DDEX FAQs
1 Who are the current Charter Members of DDEX?
DDEX has 14 charter members. They are EMI Music, SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), The Harry Fox Agency Inc. (HFA), The MCPS-PRS Alliance Limited, Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique (SACEM), Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE), Apple Computer Inc., Microsoft Corp., Orange, RealNetworks Inc. and Telefonica.
2 Who can join?
Membership of DDEX is open to any organisation with an interest in the digital music value chain. There are two levels of membership open; Contributing and Participating. The yearly dues for these are $10,000 and $2,500 respectively. DDEX currently has nearly thirty Contributing or Participating Members.
The complete list of DDEX Members -- there are more than 40 as of today -- can be found on ddex.net/members_list.htm.
3 What do DDEX members get?
If a business becomes a Contributory Member it will be able to send representatives to Plenary Meetings, have representatives participate in the Working Groups that will define and refine the DDEX Standards and nominate a representative to become a chair of a Working Group. Through active participation, members can ensure that the Standards formulated will meet their particular music industry sector's transaction and information needs. Participating Members receive reports on the progress of the DDEX Standards development, can subscribe to Working Group e-mail reflectors and comment on draft DDEX Standards before they are declared as Standards.
4 Do I have to join DDEX to be able to use the DDEX Standards?
No. You do not have to join DDEX as a member in order to make use of the Standards. Once DDEX Standards have been completed any organisation will be able to use the Standards. However, you will be required to take out an implementation licence from DDEX to do so.
5 What is the purpose of DDEX?
The companies involved in the business of providing digital music already exchange significant amounts of data. However, this industry is growing rapidly in terms of the number of organisations participating, the number of services available to consumers and the volume of transactions to be administered. The industry needs to adopt standards in order to simplify vital business processes for the future.
In the current environment the exchanges of data between individual partners is carried out largely using various proprietary solutions. This means non-standard content information files going from labels to digital music service providers and non-standard sales reports coming from these partners back to record labels and music rights societies. Attempting to accommodate all solutions increases complexity for all involved leading to increased risk of errors and increased effort in processing.
DDEX has recently declared the four standards and one recommendation which including two message standards for the communication of data to music service providers about the music content available and the communication back to rights owners or their agents of data about sales of the music content to enable onward payment of royalties to artists, music publishers and composers.
6 Why is this so important?
A key driver for success within the digital music business is the smooth flow of information between parties. There is a very clear cycle of data on which the business is dependent. Commercial partners need to receive from record labels detailed information about the releases offered and available for sale. This is key to making a release available to the consumer. Equally record labels and music rights societies require that sales are reported back to them. This is key to accounting back to artists, music publishers and composers.
In this way, DDEX has and will continue deliver standard communication solutions, so that music metadata (of the type described in the previous paragraph) can be carried along the digital music value chain, for the benefit of all; consumers, music creators and digital services supporting legal transactions.
This is the first time all these leading players in digital music have agreed to jointly work together to solve these serious multi-industry problems around digital music distribution.
7 How long have you been working on DDEX?
The initial Charter Members started as early as July 2005. Subsequently, from December 2005, the Charter Members worked under a Memorandum of Understanding whilst finalising the details of DDEX before its final launch in May 2006.
8 What are the current DDEX Standards?
DDEX has published four standards and one recommendation so far. The purpose of each of these standards and recommendations is as follows:
-
Electronic Release
Notification Message Suite (ERN): Series
of computer readable messages that enable content
owners and/or distributors to automatically send
metadata (e.g. artist name, album name, track
names, release dates, etc.) about releases to
music digital service providers so that they can
be made available to consumers.
Version 1.0 of the ERN Message Suite Standard was approved in October 2006. An updated version 2.0 was published on 6 June 2007. -
Digital Sales Report
Message Suite (DSR): Series of computer
readable messages that enable music digital
service to automatically send metadata about
sales of music to consumers to music rights
owners or their agents (such as record companies
and music rights societies).
Version 1.0 of the DSR Message Suite Standard was approved in October 2006. An updated version 2.0 was published on 6 June 2007. - DDEX Data Dictionary Standard: Contains all the terms used in the messages and their definitions. With issuance of each of the DDEX Message Suite standards, DDEX has also updated its Data Dictionary.
- DDEX Party Identifier Standard (DPID): This is a unique alpha-numeric string that will be allocated to any organisation wishing to exchange messages using the DDEX message standards that enables other DDEX message standard users to uniquely identify the sender and receiver of the messages.
- FTP Recommendation: This document provides guidance on how to exchange DDEX Messages using the File Transfer Proticol (FTP).
9 Does any supporting documentation exist?
Yes. The following supporting documentation is avialble to organisations that want to evaluate or implement the DDEX standards:
- A non-technical description of the messaging standards for business development and corporate developent personnel of organisations that are considering implementation of DDEX Standards.
- A selection of use cases that will provide guidance and best practices to implementers on how to use the standards.
- Comparisons between different versions of DDEX Standards (e.g. ERN v1.0 and ERN v2.0) to aid implementers in updating their systems.
DDEX anticipates that it will regularly update these documents and invites comments and suggestions to enhance these crucial assets.
10 What happens to these standards now that they have been approved?
We anticipate that these standards will continuously evolve to accommodate implementation experiences and new requirements. This process is already evident by the recent approval of Versions 2.0 of the ERN and DSR Message Suite Standards.
In addition, DDEX is working to define additional messaging standards to communicate information in other transactions that occur within the digital music value chain. It is anticipated that more standards will be available by the end of 2007 or early 2008.
11 How is this beneficial to artists and writers?
Standard communication formats will simplify and increase the accuracy of key processes on which artist and writers depend. Digital sales reports are key to driving royalty reporting whilst licensing permissions are key to ensuring that repertoire is made available for sale in as many places as rights permit.
12 How is this beneficial to the consumer?
Standard communication formats will simplify and increase the accuracy of one of the key processes involved in making content available for sale by digital music service providers to consumers. This means that metadata can more easily and accurately be sent to commercial partners. This will improve the digital supply chain process that will enable better quality information to reach the end consumer and may facilitate more releases being made available for sale.
13 How does the affect music retailers and consumers?
Clear communication standards for the exchange of information on uses of music in the digital space will make it easier for all retailers and consumers of music moving forward. These parties, as well as the music creators whose content is being used, will be enabled to receive and transfer information faster with fewer errors, with less systems development and in a more automated fashion.
14 How does DDEX relate to DRM or audio formats?
It does not. DDEX is developing communication standards only.
15 Is this a solution for consumer audio interoperability?
No. DDEX is developing communication standards only. Interoperability at a consumer level, whilst of interest to member companies, is a matter for other standard setting organisations to consider.
16 Will commercial information be exchanged between labels?
No.
17 Is the personally identifiable information (PII) of consumers being shared?
No data about individual music consumers will be contained within these communication standards. DDEX is about supporting B2B communication at a wholesale level.
