A Student’s Guide on How to Cite Music

Short answer: to cite a song, you need the songwriter’s or artist’s name, the title in quotation marks, the album title in italics, the record label, and the date of publication, arranged differently depending on whether you’re writing in MLA, APA, or Chicago format. The exact template also depends on where you found the song: streaming audio, a full album, or a music video.

This guide breaks down how to cite a song in MLA, APA, and Chicago, with worked examples for each. You’ll also find the format for citing an entire album, a music video, and what changes when a song has been covered or rerecorded by a different singer than the one who created it. Getting a song’s citation right isn’t just about avoiding plagiarism. It shows respect for the artist’s work and strengthens your own academic voice.

A quick note: While these guidelines are thorough, your instructor’s directions always take precedence. Always check your assignment rubric first, since some instructors want the access date included even when a style guide doesn’t require it.

The Building Blocks of a Song Citation

Before diving into specific styles, gather the following details for the song you want to cite. Most song citations, in any format, need a similar set of core facts. Treat this as a pre-writing checklist. When you find a song you want to use, collect this information first, and the citation itself will come together quickly.

• Artist: The person or group who performs the song, sometimes called the recording artist.
• Songwriter/Composer: The person who wrote the song, meaning the lyrics and melody. This can be the same person as the artist, or a different singer or writer entirely. In APA style, the songwriter usually comes first.
• Song Title: The specific name of the track.
• Album Title: The name of the album or collection the song appears on.
• Record Label: The company that produced and distributed the song, sometimes listed under its parent company (e.g., Columbia, Interscope).
• Date of Publication: The year, and sometimes the exact date, the song was published or officially released.
• Track Number: The song’s number on the album.
• Format/Medium: How you accessed the song. Was it a CD, a vinyl record, an audio file from iTunes, or a streaming service like Spotify? A song recorded decades ago on vinyl may cite differently than the same song recorded for a modern streaming release.
• URL or DOI: If you accessed the song online, you’ll need the web address, and in some styles the exact date you accessed it, similar to when you’re citing a website in an essay, since a streaming service is really just another kind of website. Keep this information together, and double-check the information against the recording itself, before you start writing the citation.
• Other Contributors: Were there other key contributors, like a featured musician, producer, or someone interviewed for the liner notes, relevant to your discussion?

Streaming, Album, or Music Video: Choose the Right Format

When citing a song, start by identifying where you found it, since that decides which template you use. A song streamed on Spotify or Apple Music, a full album, and a music video on YouTube each need a slightly different template, mainly in whether you list the title of song or the whole record, and what URL you include. The table below shows what changes in each case before the style-specific sections walk through full examples.

Where You Found It	What Changes
Streaming audio (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.)	Cite the song as an individual track, and include the streaming URL and the platform or service name.
Full album	Cite the whole record instead of one track. The title is dropped, and the album title moves into the main position of the citation.
Music video (YouTube, Vevo, etc.)	Treat it as a video: include the uploader’s name (often the artist or record label’s channel) and the video URL. See our YouTube citation guide for the full template.

MLA Format for a Song Citation

MLA format is common in the humanities. Its guiding principle is to make the citation clear and point the reader to the specific recording you used. The MLA Handbook’s flexible system works well however you access a song today.

MLA puts the performing musician first. Start the citation with their name, put the title in quotation marks, and italicize the album title. It’s a clean, logical system.

For your in-text reference in MLA format, use the artist’s surname in a parenthetical citation. If you quote lyrics, include timestamps if available, just as you would a page number for a book.

In-Text Citation Example:

The song’s narrator declares, “clap along if you feel like that’s what you wanna do” (Williams 0:16-0:19).

APA Format for a Song Reference

APA is most common in the social sciences. A key feature of APA format is its emphasis on the date of publication and the creator of the work. APA cares about exactly when a work was published, so for a song, the songwriter or composer is usually listed first, not the performing artist. This structure, sometimes called an APA reference for a song or a song citation in APA style, prioritizes the writer over the performer.

The official APA Style blog provides great resources for referencing both a single song and a full album. Notice how the following structure prioritizes the writer and the date.

What if the song has been covered or rerecorded by a different singer? APA still lists the original songwriter first, then adds the performing artist’s name in brackets after the title, since that’s the specific recording your reader can find. If a singer covers a song someone else wrote, credit the writer as the author and note the performing artist’s version separately, since a live version or a studio version of the same song can even need its own note.

