How to pass RouteNote moderation and get your music on stores
At RouteNote our service is open to everyone from the bedroom guitarist to worldwide DJs, we want everyone to have the chance to get their music online for sale and streaming.
Uploading your music through RouteNote isn’t just free, it’s easy! But there are some guidelines you need to follow when creating your release. This guide will show you how to make sure your release gets through our moderation first time.
Bear in mind this guide is only to advise you on the upload process, if you want to you can go straight ahead and create an account and upload your music at routenote.com.
Audio
We love all sorts of music and are all about creativity. We accept music of all genres but there are certain things to note about your music to make sure it’s allowed to go on stores and streaming services.
- Audio quality needs to be to a professional standard
- You must have the rights to use any music or audio that isn’t your own, this includes: Samples, remixes, backing tracks. If you have used audio that you do not own please email moderation@routenote.com with your proof of rights
- Cover songs can’t be distributed in the US, Canada, India, Pakistan or Mexico except on Spotify and Deezer unless you have mechanical licenses for those territories. Send any permissions/licenses to moderation@routenote.com.
Cover Art
Your artwork is an important part of your release, it provides a visual identity to your music and because of that we want you to be free to express yourself with your cover art (but not too much, please no nudity… please).
Though we want you to have freedom with your cover art we do request that you don’t use any trademarked material. This includes logos, famous characters, brand names and copyrighted images (including custom-made representations of copyright material).
We also ask that you don’t include the following:
- Contact information (including social media and websites)
- Pricing information
- UPC bar codes
- Misleading text
Artwork must also be in 1425 x 1425 size. Other than that as long as the artwork isn’t stretched, blurred or pixelated you’re one step closer to perfecting your release!
Metadata Formatting
Metadata is all the information about your release and it is crucial to getting your music onto stores and services. There are a few different things that need to be considered when formatting your releases’ metadata so we’ll bullet point what you need to remember for this.
General:
- Capitalisation must be formatted correctly for English language releases – No block capitals, each word must begin with a capital letter except connectives (a, an, and, as, but, for, from, nor, of, or , so, the, to, yet), unless they are the first word or a proper noun. If your release is not in English then it does not have to follow capitalisation rules.
- You cannot use underscores, dates or special characters that aren’t on a regular keyboard
- You must include a label name – “None”, “n/a” etc. cannot be used. Nor can URLs or “RouteNote” and any RouteNote affiliates.
- Chinese language releases must be in traditional Chinese on the website. The simplified Chinese metadata can then be sent to john@routenote.com
- Releases can only be formatted in one language. If you want dual language metadata for iTunes (only) then contact us after your release has been moderated in your native language.
- For classical release formatting please go to the end.
Artist listing and metadata:
- Every artist involved must have an individual line in the metadata. So if there are two primary artists on a track they would both be featured separately as individual primary artists. Likewise with “featuring” artists, “with” artists, remixers, producers et cetera.
- “Featuring” and “with” artists must also be included in the track title.The formatting for these must be:’track title (feat. artist name)”track title (with artist name)’.
- If an artist is on every track on a release they must go in the release metadata as well as the individual track metadata.
- Producers must be credited in track metadata and not in track or release titles.
- Artist titles must be original, you cannot use an existing artists name (they normally don’t appreciate it).
- You cannot include an artist alias in the title. For example “Kanye West (Yeezy)” or “RouteNote (RN)” would not be accepted.
- If you have 4 or more primary artists on the release then you must credit the artist line on the release metadata as “Various Artists”. If you have less than 4 primary artists you must not put “Various Artists”.
- For cover songs you must credit the original artist in the Copyright Line and NOWHERE else.
Release metadata (Single, EP, Album):
- Release titles must not feature the primary artist name.
- For single releases the release title must be the same as the track title.
- RouteNote has a 15 word limit for release titles.
- Producers must be listed in the release metadata.
Track metadata:
- Tracks must be numbered in numerical order starting from one BUT please do not include numbering in the track titles unless it is part of the track name.
- You can’t have duplicate track titles in the same release.
- Track titles must not feature the primary artists title.
- Just a reminder, track titles must feature any “with” or “featuring” artists formatted as described under artist listing and metadata.
- You cannot use an existing track title if it is misleading. For example “The Real Slim Shady” is a well-known, existing track and includes the name of the original artist.
- Any producers must be listed in the individual track metadata.
- You can no longer include “original mix” or “single” in titles.
- RouteNote has a 12 word limit for track titles.
Classical Releases
If you wish to upload a classical release then you need to format your release following the specific guidelines listed below. (This is requested by stores, don’t shoot the messenger!)
Classical titles need to be in the correct classical format, which is -‘[major work title] in [key], [opus number]: [movement title]‘
For example: “Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73: Feierlich”
Please remember to include a space before numbering in classical titles.
Original composers for Classical releases must be credited in the “C Line”
Still have questions?
For more in-depth information on uploading and formatting your releases please check our Style Guide and Upload Guide.
You can also get in contact anytime at support@routenote.com or for specific issues regarding your release moderation@routenote.com.
29 comments
I really want to release my music on apple music and Spotify
Hey Elio, You’ve come to the right place! If you create a free account at http://www.routenote.com then you can start uploading your music to stores and streaming services through us. It’s as simple as logging in and selecting ‘Create New Release’ where our upload tool will guide you through each step.
Hello can you guys give me Urls links to where my songs was distributed to. For example I want the link of my song that was distributed to Spotify or soundcloud.
