Terms of use

Genre Lens listens to a short excerpt of a track and recommends which genre and subgenre to select on a music distribution upload form, along with an explanation of what the winning label actually means. It exists because those dropdowns offer thirty options and define none of them.

It is a research and reference aid. It does not submit anything on your behalf, does not connect to any distributor, and has no view of your release.

Genre Lens is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to DistroKid or any other distributor, streaming service or record label. Where those names appear, they are used to describe the forms this tool is designed to help you fill in.

Distribution platforms assemble their subgenre lists from the stores they deliver to, do not publish them in full, and change them over time. The taxonomy here is a researched superset rather than a copy of any one platform’s menu. That is why you can paste the exact options you see on your own form and have the verdict mapped onto them — when the lists differ, your form is right and this tool is a guide.

Genre is a judgement call at the edges. Plenty of good music sits between two styles, and two reasonable listeners will disagree about it. Treat a low confidence score as a real signal that the track is genuinely ambiguous rather than as a failure of the tool.

• The recommendation may be wrong, and it is offered as an opinion rather than a fact.
• Check it against the options on your own upload form before you submit anything.
• What you file with your distributor is your decision and your responsibility.
• Nothing here is legal, business, or licensing advice.

You keep every right in the audio you analyse. Using this tool grants no licence or ownership of any kind beyond what is technically required to produce your result: your browser trims the file, a short excerpt is analysed, and the excerpt is not retained. See the privacy page for the specifics.

Only upload audio you have the right to upload — your own work, or material you are authorised to use. Please do not use the tool to process anyone else’s music without their say-so.

This is a small tool run at modest scale. Please use it as intended: one track at a time, by hand. Automated bulk submission, attempts to overload or break the service, and attempts to extract data belonging to other people are not permitted, and access may be limited if the service is being abused.

The tool is provided as it is, without warranty of any kind. It may be unavailable, may change, and may be withdrawn. Analysis depends on a third-party AI model that can fail or return a poor answer.

To the extent the law allows, no liability is accepted for any loss arising from use of the tool or reliance on its output — including a release filed under a genre you would rather have chosen differently. If some part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still applies.

These terms may be updated; the date at the top will move when they are. Continuing to use the tool after a change means the updated terms apply.