Stores match artists by the exact string of letters they receive. Two spellings of one Arabic name become two artists, two profiles and two sets of streams. This standard gives you one way to fix a spelling and keep it, and anyone may use it, whether or not they release through Mazufa.
Rule one: one spelling per artist
Every artist name, featured credit and writer name is spelled exactly one way in Latin letters, decided once and written down in a name sheet before the first release. The same spelling goes into every artist field, every writer field and every credit on every store, including the spelling used on profiles you already own.
Consistency matters more than correctness. A spelling that follows every rule below but changes between releases does more damage than an unusual spelling that never changes.
How to choose the fixed spelling
Work through the sources in order and stop at the first one that gives you a spelling. If none of them does, build the spelling with the letter rules in the next section. Avoid diacritics, apostrophes, hyphens and numerals used as letters, such as a 3 for ع or a 7 for ح. They are fine in chat; in store metadata they break search and make a second spelling almost certain.
- The spelling already on your official store profiles, if you have released before
- The spelling on your passport or ID, if you perform under your legal name
- The spelling you use on your own social accounts and in press
- The simplest form that a listener who does not read Arabic would type
The article, ta marbuta and the hard letters
The definite article ال is written Al, capital A, followed by a space and no hyphen: Al Sahabi, Al Fajri. Do not change it to Ash, As or El to show the sun-letter sound unless that form is already your established spelling. Inside a song title it may be written in lower case: Layl al Sahara.
Ta marbuta ة at the end of a word is written a: Noura, Hala, Amina. Only when the word carries the next word, as in Madinat al Noor, is it written at.
ع at the start of a name is carried by the vowel: Ali, Omar, Abdullah. In the middle of a word it is dropped or shown by a doubled vowel: Saad, Maan. غ is Gh, خ is Kh, ح is plain H, ق is Q and ش is Sh. Shadda is written as a doubled consonant only in names where that spelling is already familiar, such as Mohammed or Hassan; elsewhere a single letter is enough. Whichever you choose, choose it once.
Gulf dialect sounds and song titles
Artist names follow the rules above. Song titles follow the way the words are sung. If ق is sung as a hard g, the title is written with G, so a dialect title can read Galbi while a formal one reads Qalbi. The Gulf ch sound is written Ch, and the j sound is J, not Y or G, unless the recording clearly sings it otherwise.
Write a title in one script in the title field. Do not mix Arabic and Latin inside one title, and do not add a translation in brackets. Where a store supports it, the other script is delivered separately as a localized title.
Established spellings and localized names
If a spelling already appears on your profiles, previous releases, posters or interviews, keep it even when it breaks these rules. The rules exist to produce a first spelling, not to replace one that listeners already know. A later change is a store rename request, which takes time and does not always succeed.
Most stores show one primary name and can display a second, localized name to listeners whose interface is set to another language. The localized name is delivered by your distributor as language-tagged metadata; it is not typed into the artist tools. The Arabic spelling in that field deserves the same discipline: one hamza decision, one ta marbuta decision, one spacing of compound names, every time.
Decision table and examples
Read the bullets as rows: the situation, then the spelling to use. All names here are invented.
- Name already on a store profile: use that profile spelling, unchanged
- Legal name on ID, no profile yet: use the ID spelling
- Stage name, nothing established: build it with the letter rules and record it
- Definite article in a name: Al plus space, as in Nouf Al Sahabi
- Ta marbuta at the end: a, as in Hala; in a construct: at, as in Madinat al Noor
- ق in a name: Q, as in Qusai Al Bahri; ق sung as g in a title: G, as in Galbi Ynadik
- غ in a name: Gh, as in Ghaith Al Fajri; خ: Kh, as in Khalid Al Rimali
- Shadda: doubled only where familiar, as in Mohammed; otherwise single, as in Hamad
- Same name on two releases with two spellings: pick one and ask your distributor to request a merge
Questions
Do I have to release through Mazufa to use the standard?
No. It is public and free. Use it with any distributor, label or on your own, and link to it if you want others to follow it.
Must my titles be in Latin letters at all?
No. Stores accept Arabic titles and Arabic artist names. The standard applies when you choose a Latin primary name, when you deliver a localized Latin name, and when a writer credit must be in Latin letters for a society or registry.
I already have releases under two spellings. What now?
Choose the spelling with the larger audience, use it for all future releases, and ask your distributor to request that the store merge the duplicate profile. Keep the merge request and its reference in your records.