Do you guys do that or you guys just give one link
Hey, we just launched PUSH.FM which allows you to create Fan Links. By putting your music into a Fan Link creation page we can bring links from all the top music services into one page for you to share with fans.
-Jacca
It’s been more than 6 days since I uploaded a song and it still hasn’t been approved. I have followed all the upload instructions correctly. Please help.
Hi Hot Frost, moderation is currently taking around a week and maybe a little longer due to some delays. We’re still working as hard as always and getting through releases as quickly as we are able to. You should hear from the team very shortly.
mi cancion ya esta aprobada pero aun no la puedo ver en spotify, hay algun paso que no e echo o algo ¿?
Hola, puede tomar hasta 48 horas después de la aprobación para lanzarse en Spotify. Si ha establecido una fecha de lanzamiento, no se lanzará hasta la fecha que haya establecido. Si debe publicarse y han pasado algunos días desde la aprobación, póngase en contacto en support@Routenote.com con su UPC y nuestro equipo puede investigarlo por usted.
Hullo! I’ve just got a little inquiry about release times. So, I uploaded an album of remixes (and an original or two) on the 05/03/20. As of the moment i’m writing this, it’s 02/05/20. Now, I know the Covid-19 situation has complicated things, so i’m fine with waiting, but I was just wondering if its meant to take this long. Thanks!
Hi Kai, that’s incredibly long! Are you sure that you haven’t received any emails from us updating you on your release? If you haven’t let us know the UPC at support@routenote.com and we should be able to update you.
Hello, I am new to RouteNote and I want to do an inquiry. How much time/days RouteNote takes for releasing my track?
our moderation currently have a backlog of releases, which we will be making our way through as quickly as possible. Because of this, moderation times may also be extended to roughly 10 days.
If you have not received any automated emails from us notifying you of approval, user action or disapproval, your release will be pending moderation.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience.
what exactly constitutes “professional quality audio”? is a stripped down acoustic style song fine or does it need fancy production/mixing?
Hi Annie, if there are personal choices (eg. lo-fi) or equipment limitations then it will normally be okay. We’re mostly referring to fuzzy audio, phone recordings, very poor quality recordings and so on.
Hi route note, I’m new to routenote so I don’t know how much time it takes for you guys to approve my song but I’ve read the faqs and it said it will take about 72 hours but it’s been more than 72 hours now. Please do something.
Hi, due to the COVID situation and a backlog of releases moderation is currently taking longer at the moment. The team are working hard to get through music as quickly as they are still able to and you will hear back soon.
Hi, I uploaded 2 tracks on 9/05/20 and 11/05/20 respectively. It’s been more than 10 day and I have not received any updates on them. Thanks.
Hi,
Our team are working through backlog of releases and emails, which we are making our way through as quickly as possible. Because of this, moderation times may be extended at this time.
Please accept this as a response to any queries about response times.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience.
Hello is 10 days i open this site everyday for see when my track is ready, just upload a single, i write a ticket too,no answer there and track still wait for moderation….ifmy single will be online when im old i want delete it now. Make something.
Hi,
Please be aware that our moderation currently have a backlog of releases, which we are making our way through as quickly as possible. Because of this, moderation times may be extended at this time.
If you have not received any automated emails from us notifying you of approval, user action or disapproval, your release will be pending moderation.
Please accept this as a response to any queries about moderation times for your release.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience.
Llevo mas de 15 dias esperando alguna novedad sobre el lanzamiento de mi artista en las plataformas y seguimos en revision. Creo que los tiempos estan siendo demasiado excesivos. por favor necesitamos respuesta. si no para buscar otra plataforma que trabaja mas rapido. saludos
Hi,
Please be aware that our moderation currently have a backlog of releases, which we are making our way through as quickly as possible. Because of this, moderation times may be extended at this time.
If you have not received any automated emails from us notifying you of approval, user action or disapproval, your release will be pending moderation.
Please accept this as a response to any queries about moderation times for your release.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience.
Do you need help? I need a job, plus I’m a user of your products/services, and I am directly in your target market. Maybe we could see about it?
hola! han pasado más de 2 semanas desde que subí mi canción y aún no la aprueban, quería saber si había algún problema o algo que pueda hacer.
Hola,
Tenga en cuenta que nuestra moderación actualmente tiene una acumulación de lanzamientos, que estamos avanzando lo más rápido posible. Debido a esto, los tiempos de moderación pueden extenderse en este momento.
Si no ha recibido correos electrónicos automáticos de nuestra parte notificándole su aprobación, acción del usuario o desaprobación, su liberación estará pendiente de moderación.
Acepte esto como respuesta a cualquier consulta sobre los tiempos de moderación para su lanzamiento.
Pedimos disculpas por cualquier inconveniente que esto pueda causar y agradecemos su paciencia.
I made my Art cover 3000 x 3000 px , thinking I was uploading it to the right place. At the time I was looking at amuse and that was what their standard was. I didn’t see the pixel requirements here and uploaded it and then went to get it approved for release. Will I be rejected because of my art cover?
Hi how can i show proof of audio watermark in my song it is the audio engineer production tag you guys hear i need my song to be out next week please moderate it
Hi, please get in touch by email at moderation@routenote.com with the UPC of your release and explain the source of the watermark and if possible include the original audio clip of the watermark to prove permission to use it.
Do you have to use your real name in any of the metadata?