Metal & Heavy, in practice
Mazufa Records is an independent label and free distribution platform. Metal brings its own delivery problems: split records, demos, umlauts, logos nobody can read. We handle those, take 5% of royalties, and leave your masters with you. Access is invite-only, and applications are reviewed by people who listen.
Scenes and sub-genres
Metal splits into scenes that share almost no audience. Death metal still carries Florida and Stockholm accents, and melodic death metal came out of Gothenburg. Black metal runs from the Norwegian second wave through French orthodox, Cascadian and depressive strands. Doom traces back to Birmingham, funeral doom largely to Finland, sludge to New Orleans. Thrash has Bay Area and Teutonic lineages. Grindcore and powerviolence keep hardcore-adjacent circuits of their own, as do metalcore and deathcore. Power metal is strongest in Germany, Italy, Scandinavia and Japan, and technical death metal has a long Quebec tradition. Tag what you actually are.
Demos, splits, EPs and full-lengths
Metal kept release formats other genres abandoned. The demo is still a real first release and often gets a proper reissue years later. Splits with one, two or three other bands are normal, and so are covers EPs and rehearsal tapes. The full-length remains the statement, and singles mostly exist to trail it. Many bands run a digital release alongside a cassette, vinyl or CD run from a small label, which means the digital tracklist and the physical one must either match or be documented as different editions. Pace varies from a demo every few months to years between albums.
Metadata: names, characters, splits and tags
Your logo is not your artist name. Deliver the name as plain readable text, spelled the way you want it to appear everywhere, and keep it identical across releases so your profiles do not split in two. Umlauts, slashed characters, runes and diacritics are widely but not universally supported, so settle on one canonical spelling and record a plain-ASCII fallback. On a split, credit each band on its own tracks and use a joint release artist. Mark demos, re-recordings and remasters in the version field. Choose sub-genre tags precisely, because black metal and blackened death are not interchangeable.
How metal is categorised and surfaced
Most services carry a broad metal or hard rock bucket with sub-genre tags underneath: death, black, doom, thrash, power, metalcore, grindcore, progressive and stoner among them. Coverage of the narrower tags varies by service and changes over time, so the tag you want may not exist where you want it. Lyric-driven surfaces matter here, so flag explicit tracks accurately, since an unflagged track or a wrong flag can affect where a release appears. Artwork moderation is real, and extreme imagery may be refused. Editorial and algorithmic placement is decided by each platform, subject to current availability and platform rules.
Masters and artwork
Metal masters are loud by convention, often finished with a dynamic range around four to six and heavy limiting. Because platforms normalise playback, an over-limited master gets turned down anyway and arrives sounding flatter than a slightly more open one, so ask for a master that survives normalisation rather than one that wins on a raw meter. Watch low-end build-up from downtuned guitars and double kick. Deliver 24-bit files, and mark the release gapless when intros and segues run continuously. Clear any film or spoken-word samples, and check the cover still reads at thumbnail size.
Metal & Heavy questions
Can I use umlauts, runes or other special characters in my band name?
Usually yes, but support is uneven across services, stores and search boxes. Pick one canonical spelling, use it on every release, and keep a plain-ASCII version noted for anywhere the characters break. Do not alternate between the stylised and unstylised forms release to release, because that is how bands end up with two separate profiles and a split listening history that is awkward to merge afterwards.
How does a split release work, and who gets paid?
Deliver the split as one release with a joint or compilation release artist, then credit each band correctly on its own tracks so the tracks appear on the right profiles. Royalties are paid to the account that delivered the release, so agree the division in writing beforehand, whether that is per-track or a flat percentage. Also agree who holds the artwork rights and who can later take the release down.
Can I release an old demo or a re-recorded version?
Yes, provided you hold the rights to the recording and any former members have agreed. Give the release a version label such as Demo, Remaster or Re-recorded so it is not mistaken for the original, and assign new ISRCs to re-recordings, since they are new recordings. A remaster of the same audio keeps its original ISRC. Confirm the demo was never exclusively licensed to a label.
Do I need to clear a film sample or a spoken-word intro?
Yes. Dialogue lifted from a film, a news broadcast or another band's record is somebody's copyright, and the fact that it is short or obscure does not change that. Get written permission from the rights holder before delivery, or replace the sample with something you recorded or licensed. Uncleared material is a common cause of takedowns and withheld royalties, and it stays a risk long after release.
How do I make sure I am tagged as the right sub-genre?
You set the primary genre and any sub-genre at delivery, and we pass those through to the services. Choose the narrowest tag that is genuinely accurate rather than the one with the biggest audience, since a mistagged record reaches the wrong listeners and gets skipped. Where a service offers a pitching tool we can submit through it, subject to current availability and platform rules. Placement is never guaranteed.
Will my artwork be rejected?
It can be. Services apply their own content rules, and explicit gore, sexual imagery or certain symbols may be refused, sometimes on one platform and not another. Text on the cover must match the release and artist metadata, and no store logos or promotional wording are allowed. If a heavily stylised logo is unreadable at 300 pixels, consider an alternate cover for digital while keeping the physical version intact.