This options allows users to create slick promo-oriented pages, which include audio and assets such as press shots, biographies and relevant links to send to press contacts! Instead of having of create an email and attach various documents to it, users can now do this directly from the platform, where all of their content and assets are already stored and ready to go. Continue reading
Following on from our previous post detailing the issues that you may face whilst moving distribution, we’re now going to look at the nitty gritty of what you’ll need to prepare in order to move.
The first thing you’ll need to consider when changing distribution is the state of your catalogue, whether you have this stored locally, on a service such as Metable, or whether you’re going to have to rely on your current distributor to return your catalogue.
It may well have passed you by, but The Music Business Association have just launched the Metadata Style Guide Version 2.
The Metadata Style Guide is super import to the evolution of metadata, and how we use it as an industry. Previously, it was just iTunes that had set out their style guide, but the MBA are working with many different companies across the industry – including Google, The Orchard, Spotify, CI, iTunes and Harry Fox Agency – to create a single style guide for the whole industry. This is great, since everyone is agreeing on how metadata should be formatted, it makes it far easier for labels supplying this data through to DSPs to know how they’ll be using that data.
So you’re thinking of changing digital distribution. It’s a fairly common thing these days, distribution has changed hugely over the last 10 years. It’s gone from simply getting your releases up on digital stores, to fully featured label services, in-depth analytics and full marketing support across the world. Whether you’re thinking about switching distributor, of thinking about managing digital distribution yourself, there’s plenty to understand before taking the dive.
Before looking at the intricacies for switching distribution, let’s think about why you might want to change. As mentioned previously, distributors have changed massively since the first digital distributors launched in the early 2000s.
A few months ago, we were approached by the good people at The British Library who were looking for a partner to provide them infrastructure in modernising their music cataloguing processes for the digital age.
As you can imagine, we jumped at the opportunity of collaborating with such a revered and well-known institution! Shortly thereafter, we started working with the music department in developing a platform that would enable the British Library to take in digital feeds from rights-owners, augment this digital core data with third-party metadata from other sources and enable curators at the BL to interact with this content before feeding the results into the Library’s systems.
Beginning by taking digital feeds from labels and distributors, through industry standard DDEX XML, Metable reduced the huge amount of data entry that was required to previously catalogue products. Using our expertise in XML and knowledge of cataloguing standards in music, we worked closely with the curators at the library to map down the data received from labels to fit their standards.
We then looked at how we could enrich this data through taking data that is available elsewhere on the web. Looking at the different APIs that are available, we saw the best coverage and accuracy of data would be given through combining the Discogs, Musicbrainz and Decibel APIs. It was really interesting to see the breadth and depth of the data that was available through these APIs, and seeing how the different models of user generated vs. curated data provided different levels of information across the huge variety in products the library was receiving.
As our normal test record, Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones had a huge amount of in depth data, detailing exactly who played what, who transferred the tapes for digitisation and who came up with the concept for the front cover! But digging down into more obscure records, we were intrigued by the levels of coverage that was returned – some had great depth, and others were not available at all.
Since there is no legal deposit for music in the UK, it has been fascinating seeing how the British Library are keeping ahead of the curve in the digital age. Our ongoing work with the user group within the library has shown how a passion for music combined with a modern approach to cataloguing can really empower a new way of providing a service such as this.
After many months of working closely with the British Library, they are now receiving content that was previously not available to them, allowing them to continue building their amazing resource for future generations.
This is what Alex Wilson from the British Library had to say about the project:
“In these turbulent digital-music waters, the Metable@BL project has transformed the way in which we acquire, manage, process, catalogue, preserve and make sense of the ever-complex digital music supply chain. In a short space of time Metable have given us a system that can be used easily cross-directorate by all staff handling digital assets. As the British Library enters into a long transition of physical to digital media Metable@BL is the perfect platform to enable that to happen now and into the future”
Check out the Metable feature in the Telegraph!
‘How Metable is changing the face of music cataloguing’
It’s safe to say that metadata is one of the current buzzwords in the music industry. You can’t attend an industry event without someone discussing (or complaining about!) metadata in some form or another.
As with other current industry buzzwords (neighbouring rights is another good example), it gets bandied around quite a lot, but there is sometimes a bit of confusion as to what we are talking about and more importantly, why we are talking about it.
Over the coming weeks we will be digging into this sometimes misunderstood and undervalued asset, debunking a few myths along the way and trying to decipher the role that metadata plays across the industry, as well as understanding its importance.
So what is metadata? and what does it mean to us music industry folk? Are we talking about sales data, social data and big data in general? Or are we talking about track titles, ISRCs, album names, etc…? Well, the answer is both.
Let’s start at the beginning with a good old definition… or two.
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Every once in a while we provide a little refresher on one of Metable’s time and money saving functionalities. This month, we look at sharing.
Once your music, metadata and associated assets are on the platform, you can easily share these with members of your team or send them to any relevant contacts, by clicking the “options” button on a track, product, asset, work, or any combination of the above as a Group, and then selecting “share”
This will open up a window giving you a number of options:
A) – [Send Only] – Send a download link via email for that item (and associated assets if it is a product) to the contact(s) of your choice. You can also select the format of your choice when sending tracks or products.
B) – [Read Only] – Send a download link via email for that item to the contact(s) of your choice, but also give them the option to view the item directly in the platform, without granting them editing privileges.
C) – [Edit] – Send a download link via email for that item to the contact(s) of your choice, and also give them the option to view the item directly in the platform, but this time granting them editing privileges
You can also choose the date of expiry for the link, and also limit the number of downloads to suit your requirements and needs.
Happy sharing!