November Events in Stockholm included Biannual Plenary Meeting, the Creator Credit Summit, and the Music Licensing Companies Message Suite and Choreography Standard Implementation Workshop

New York, NY – December 5, 2019 – At its biannual plenary meeting last month in Stockholm, DDEX, the international standards-setting organization for the music industry, announced it had finalized a new standard for the communication of information related to claims and invoices for the use of musical works in sound recordings and music videos. This new standard, the Claim Detail Message (CDM), has been specifically designed to work seamlessly with the widely deployed DDEX Digital Sales Reporting (DSR) standard, replacing earlier formats to better meet the industry’s current needs. The next step is for the CDM standard to receive its final review by all its members and subsequently get signed off by the DDEX Board. It is expected to be published for general implementation in early 2020.

“Our November meetings in Stockholm were a great example of how DDEX both encompasses the breadth of the music industry value chain while also executing quickly to respond to the marketplace: we announced our second new standard in less than a year and put new working groups in place to address specific needs, then stepped up our outreach to both the creative and development communities with the inaugural Creator Credit Summit and Implementation Workshop,” said Paul Dilorito, DDEX Chair and Director of Innovation and Partnerships at PRS for Music. “Our event host, Spotify, really outdid themselves with great locations for all of the week’s events – they’ve raised the bar for our 2020 plenaries in the U.S.!”

The three new working groups cover the following topics: the first, detailing the description,  identification, and communication of interested parties in the music value chain, such as artists, composers and engineers, and, most importantly, the links between them; the second, on description and identification of locations such as music venues and studios, potentially down to the level of “Studio B, Abbey Road Studios”; and the third, an ad-hoc group focused on requirements to support aspects of the infrastructure that will be needed for the new U.S. Mechanical Licensing Collective established under the Music Modernization Act.  All three are now open for sign-up by DDEX members to receive updates and participate in the meetings.

The first Creator Credit Summit was an all-day event at the Vasateatern (Vasa Theater) that highlighted how its standards are used to gather metadata about all the contributors to the creation of musical works and sound recordings through its Recording Information Notification Standard (RIN). Keynote speaker Björn Ulvaeus, the acclaimed songwriter, producer, member of the Swedish super-group ABBA, and entrepreneur, set the tone for the day, striking notes of both humor and seriousness with the wry observation that “music creators come out of their bubble twice a year to look at their royalty statements” – while also stressing how vital it is for music creators to be credited, especially in the digital age: “the recognition may not always lead to money, but can lead to your next gig.” Ulvaeus was followed by discussions of how credits metadata moves through the music industry value chain, from creation to consumers and then back to the creator. Further, Sound Credit, Jammber, VEVA Sound, Creative Passport, Streemliner, and Session presented how their tools are being used to assist in capturing all information about their projects throughout the entire creative process.

The week in Stockholm was capped with a hands-on implementation workshop for the DDEX Music Licensing Company (MLC) Message Suite and Choreography Standard. Over 60 attendees from more than 30 companies packed the room to not only dig into implementation at a detailed level in small groups, but to hear first-hand about the International Performers Database from SCAPR and SAMI as well as the just-announced RDx Project from IFPI/WIN/PPL UK, which will rely on the MLC standard as the mechanism for communication of data.

DDEX plans take Implementation Workshops relating to other standards “on tour” in 2020, with dates and venues to be announced. Mark Isherwood will be speaking at events at NAMM in Los Angeles, CA January 15-18. The next DDEX plenary meetings will be April 20-22 in Cupertino, CA, and November 9-11 on the east coast of the U.S. Other outreach events will also be announced for those weeks early in 2020. Plenary sessions are for DDEX members only, as only members can participate in the creation of a standard; once released, the standards are available for anyone to use.

 

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About DDEX
Formed in 2006, DDEX is an international standards-setting organization made up of leading media companies, music licensing organizations, digital service providers, and technical intermediaries that is dedicated to improving the exchange of data and information across the music industry. To support the automated exchange of information along the digital value chain, DDEX has standardized the format in which information is represented in messages and the method by which the messages are exchanged between business partners. These standards help rights holders, retailers, and technical intermediaries to more effectively communicate information along the digital supply chain. This leads to efficient business transactions, reduced costs, and increased revenues for all sectors involved. DDEX standards are developed and made available for industry-wide implementation. For more information, visit www.ddex.net.

 

The DDEX Standards

There are six families of DDEX standards: Release Delivery, Sales and Usage Reporting, Works Notification and Licensing, Music Licensing Companies’ Communication, Linking Works and Recordings, and Collection of Studio Metadata. The use of standard message formatting speeds up the exchange of information and increases the accuracy of data, improving efficiency along the digital value chain and streamlining content available through digital service providers to consumers. All the major digital players — including digital retailers, digital distributors and aggregators, record companies, music licensing companies, music publishers, musical work rights societies, and various technical service providers — use DDEX standards with over 5,000 implementation licenses issued and growing daily. While anyone can implement a standard, only DDEX members can be part of the standard development process – more information on membership online here.

 

 

DDEX Media Contacts @ Jaybird Communications
Laurie Jakobsen, 646-484-6746, laurie@jaybirdcom.com

Tracy Zamot, 917-579-6704, tracy@jaybirdcom.com