Data

The music industry’s much-discussed credits problem has caused musicians to miss out on billions in owed payments. Now, VEVA Sound is partnering with universities to help the next generation of music professionals receive their due recognition and compensation. Nearly 20 institutions have already signed on to the program, including Berklee College of Music, The Blackbird Academy, Fisk University, Middle Tennessee State University, the University of Georgia, and the University of Miami, to name some.

Source: VEVA Sound Is Partnering With Major Music Universities

As part of the one-year exclusive partnership, Session’s Session Studio app will roll out for free to all UBC members, allowing them to capture song and recording data at the point of creation and deliver that data to managers, labels, publishers, CMOs and digital service providers. Session was co-founded by ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus and Swedish songwriters and record-producers Max Martin and Niclas Molinder.

Source: Song data startup Session, co-founded by Max Martin, ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, Niclas Molinder, partners with Brazil collection society UBC

Apple Music has sent word to its label partners and music sector organizations that the company is encouraging the submissions of ISNI metadata as part of its standard workflow procedure. The announcement is excellent news for creators and music industry organizations by helping to ensure that musicians, contributors, record labels, and their music will be unambiguously attributed — while making it easier for Apple Music listeners to find that content than before.

Source: Apple Music Encourages International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) Metadata Submissions by Rights Owners

Music tech company Jaxsta has added a new feature that it says matches works to recordings, allowing users of its database to secure lost royalties, source song licenses and syncs. The so-called work-to-recording data matching technology will provide songwriters, PROs, CMOs, publishers, music supervisors, TV production houses and music lawyers a source to access the right licensing, streamline revenue, and manage works they control, Jaxsta said.

Source: Jaxsta introduces new metadata matching tool for rightsholders

To people who care about literature, data is often seen as a neoliberal bogeyman, the very antithesis of literature and possibly even what’s ruining literature. Plus, people tend to think that data is boring. To be fair, data is sometimes a neoliberal bogeyman, it is sometimes boring, and it may in fact be making literature more boring (more on that to come, too). But that’s precisely why we need to pay attention to it.

Source: Where Is All the Book Data?

PRS claims that “for the first time, metadata attributed to over 2 million works will be published, with plans to release millions more, over the following 12 months.” The new online tool will allow songwriters, composers and music publishers to search and download key data about their works. It will also allow them to highlight any discrepancies.

Source: PRS for Music to launch free portal providing access to songwriter credits and industry identifiers

Speaking at the BofA Securities 2022 Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference, Paramount Pictures Chief Executive Officer Brian Robbins said viewership data from Paramount+ helps the studio decide the types of movies Paramount’s customers want to see, both in theaters and on the company’s various streaming platforms. “The beauty of the service, of having something like Paramount Plus, is now we have all of this data that we get in real-time,” Robbins said.

Source: Paramount using streaming data to green-light movies, studio exec says

Digital creators may choose to distribute their files along with additional data identifying them as the owner. The DMCA prohibits the removal of this metadata but according to a lawsuit filed against YouTube, the platform removed metadata from MP3 uploads. A recent opinion from the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit appears to tip the scales in YouTube’s favor.

Source: Metadata Ruling Gives YouTube a Timely Boost in Content ID Lawsuit * TorrentFreak

Overlapping metadata entries abound, with the music of two or more artists of the same name often being grouped together on the same artist page, creating an arduous task (both for rightsholders and DSPs) of separating out individual artist catalogs after the fact. But what if tagging the wrong artist pages was not just a headache to resolve but also a money-making scheme?

Source: How artists are exploiting lax metadata protections by streaming services

Audoo is working to bring its music identification tool to UK venues under a newly announced initiative called ‘Recognize the Music.’  Recognize the Music aims to “equip venues, bars, stores, and other music-playing public establishments with Audoo’s “Audio Meter.” The tool “is fitted with a discrete plug that easily slots into a standard electrical socket” and pinpoints “what music is playing and securely fingerprints it.”

Source: Audoo Promotes Song Identification Tool In New Venue Initiative