Your in-text references in APA include the author’s surname and the year of publication. When quoting lyrics, include the timestamp. This is the parenthetical form. APA also allows a narrative version, where the songwriter’s surname appears in your sentence itself and only the year sits in parentheses. A narrative citation might read: Williams (2014) captures a feeling of infectious joy.

In-Text Citation Example:

The song encourages a feeling of infectious joy, suggesting that happiness is a room “without a roof” (Williams, 2014, 1:05).

Chicago Style for a Song Citation

Chicago is often used in history and some other humanities fields. It offers two systems, notes-bibliography and author-date. Chicago also cares about exactly where and when a song was published. For a song, the notes-bibliography style is more common and flexible, using footnotes or endnotes for in-text citations and a bibliography at the end.

A curious quirk of Chicago style is that audio recordings are often listed in a separate discography rather than the main bibliography. It’s a way to neatly categorize different types of recordings. The Chicago Manual itself has a Q&A section with a helpful page on song citation rules.

Chicago doesn’t use a parenthetical citation in the running text at all. The in-text citation is simply the superscript note number, and the full details live in the footnote. This keeps the body of your paper looking clean and uncluttered.

The three formats side by side, as templates:

Style	Format
MLA 9	Performer Last Name, First Name. “Song Title.” Album Title, Publisher, Year, URL.
APA 7	Songwriter Last Name, F. (Year). Song title [Song]. On Album title. Record Company. URL
Chicago 17 (Bibliography)	Performer Last Name, First Name. “Song Title.” On Album Title. Date. Streaming service audio, length, URL.

One Song, Three Styles: A Quick-Reference Example

Here’s how the same song, “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, looks once you drop the details into each style. Use it to check title of song placement and your own citation against a finished example.

Style	Citation
MLA 9	Williams, Pharrell. “Happy.” Girl, Columbia Records, 2014, open.spotify.com/track/60nZcImufyMA1MKQY3dcCH.
APA 7	Williams, P. (2014). Happy [Song]. On Girl. Columbia Records. https://music.apple.com/us/album/happy-from-despicable-me-2/863835302?i=863835363
Chicago 17 (Bibliography)	Williams, Pharrell. “Happy.” Columbia Records, 2014. Streaming audio.

Beyond the Basics: Liner Notes and Classical Works

But what about when your discussion focuses on something other than a pop song? Academic inquiry demands we look deeper, and our citing practices must follow. Once cited correctly, liner notes and classical works add real depth to a paper and show your scholarly rigor.

Liner Notes

Liner notes, the essays and credits included with an album, can be a treasure trove of information. I remember holding the slick booklet from a CD, the smell of paper and plastic, reading the thank-yous and production details. To cite an essay from liner notes, treat it like a chapter in a book.

MLA Example:

Fricke, David. “The Story of ‘Born to Run’.” Liner notes. Born to Run: 30th Anniversary Edition, by Bruce Springsteen, Columbia Records, 2005.

Classical Works

When you cite a classical work, the composer comes first. The artist, orchestra, and conductor also matter, but the composer is listed before them. Include specific identifying details, like opus or catalog numbers.

MLA Example:

Ludwig van Beethoven. Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67. Performed by the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, Deutsche Grammophon, 1984.

Notice the opus number (Op. 67) is included above. This level of detail is critical for classical works. For the in-text citation, use the composer’s name, e.g., (Ludwig van Beethoven).

Frequently Asked Questions

Integrating Lyrics and Final Thoughts

Knowing how to cite songs is one thing. Weaving their lyrics into your essay is another. When you quote lyrics, if the quote is short (typically three lines or fewer), enclose it in quotation marks within your paragraph. For longer quotes, use a block quote format. And remember your in-text citation! Learning how to introduce quotations properly will make your writing flow much better.

Ultimately, knowing how to cite songs correctly is about being a responsible, thorough scholar, especially if your assignment follows a specific essay format. It connects your work to a broader cultural conversation and is a skill that will serve you in any academic field. If you’re ever in doubt, tools like a citation generator can be a lifesaver, but it’s always good to understand the underlying rules. So go ahead. Cite that song. Let its voice strengthen yours.