The template is not to be a substitute for a section in paragraph form, since a review can not be accurately boiled down to a simple rating out of five stars or other numeric score. If an article is lacking a reception section in prose, but the information is presented in table format, the |noprose=yes parameter can be used to tag the article as needing a reception section in prose.

This template is generally the first element after the heading for the section on Reception, Critical reception, Reviews, or something similar. If one of those sections is not present, the template should be placed immediately after the infobox, and can then be moved once a Reception section is present.

The reviews should be listed alphabetically in the Reviews field. The information in the reviewer field should be the name of the source (most commonly an online music service like AllMusic, or a music magazine like Rolling Stone—note that magazines are italicized). Don't forget to wikilink to the relevant article.

The information in the score field should be the rating given in the review (e.g. 4/5). The rating should use the same format as in the review, to portray the score of the review accurately. For star ratings you should use the star rating template; for example, entering {{Rating|4.5|5}}, will render: .

For reviews at AllMusic it is convenient to use the {{AllMusic}} template.

For review aggregators AnyDecentMusic? and Metacritic it is convenient to use the fields ADM and MC in the template, respectively.

For reviews from Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide you may use the Christgau rating template. For example, entering {{Rating-Christgau|dud}} will render: .

Note that the minus sign character (−) is not the same thing as a hyphen (-), so "B–", not "B-". They appear similar but you can use the proper character by inputting − or using the Insert menu that is available in the editing window on Wikipedia; it is located near other such arithmetic operators like <×> and <÷>.

After the rating should be the citation of the source of the review. Per Wikipedia:Citing sources do not add reviews without a citation. This means a properly formatted footnote, in most cases providing the author, date, and source, along with an external link if available. Do not use an embedded link with no information (e.g. link) as this promotes link rot and is inconsistent with Wikipedia's policy on embedded links. If you must use an embedded link, be sure to manually provide a full citation in the article's References section per Wikipedia:Citing sources.

{{Music ratings
| title = 
| subtitle = 
<!-- Aggregate scores -->
| ADM = 
| MC = 
| aggregate1 = 
| aggregate1score = 
| aggregate2 = 
| aggregate2score = 
| aggregate3 = 
| aggregate3score = 
<!-- ... -->
<!-- Reviewers -->
| rev1 = 
| rev1score = 
| rev2 = 
| rev2score = 
| rev3 = 
| rev3score = 
| rev4 = 
| rev4score = 
| rev5 = 
| rev5score = 
| rev6 = 
| rev6score = 
| rev7 = 
| rev7score = 
| rev8 = 
| rev8score = 
| rev9 = 
| rev9score = 
| rev10 = 
| rev10score = 
<!-- ... -->
<!-- Article needs reviews expanded into prose -->
| noprose = <!--yes-->
}}

Required fields:

rev#

The name of the reviewer. It is recommended to include no more than 10 reviews , but you can add more in exceptional circumstances. For instance, a particularly popular song or album which has been re-released and has several prominent reviews over decades' time.

rev#score

The rating given by the reviewer.

All of the following fields are optional:

title

Can be used to provide a custom title for the table, otherwise, it will default to "Professional ratings".

subtitle

Used to add additional text before the collapsible section. This is necessary to add if want a longer title, as long titles via the "title" parameter will not center correctly.

width

Sets the width of the table; default is 24.2em, to match the width of the song and album infoboxes in most browsers and skins.

ADM

AnyDecentMusic? score.

MC

Metacritic score.

aggregate#

Name of a review aggregator.

aggregate#score

The rating given by the review aggregator.

noprose

Should only be used for articles that do not have a Reception section summarizing the reviews. If set to yes, will categorize articles into Category:Articles with music ratings that need to be turned into prose.

For example, entering

{{Music ratings
| MC = 69/100<ref name="Meta">{{cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/music/black-gives-way-to-blue/alice-in-chains|title=Black Gives Way To Blue|publisher=Metacritic|access-date=2 September 2012}}</ref>
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}<ref name="AM">{{Allmusic |class=album |id=r70661 |tab=review |label=Alice in Chains: ''Dirt'' > Review |first=Steve |last=Huey |accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref>
| rev2 = ''[[Q (magazine)|Q]]''
| rev2score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref name="Q">{{cite magazine |last=Doe |first=Jane |title=Review: ''Dirt'' |magazine=[[Q (magazine)|Q]] |issue=65 |date=February 2002 |page=120}}</ref>
| rev3 = [[Robert Christgau]]
| rev3score = B<ref name="RC">{{cite web |first=Robert |last=Christgau |title=Review: ''Dirt'' |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Alice+in+Chains |publisher=[[Robert Christgau]] |access-date=31 January 2010}}</ref>
}}

will render

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	69/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Q
Robert Christgau	B

and generate the following footnotes with the sources:

• Category:Pages using music ratings with unknown parameters (0)
• Category:Articles with music ratings that need to be turned into prose (11,950)
• Category:Pages using music ratings with duplicate score parameters (0)

• Template:TV ratings
• Template:Film and game ratings