Enrollment Now Open for Free DDEX Standards Implementation Webinars & Workshops;  Next One on MEAD on 26th March  

New York, NY – 10 March 2020  – DDEX, the international standards-setting organisation for the music industry, has formally published its Claim Detail Message (CDM) standard, which can now be implemented by any organisation that already has or which takes out a free DDEX Implementation Licence. CDM was finalised by the Digital Sales Reporting Working Group at the last DDEX plenary in November 2019, and was ratified by the DDEX Board in early February. 

CDM is a sister standard to the Digital Sales Report Standard (DSR), in that it communicates information between companies in the digital music economy about claims and invoices for the use of musical works in sound recordings and music videos, usually in response to a Digital Sales Report. Senders of CDM messages will therefore be music publishers and musical work rights societies and receivers will be distributors and digital music services, and any other entities involved in the use of compositions. A number of companies have already indicated that they are planning to implement aspects of the CDM standard including Apple, BMAT, ICE Services, SACEM, Spotify, SUISA and YouTube.  

“This is the first time a global standard for exchanging information about claims in compositions has been created. We looked at what was best in the various regional and proprietary message formats already being used and then aimed to keep the design very simple, so it will be as straightforward as possible to implement,” Laurent Lemasson, Head of International Technical Projects at SACEM and co-chair of the DSR Working Group. “At the same time, we consolidated what had previously been sent in multiple files from a DSP into a single standardized format: multiple sales types with different royalty calculations – downloads, ad-supported streams, subscription streams, student offers, and more – across different territories, thus reducing the volume of processing considerably, which accelerates reconciliation and ultimately payments.” 

“Adding CDM is the essential, final piece to support the full supply chain between digital service providers (DSPs) and the licensing community to report and pay royalties on the billions of songs people listen to every day all around the world,” said Mark Isherwood, who leads the DDEX Secretariat. “The information contained in the CDM always ties back to a single sales transaction ID, originally created by the DSP, for each and every one of those uses which allows the workflow between the parties to be more fluid and transparent.” 

There are six other families of DDEX standards: They cover Release Deliveries, Media Enrichment and Description, Works Notification and Licensing, Music Licensing Companies’ Communication, Linking Works and Recordings, and Collection of Studio Metadata. The use of standard messages 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 5,500 implementation licences 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 is hosting a series of open Standard Implementation Webinars throughout 2020; the next one is a 26th March webinar on Media Enrichment and Description Standard (MEAD). These webinars are free to attend; for more information and to register go to https://ddex.net/events/. Videos of previous webinars on the Electronic Notification Release Standard (ERN) are also online at https://ddex.net/resources/. 

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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. 

 

 

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

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