Data Removal Policy

MusicBrainz does not edit or remove factual data upon request.

I never signed up for this and I don't want a MusicBrainz page, remove my data!

Artist data is added to the database manually by our users and is comprised of publicly available data. MusicBrainz will ignore requests demanding that we take down information that can be found elsewhere. Please consider it a compliment that a fan of yours took the time to add information about you.

There is one exception to this: the only data we will always remove upon request is your date of birth, if present. Keep in mind though that unless you've also made sure the date was removed from wherever the original source of the data was, there's a possibility a user will find it and add it again. Also, consider leaving the birth year up and requesting a removal of only month/day, if acceptable to you: that makes the data still interesting for music research purposes while making it much less useful as personal identification info. We will also often remove your legal name upon request if there is no public source for it elsewhere (e.g. because you just added it yourself in the first place) and you ask nicely.

And I definitely don't want to be associated with that name/group anymore!

Unfortunately, you can't change your past and MusicBrainz will not remove correct data. Additionally, being a publicly mirrored online database, the reality is such that it is almost impossible to remove and properly purge any data that has been added to the database.

Hang on, you're violating copyright law by providing all my music online!

If you find your music listed in MusicBrainz it does not mean that we have access to or provide access to the music files themselves. MusicBrainz provides data about recordings, not the music itself.

If you still feel that we are somehow violating your copyright, you may report a copyright violation. However, keep in mind that the MetaBrainz Foundation is based in the US, a country where it has been established that factual data is not copyrightable.

Okay fine, but my artist page shows someone else's information!

Are you sure you're looking at your artist page? It is a common occurrence for more than one artist to share the exact same name and you are probably looking at someone else's page. You may not "fix" the page by changing it to reflect your information, add a new artist to the database instead.

On the other hand, if releases from another similarly named artist have appeared on your page, feel free to correct that release's information.

This page addresses concerns that an artist or performer may have about their information as stored in the MusicBrainz Database.
If you are a MusicBrainz user, you may find our user documentation on how to edit as well as our policy of merging rather than deleting more relevant.