diff --git a/osu.Game/Beatmaps/BeatmapMetadata.cs b/osu.Game/Beatmaps/BeatmapMetadata.cs
index a3385e3abe..cb38373bd3 100644
--- a/osu.Game/Beatmaps/BeatmapMetadata.cs
+++ b/osu.Game/Beatmaps/BeatmapMetadata.cs
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 // See the LICENCE file in the repository root for full licence text.
 
 using System;
+using JetBrains.Annotations;
 using Newtonsoft.Json;
 using osu.Framework.Testing;
 using osu.Game.Models;
@@ -27,7 +28,7 @@ namespace osu.Game.Beatmaps
         [JsonProperty("artist_unicode")]
         public string ArtistUnicode { get; set; } = string.Empty;
 
-        public RealmUser Author { get; set; } = new RealmUser(); // TODO: not sure we want to initialise this only to have it overwritten by retrieval.
+        public RealmUser Author { get; set; } = null!;
 
         public string Source { get; set; } = string.Empty;
 
@@ -43,6 +44,16 @@ namespace osu.Game.Beatmaps
         public string AudioFile { get; set; } = string.Empty;
         public string BackgroundFile { get; set; } = string.Empty;
 
+        public BeatmapMetadata(RealmUser? user = null)
+        {
+            Author = new RealmUser();
+        }
+
+        [UsedImplicitly] // Realm
+        private BeatmapMetadata()
+        {
+        }
+
         IUser IBeatmapMetadataInfo.Author => Author;
 
         public override string ToString() => this.GetDisplayTitle();