What is misleading artwork?

We don’t want to be led astray 😥

When artwork is misleading, this normally means that the artwork implies that the release has an official connection to someone or something, but this connection doesn’t actually exist.

Usually, it’s one of three things:

  1. High profile artists
    If artwork contains a picture of a famous musician, even if it was an original drawing and it’s not under copyright, unfortunately this will be seen as misleading. If a customer is on a music store’s site and there’s a release with artwork that contains an image of a high profile musician, it’s not unreasonable for them to expect that the release has something to do with that artist.

    This also applies to artwork that resembles famous album covers, contains famous band logos, or anything similar.
  1. High profile organisations
    Artwork also can’t make it look like your release is the official product of a company or organisation. Often, this involves sports teams or competitions. For example, it’s fine to write a song about your country’s football team at the World Cup, but if you include the official FIFA World Cup logo, your national team’s official logo, and a photo of the team, it might look like it’s an official release, put out by your country’s team.
  1. Charities
    It’s absolutely fine to do a charity release, and give the proceeds to a high profile charity. It’s also fine to say in the artwork that it’s a charity release. What you can’t do, unfortunately, is name a high profile charity in your artwork, or use their logos, as this could make it look like the release is officially connected to the charity. Charities tend to be very protective of their image/branding rights, as they’re worried about them being misused to scam or mislead people. If your release is for the benefit of a charity that you are officially connected to (e.g. a local charity you have involvement in), please feel free to mention them and use their logos in your artwork!

Have a watch of our handy video below for more tips on uploading cover art through RouteNote!

Check out the full RouteNote Style Guide here!

See also:
Where can I find free images to use in my artwork?
Can I use a picture from Google as my artwork?
Can I use logos or brands in my artwork?

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