Music reporting and review fact-check checklist

What to take away

• Check the exact release, master, mix, edition, or performance reviewed.
• Verify every named contributor and role instead of assigning all sound to the headline artist.
• Distinguish the composition, recorded performance, master, and release package.
• Treat set lists, platform credits, and publicity biographies as leads that may conflict.
• Check headlines, captions, and social copy for unsupported superlatives and audience claims.

Use this list before publishing a review, interview, profile, concert report, or music-business story. Mark an item not applicable rather than pretending it was checked. Keep a source note for consequential facts and every resolved conflict.

Recording and release

• Confirm artist credit, title styling, release date, label or independent issuer, and distributor.
• Identify single, EP, album, mixtape, compilation, score, live release, demo, or archival issue accurately.
• Record format, edition, track sequence, runtime, region, and platform or physical source.
• Check deluxe tracks, remaster date, remix, clean edit, mono or stereo, and spatial-audio version.
• Distinguish original release from reissue and recording date from release date.
• Re-listen to every timestamped or technical claim.

Credits and identifiers

• Verify composers, lyricists, performers, instruments, arrangers, conductors, producers, and engineers.
• Keep recording, mixing, and mastering roles separate.
• Check featured, sampled, interpolated, and uncredited claims through suitable records and responses.
• Record label, publisher, recording location, date, and identifiers only when confirmed.
• Resolve differences among liner notes, platform metadata, artist pages, label records, and databases.
• Do not assume the most detailed source is the most accurate.

One identifier names one recording. The standard behind recording identifiers, ISO 3901, specifies the International Standard Recording Code for the unique identification of recordings and states that it does not apply to numbering the products or carriers a recording ships on. Confirm which recording a code names before quoting credits against it, and treat a platform's credit fields as sources to reconcile, not as proof of a particular credit.

Concert record

• Confirm venue, city, date, billed acts, lineup, instruments, and guest names.
• Record the reviewer's location and any moves.
• Check observed start, finish, breaks, set length, and curfew claims.
• Compare printed or online set lists with what was played.
• Verify cover titles and writers before publication.
• Separate performance choices from mix, acoustics, weather, and technical faults.
• Bound descriptions of audience size, response, exits, and behavior.

Quotations, lyrics, and translation

• Match interview quotations to recordings, transcripts, or contemporaneous notes.
• Preserve qualifications and identify who supplied a translation.
• Check quoted lyrics against an authorized or reliable source and the version heard.
• Use only the amount of lyric necessary for analysis and rights compliance.
• Do not treat the vocalist as the songwriter or narrator without evidence.
• Give a subject a fair chance to answer a consequential factual allegation.

Rights and business claims

• Distinguish musical work from sound recording.
• Identify songwriter, publisher, performer, producer, label, distributor, and owner precisely.
• Verify contract, royalty, licensing, takedown, infringement, and ownership claims with records and qualified reporting.
• State currency, territory, platform, and period for money or usage data.
• Separate chart eligibility, chart position, certification, nomination, and award.
• Avoid legal conclusions that the available evidence cannot establish.

The U.S. Copyright Office's Circular 56 on sound recordings explains that copyright in a recording covers the recording itself, not the underlying music, lyrics, words, or other content. A story must therefore check which work and which right a claim concerns rather than calling everything "the song."

Independence and presentation

• Disclose material complimentary tickets, travel, accommodation, merchandise, or gifts.
• Identify relationships involving management, labels, venues, festivals, collecting, or prior work.
• Confirm that each image depicts the stated artist, event, date, or object.
• Record media creator, source page, license or permission, and modifications.
• Check access claims by feature, venue, date, and version.
• Fact-check headline, deck, caption, metadata, rating, and social copy.

Corrections and updates

• Correct false credits, titles, dates, quotations, set-list claims, and chart facts visibly.
• Use an update for later release changes, cancellations, repaired metadata, or added dates when the original was accurate.
• Explain when a changed master, mix, or edition alters critical observations.
• Preserve the original publication date and correction record.

Common questions

Are streaming credits enough?

They are useful leads. Check liner notes, label records, creator documentation, identifiers, and responses when the claim matters or sources conflict.

Must every concert song be listed?

No. The review needs an accurate internal set record, but the article should name only songs that serve the reporting or argument.

Is a sample credit proof of clearance?

No. Credit, permission, ownership, and legal status are separate questions.

Should a corrected platform credit silently fix an article?

No. If the published article made a false credit claim, add a correction even if the platform later changes.