Digital Data Exchange (DDEX) – a not-for-profit organisation of media companies, music licencing organisations and digital service providers, working to establish voluntary standards that support efficient digital distribution of digital content – has announced two new standards.
The Recording Information Notification (RIN) and the Digital Sales Report (DSR) format support rationalising and automating the exchange of information needed to licence, track and account for music sales and usage through the digital music supply chain.
‘Widely adopted technical standards are vital to ensuring rights holders get proper credit for their work and get properly paid,’ says Nick Williamson from Music Publishing Operations at Apple and Chairman of DDEX. ‘ DDEX already has standards which are used globally but it has invested in new standards in recent years to keep up with the shifts in industry business models and promote the widest possible use.’
‘An automated global transaction processing infrastructure based on open standards provides operational savings while enabling faster adoption of new and improved digital music options for consumers which ultimately drives revenue for content creators,’ adds Mark Isherwood, member of the DDEX Secretariat.
A 2013 study entitled The Total Economic Impact of The DDEX Standards (conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microgen) showed a 66 per cent reduction in key operations expenses over five years for the various players in the ecosystem that adopt the DDEX data exchange standards. The new standards are expected to increase operational efficiency.
Recording Information Notification (RIN) is an XML file that standardises the metadata describing all aspects of a recording project. It is designed for Digital Audio Workstation manufacturers to enable their users to capture and store essential metadata in a standard form at the point of creation of a musical work and/or sound recording.
DDEX standards and digital music companies rely on ‘good’ metadata being put into the supply chain. One of the best sources for good metadata about music is the place where the music is made: the recording studio. Once studio personnel use the RIN specifications to capture good metadata, this will enable retailers to have better metadata about the products they are selling and it will smooth the process by which all rights holders and other contributors are properly remunerated. The metadata related to these audio files will be interoperable with all the other DDEX standards used to communicate data along the supply chain thus enabling a much more efficient information flow from the studio into the supply chain.
‘RIN will facilitate crediting, ensuring that performers, producers, recording engineers are properly identified and paid for their contributions’, says Maureen Droney, MD at The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wings and a key member of the RIN Working Group. ‘Organisations that collect and distribute performance royalties to creative contributors often find it difficult to obtain information on their identity. With this revenue stream growing it is more important than ever to streamline the process of identifying and paying the appropriate parties’
‘RIN will also enrich the consumer experience, providing technical and creative information on the sound recording’, adds John Sarappo, Director of Engineering at VeVa Sound and also a key member of the RIN Working Group. ‘As an example, notes taken during the recording or mixing sessions can enhance a fan’s enjoyment of the music.’
The Digital Sales Report (DSR) Flat File Standard enables digital service providers to report sales and usage information to rights owners. Such reporting is vital in enabling music publishers and music right societies to make payments to their composers and songwriters. The flat file format is structured to enable complex uses of musical works to be reported in a form that allows music publishers and rights societies to allocate the correct value of royalty to each sale or use for distribution onto the rightful people and organisations.a
Several DDEX member companies have already or are in the process of implementing DSR with their business partners. DDEX expects to further develop this standard for reporting sales and usages to record companies and music licencing companies.
More: www.ddex.net
