Editorial Discretion & Our Policy
At the Catapult Recordings Group, we're all about supporting great music that's crafted with care and presented well. We're also a fan of music retailers who prioritize quality tunes and excellent customer service. If you want to distribute with us, we require that you provide unique music, making sure it has the correct metadata, audio, and artwork. When a music store has certain content rules, we respect that and only deliver content that meets their quality requirements.
This extends to artist name watchlists that some services have. If your music involves names from a service's watchlist, we can't deliver it without prior authorization.
We also maintain the right to pull content if we have good reason to suspect fraudulent streaming activity.
Content with a high percentage of streams generated from bots or other authomated precesses. Do not pay any third party services that offer increased streams, followers, and playlist placements on DSPs.
We won't deliver content that is:
- Misleading content: Content intended to mislead users by mimicking popular content, or use of search terms or additional, inaccurate information.
- Sound-alikes, cover versions, or tribute songs that sound very similar to the original.
- Recordings that include a similar name, title, or image of a popular artist in the content title or cover art.
- Public domain content
- Content with legal complications
- Cultural sensitivities. Content must be legal and appropriate for the country or region where cleared.
- Nazi propaganda: Content must not depict Nazi symbolism as restricted by the Strafgesetzbuch section 86a if the content is cleared for sale in Germany (DE), Austria (AT), Switzerland (CH), or any other country or region that restricts Nazi propaganda.
- Non-exclusive licenses/leases for Featured Artists or vocal performances.
- Snippets and repetitious tracks.
- Subliminal content.
- Karaoke music videos and ringtones.
- Karaoke tracks with lead vocals or vocal versions.
- Ringtones delivered as tracks on music albums.
- DJ mix albums delivered as a single audio file.
- Advertisement tracks.
- Live Albums, Alternate Takes, Rare Recordings, Early Recordings, Radio Broadcasts, Interviews, and other albums commonly referred to as “Bootlegs.
- We're currently not accepting new accounts that only offer public domain content.
Should any partner try to deliver such content, they may face financial penalties and we may need to remove their content.
Artwork Guidelines
In general, artwork must be an accurate representation of the music on the product and be formatted in the highest resolution available. Artwork that does not abide by the following guidelines may result in the product being blocked from delivery or taken down from DSPs.
- Accuracy: Do not use generic art templates or art that doesn’t match the album you’re delivering.
- Quality: Images must not be low quality, pixelated, misaligned, rotated, or have other quality issues.
- Additional information: Art must not contain website addresses, logos, QR codes, or references to streaming services or other music/tech companies.
- File format references: Art must not contain references to the audio file format, such as Dolby Atmos, spatial audio, lossless, 24-bit, etc.
- Sales language: The art must not upsell to another product and must not include references to pricing, such as “Reduced Price,” “Low Price,” “Available for $9.99,” or “For Promo Use.”
- References to Physical Packaging, Digital Products, or Retailers: Art must not include references to the physical packaging, such as CD or vinyl, digital product, or any retailers.
- Pornography: Art must not contain pornography or a URL for a website that contains or links to pornography.
- Cultural Sensitivities: Art must not promote hatred based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national/ethnic origin, or other identities.