BPM and Key Metadata: What to Enter and When to Leave It Blank
The short version
One exact BPM number and one standard key name, on every track and on every version whose musical content actually differs.
Both are filter fields. An editor cutting to picture filters by tempo because they are matching a grid. A music team filters by key because they are checking whether your cue will sit under a song they have already licensed. Neither of them is browsing; they are narrowing a list of 4,000 down to a list of 12.
Descriptive words are not a substitute. "Upbeat" is not a tempo and cannot be filtered on.
What goes in each field
| Field | What to enter | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| BPM | The whole number from your session tempo, e.g. `124` | Editors filter on ranges and cut to a grid |
| Key | Standard notation, e.g. `F# Minor` | Harmonic matching against other cues and licensed songs |
| Time signature | `4/4`, `6/8`, `7/8` | Unusual meters are a hard filter for some briefs |
| Duration | Exact runtime | Determines whether it covers the scene at all |
| Tempo feel | `driving`, `mid-tempo`, `halftime` | Human-readable pacing, separate from the number |
| Notes | Only the exceptions, see below | Where nuance goes so the core fields stay clean |
A worked example, which is the shape a supervisor can scan in one line:
```text Night Drive - Full Mix 124 BPM · F# Minor · 4/4 · 2:18 · driving electronic rock · tense, urgent, futuristic · analog synth bass, live-feel drums, electric guitar · instrumental · one-stop ```
BPM: use your session tempo, not your ears
Take the number from the DAW project after the arrangement is locked. Automatic analysis is a cross-check, not a source, and it is wrong often enough on sparse or rubato material to matter.
Half-time and double-time is the mistake worth avoiding. If your session grid is 140 and the snare lands on every other beat so it feels like 70, enter 140. The editor filtering 130 to 150 is looking for your grid, not your vibe. Put `halftime feel` in the tempo-feel field, where it belongs.
Rounding: if your session sits at 119.88 because of a tempo map, enter `120` unless your platform accepts decimals. Be consistent about it across the catalog. What you should not do is enter `119.88` on one track and `120` on the next when they are the same tempo.
Tempo changes. Put the predominant tempo in the field and describe the change in notes:
```text BPM: 92 Notes: accelerates to 108 BPM at 1:12 ```
An editor who needs a locked 92 throughout now knows before they download. That is the entire purpose of the note.
Free time, rubato, ambient drones. If there is no grid, do not invent one. Use the platform's free-time option if it has one, or leave BPM blank and write `free time, no fixed tempo` in notes. A fabricated 70 on a drone is worse than an empty field, because it puts the cue in front of an editor who needed something rhythmic.
Key: be credible, and be honest about ambiguity
Write the conventional name: `C Major`, `A Minor`, `F# Minor`, `Bb Major`.
Pick one enharmonic spelling and hold it. Do not let `F# Minor` and `Gb Minor` both exist in the same catalog; you are splitting one filter bucket into two and half your matching tracks vanish from each search.
Do not put Camelot or DJ notation in the key field. `8A` means nothing to a music supervisor or a composer. If you also service DJs, that belongs in a separate optional field.
Modal and ambiguous material. Use the defensible tonal centre in the field, and put the precision in notes:
```text Key: D Minor Notes: D Dorian, modal, no dominant resolution ```
Modulation. Opening key in the field, the change in notes: `Key: G Major / Notes: modulates to A Major at 2:04`.
Atonal and sound design. Do not guess. Enter `Atonal` or `No fixed key`, and describe the pitch content where it helps: `dark low drone centred around D`. For hybrid percussion and risers with no melodic content, saying so is the useful answer.
Which versions need their own values
This is where catalogs quietly go wrong.
Keep the parent's values when the version is a trim or a mute: instrumental, no-lead, no-drums, underscore, 60, 30, 15, sting. Same tempo, same key, shorter or thinner.
Enter new values when the musical content genuinely changed: a transposed broadcast edit, a half-time remix, a re-cut with a new ending, an alternate take at a different tempo.
The failure mode is copying the parent's row onto twenty versions without checking, then discovering the transposed TV mix has been advertising the wrong key for two years. If you nest versions under a main mix, audit the ones where you actually changed something before you trust the inheritance.
When it is worth leaving blank
An empty field is honest. A wrong field is a returned download and a supervisor who trusts your metadata less next time.
Leave BPM blank on genuinely free-time material. Leave key blank, or mark it atonal, on sound design. Fill in everything else, because a blank on a cue that does have a clear tempo and key just removes you from the filter that would have found you.
The rule underneath all of it
BPM should be exact and grid-based. Key should be musically defensible and consistently spelled. Every exception goes in notes rather than being crammed into a field that is meant to be filtered.
Those two fields will not get your cue picked. Mood, genre, instrumentation and use-case tags do that work. What BPM and key do is confirm the cue is usable once something else has already caught someone's ear, which is why a wrong value costs more than a missing one.
FAQ
Should I enter BPM as half-time or the session tempo?
Enter the session tempo. If your DAW grid is 140 and the groove feels like 70, the correct BPM value is 140, because an editor filtering a tempo range is matching the grid they will cut to. Record the halftime feel in a separate tempo-feel or notes field instead.
What do I put for key on a modal or atonal track?
For modal material, enter the defensible tonal centre such as D Minor and put the detail in notes, for example "D Dorian, modal, no dominant resolution". For atonal cues, drones and sound design, enter Atonal or No fixed key rather than guessing, and describe the pitch content if it helps, such as "dark low drone centred around D".
Do alt mixes need their own BPM and key values?
Only when the musical content actually changed. Instrumentals, no-lead mixes, underscores and 60/30/15 edits keep the parent values because they are trims or mutes of the same performance. A transposed broadcast edit, a half-time remix, or a re-cut with a new ending needs its own values, and those are the ones worth auditing rather than inheriting.
Is it better to leave BPM blank or estimate it?
Leave it blank on genuinely free-time, rubato or ambient material. A fabricated tempo puts your cue in front of an editor who needed something rhythmic, which costs more than being absent from that filter. On any cue with a real grid, fill it in, because a blank there removes you from searches you would have matched.
Should I use Camelot notation in the key field?
No. Camelot or DJ notation such as 8A is not meaningful to music supervisors, editors or composers, who expect standard notation like F# Minor. If you also service DJ clients, keep Camelot in a separate optional field. Also pick one enharmonic spelling per catalog, since allowing both F# Minor and Gb Minor splits one filter bucket in two.
