Wikipedia:Notability (music)

This page documents an English Wikipedia notability guideline. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page.

Shortcuts WP:NMG WP:NMUSIC WP:NM

This page in a nutshell: This page lists the specific criteria for whether musicians, ensembles, composers, lyricists, albums, singles, and songs are notable. These criteria inform the decision whether an article should be dedicated to these people or works.

This page provides a guideline for editors in applying the concept of notability to topics related to music, including artists, bands, albums, and songs. Failing to satisfy the notability guidelines is not a criterion for speedy deletion. An article on an artist or band that does not indicate that the subject of the article is important or significant can be speedily deleted under criterion A7. A mere claim of significance, even if contested, may avoid speedy deletion under A7, requiring a full proposed deletion or articles for deletion process to determine if the article should be included in Wikipedia.

Many who spend significant time improving Wikipedia's musical coverage feel that notability is required for a musical topic (such as a band or musical theatre group) to deserve an encyclopedia article. Please note that the failure to meet any of these criteria does not mean an article must be deleted; conversely, meeting any of these criteria does not mean that an article must be kept. Rather, these are rules of thumb used by some editors when deciding whether or not to keep an article that is listed at articles for deletion.

To meet Wikipedia's standards for verifiability and notability, the article in question must actually document that the criterion is true. It is not enough to make unsourced or poorly sourced claims in the article, or to assert a band's importance on a talk page or AfD page – the article itself must document notability through the use of reliable sources, and no criterion listed in this page confers an exemption from having to reliably source the article just because passage of the criterion has been claimed.

See also WP:NBIO for notability guidelines for biography articles in general.