The UK government's Intellectual Property Office is inviting stakeholders from across the music rights industry to input into a study looking at music metadata.
The study has been commissioned as part of the ongoing economics of streaming work that was the instigated by the government following Parliament's inquiry into the digital music business. Among many other things, that inquiry considered metadata issues that stop many music-makers from being credited in the digital domain and also impact how songwriters get paid - if at all - when their music is streamed.
Earlier this year, companies and organisations from across the music industry signed an agreement on metadata, committing to try harder to get more data about songs and music-makers into the system when new music is released. The IPO has now convened two working groups to help the industry make good on the commitment, one focused on technical solutions and another on education.
The former is overseeing this study, which is looking at how metadata around a new recording is gathered and managed in different music-making scenarios, and what challenges need to be met in order for more extensive metadata to be routinely delivered to the streaming services with each new release.
Specific questions being considered include: “What ‘identifiers’ are used for works, recordings, writers and performers? What problems exist when dealing with incoming metadata? What works and what does not?”
The IPO says: "The Technical Solutions Group wants to hear from anyone in the music industry involved with music metadata. Interviews can be in person, virtually or by correspondence [and] the results will be anonymised".
Anyone wishing to take part in the study should email [email protected]