It's not uncommon for users to submit a release containing more than one artist. In the event that you wish to do this, please review the information below to understand how distribution platforms (DSPs) aggregate Songtradr release metadata and what to prepare for. 

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YouTube Music "Various Artist" Topic Channels

If you select YouTube Music as one of your chosen online stores, YouTube may display "Various Artists - Topic" for multiple artists within a release. If you are a newer to their platform, you may not be recognized yet to connect your existing YouTube artist channel(s). Once your music has more organic listeners, your release(s) should be transferable to a YouTube Official Artist Channel (OAC).

For more details about YouTube OACs, click here.

Spotify "Various Artists" Credits

Make sure to select the Main, Contributing or Featured artists carefully. Any album with 4 or more Main/Contributing Artists will be credited to Various Artists in the final album metadata. 

To avoid your album being credited to "Various Artists", consider using Featured Artists instead of Contributing Artists.

Per Spotify's Style Guide:

• If there are four or more main artists individually identified on the album, the main artist on album level should be “Various Artists”. The exceptions are:

  • Mixing/remixing albums compiled by fewer than four artists.

  • Non-classical albums in which fewer than four main artists appear on all tracks.

• If there are less than four main artists on album level, those artists must be listed individually and not listed as “Various Artists” on the album level.

• Various Artists must not be listed as a track-level artist. All main artists must be listed at track level.

DSPs Aggregate Artist Names in Alphabetical Order

Say you submit a new release for two artists (DJ Cool & Artist Contributor). Submitting a release with more than one artist (Main, Contributing or Featured) will be delivered to DSPs in alphabetical order. So, this release will display Artist Contributor before DJ Cool on streaming platforms.

If you feel that your release is the exception to the rule, please submit a ticket to notify our Distribution team: Click here >