Guidelines / Work Credits

A credit refers to an acknowledgement of those who contributed to a song. An artist can be credited as a composer of a song (writing the music), as an author of a song (writing the lyrics), or both.

If the legal composers/authors don't coincide with the actual composers/authors:

• Fill in the legal composers/authors as the work credits

• Explain in the comment box who the supposedly actual composers/authors are, and the background story

• Mark the work with the "Disputed credits" tag

Sources for Credits

Do not credit any artists for arrangements.

Do not credit any artists for lyrics when the lyrics are incidental

Example: Jungle Fever : "Ay, ay que; No, no, no, ay, ay; Así, así, así, ay, ay; Suave, no, no, no"

Only credit individual artists

• Never credit bands

  • Sometimes releases credits work to bands. Don't credit the band members, instead try to find out which band members explicitly wrote the work.
  • Never credit collective aka collaborative songwriting pseudonyms, even if they have specific IPIs.

Credits to Traditional

• Traditionals were written or composed by non-specific authors and composers, and who remain unknown.

• Example : Greensleeves

• 

Credits to [Unknown]

• For works written or composed by specific authors and composers, but who remain unknown.
• Use only when all possible sources and leads have been explored. This includes actively contacting artists, collaborators, labels, etc...

Adaptations

• Only credit artists for music/lyrics if they wrote additional music/lyrics respectively.

  Example: The adaptation My Way is only credited to the lyricist Paul Anka, for writing the new English lyrics. The composers/authors of the root work Claude François , Jacques Revaux and Gilles Thibault are not credited since they didn't participate in the creation of the adaptation.