After delivering your music to Apple Music and the iTunes Store, we create an artist page so fans and listeners can interact with all of your artist’s releases. Due to the potential traffic and engagement, we strive to ensure that everything appears correctly. An artist page can consist of Motion Art, Latest Release, Essential Albums, Albums, Top Videos, Artist Playlists, Single & EPs, Appears On, and About Me, which includes the artist bio and Similar Artists.
Artist Apple IDs
An Artist Apple ID is a number that corresponds to you or your artist’s account and is used to manage your release. View digital packaging to understand the impact of delivering music with the correct Artist Apple ID.
As best practice, we recommend delivering your music package using the Artist Apple ID. Using the Artist Apple ID ensures the release will land on the correct page and reduces the need for additional support tickets. Delivering a release with an Artist Apple ID ensures your release is visible on the correct artist page, allowing your music to be easily found.
Find an Artist Apple ID in iTunes Connect
- Look up metadata on an existing album.
- Search for the artist in the iTunes Store.
- Control-click the artist name.
- Select Copy Link.
- Review the artist report.
Find an Artist Apple ID in Transporter
Use the lookup artist mode to find the following details about a specific artist:
- Name, Artist Apple ID, primary genre, locale, and creation date
- Titles (up to five of the most recently released albums or songs for music artists, or up to five of the most recently released films for movie artists)
- Title’s Artist Apple ID and distributor or label representative
- Artist name localizations, roles, and the iTunes Store URL (appear only in XML output)
For more information, learn how to use lookup artist mode in the Transporter User Guide.
Image Manager
Image Manager is a role that can be assigned to a user in your organization who will add, edit, and remove photos in iTunes Connect. Assigning an artist to an Image Manager means that a user has been given the authority to add artist images for that artist. Only the artist’s official music provider can assign them to an Image Manager role. For information on how to assign artists to an Image Manager, see the iTunes Store Artist Images Guidelines.
Artist images
iTunes Connect assigns every artist a unique Apple ID and an artist must have an Apple ID before the artist photo can be delivered. Delivering a release with an Artist Apple ID ensures your release is visible on the correct artist page, allowing your music to be easily found.
Apple strives to uphold the best quality when presenting your release on Apple Music and the iTunes Store, and artist images are an essential part of that presentation. Only upload images that you hold the rights to legally share worldwide. View iTunes Store Artist Image Guidelines to learn more about these requirements.
iTunes Connect users with the Admin, Technical, or Image Manager roles can upload artist images via iTunes Connect. However, we encourage your artists to use Apple Music for Artists to directly manage and upload their images.
To upload an image for an artist via iTunes Connect you must meet these qualifications:
- The artist delivered a release to Apple Music or the iTunes Store as a primary artist within the last 12 months.
- The artist cannot be claimed by multiple release providers. If you receive a warning message, contact us.
- The manager cannot be assigned to another artist with the Image Manager role.
- The music must be available on Apple Music and the iTunes Store.
If the above qualifications have been met, release providers with an Image Manager, Admin, or Technical role can upload images.
- In iTunes Connect, click My Music.
- Search for the artist by name, album title, UPC, or Apple ID.
- From the search results page, click the artist name. Image Managers do not need to perform this step, as they will see all of their assigned artists on the Manage Assigned Artists page.
- Click Edit and choose a photo to upload. Photos must be square, at least 2400 by 2400 pixels, and should not be upscaled.
Note: If the artist has already uploaded an image via Apple Music for Artists, you will not be able to upload an image in iTunes Connect. If you need the ability to update your artist’s image, contact the artist directly for access. For artists and artist management teams, refer to adding an artist image to learn more.
Motion art
Artist page motion artwork is an opportunity to make an artist portrait come alive in Apple Music. If you’ve been asked to provide artist page motion artwork, download our templates and follow the Artist Page Motion Guidelines to create your deliverables and provide them to Apple. The guidelines include tips for creating a seamless video loop, cropping images, and other best practices to help you create visually consistent artwork for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and smart TVs.
To submit new motion art, contact us. Fill out the applicable fields for Motion Art and include a link to the files hosted on the file-sharing service of your choice. Ensure that the artist name is in the filename, and turn on link sharing so our team can download the assets. The assets you provide must be free and clear for Apple’s global use.
Artist bio
Apple Music bios are obtained from AllMusic. For requests to add or update a bio for your artist page, contact AllMusic and include “Apple Music Request” in the subject line. While requests for your bio may be submitted, responses to the request are not guaranteed. If the bio displayed is factually incorrect or represents a different artist, contact us.
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