

This is the other 100% — the composition, tracked completely separately from the recording. A song carries 200% in total across both sides, and each side has to close on its own.

Overlapping or conflicting songwriting claims stall a registration at the society, and nothing pays out while it's in dispute.

Every person on a split needs to be reachable — to confirm their share, and to be paid it.

A share with no working contact behind it is a share that can't be paid out, however correct the percentage is.

Five to ten business days is the delivery floor, not the plan. Inside that gap sit review, delivery, and each platform's own ingestion — typically one to five business days per platform, and longer for specialist stores. Editorial playlist pitching needs at least seven days before release, and albums are better at four to six weeks.

That minimum is set by the platforms and can't be overridden. Changing the date after approval sends the release back to draft for re-approval and redelivery, which is what breaks pre-saves and editorial submissions. Pick a date you can hold.