What is Metadata & Why is it Important?

Now more than ever songwriters are asked to be digital-music entrepreneurs by handling tasks that were traditionally the responsibility of others. But vigilance around things like metadata accuracy does pay off, in a very literal sense. Metadata is the foundation of the modern day digital music industry and a key area that independent musicians need to have a solid grasp upon. The information you enter as metadata allows your music to be properly stored, sorted and identified everywhere your music is available. That means platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and even Shazam, thus making your music discoverable. This means that people can find your music, listen to it and license it. Metadata is effectively SEO (search engine optimisation) for your tracks, and also works as an effective catalogue management tool. Furthermore, music royalties are also dependent on your metadata. Without correct data attached to your music, you run the risk of not receiving the proper credit for you streams. And that could mean losing out on monies that belong to you, which no independent professional artist should be doing. The point is to ensure all bags are secured remember? ​​

WHAT IS MUSIC METADATA Simple put, metadata is literally “data about other data”; which gives structure and context to a given set of bits and bytes. Music metadata is the identifying data embedded in a music file, comprised of hundreds of text-based meta tags that are attached via metadata containers (ID3v1 and ID3v2 being by far the most widespread), detailing everything from the artist’s name and the song’s release date to associated genres and songwriters credits. (Source.https://soundcharts.com) TYPES OF METADATA 1. Descriptive Metadata Descriptive Metadata details the contents of the recording, with objective text tags. That includes things like: song title release date track number performing artist cover art main genre, etc. Every time someone needs to organize, sort, or present the music in some way, descriptive metadata is used. For example, it is used to identify it on the radio, to build an artist page on Spotify, etc. 2. Ownership/Performing Rights Metadata Ordinarily, numerous parties are involved when it comes to digital streaming. Whether it’s split between lyricists, songwriters, producers, or all three, the revenue has to be properly split up between those parties somehow. That’s where Ownership/Performing Rights Metadata comes to play. Ownership metadata’s sole purpose is to make sure everyone involved is getting paid accordingly. Royalty splits are incredibly important and can be complicated as it is, don’t make it even harder by inputting inaccurate data. 3. Recommendation Metadata Unlike the first two, Recommendation Metadata is subjective. While the first two types of metadata tags are objective, there’s just one real song name, and just one list of song’s credits recommendation metadata consists of subjective tags that aim to reflect the contents of the recording and describe how it sounds. Mood labels, generative genre tags, song similarity scores etc recommendation metadata is used to make a meaningful connection between tracks and power the recommendation engines. "Making sure you’re digitally credited for the music you make is key to your income—and your success." - Spotify for Artists HOW TO GET YOUR METADATA RIGHT: THE CATEGORIES Here’s a full list of the data you need to confirm before you can distribute your music successfully:

• Track Title: the name of your song

• Genre: the primary genre of your track

• Sub-genre: the secondary genre

• Primary Artist: the main artist on the track. You’ll need to enter this exactly the same way for every track in the release.

• Featured Artists: any other artists featured on the track. Do not write featured artists in the primary artist field—that’s what this one is for!*

• Composer: The person who wrote or contributed music for the song

• Publisher: The publisher representing the composer. Enter the composer name again if there is no publisher.

• Producers: the producer(s) credit on the track

• Additional Contributors: Anyone else that worked on that track that should be credited ISRC: The unique identifier that gives your track its own digital fingerprint. If you don’t have an ISRC for your release LANDR will provide one for free.

• Explicit Content: indicates whether the track contains explicit content

• Lyrics Language: the language of the sung lyrics

• Lyrics publisher: The publisher representing the lyricist/lyrics contributor

• Composition Owner: The owner of the composition rights

• Year of Composition: The year the track was composed

• Master Recording Owner: the owner of the sound recording

• Year of Recording: The year the recording took place.

• Release Language: The language of the release itself.

MISTAKES TO AVOID

• Spelling and formatting errors

Make sure to always spell your track and artist names correctly and exactly the same way each time.

• Enter the correct release language

The release language field indicates the language and character set of your release. Even if the language of the lyrics is different, use this field to enter the language of the metadata you’ve been filling in.

• Don’t try to manipulate the system

Metadata that doesn’t give meaningful information isn’t useful and doesn’t contribute positively to the quality of your release on streaming services. Don’t misrepresent information about your genre or sub-genre for effect. This only makes listeners (and algorithms) confused!

• Pay attention to your album artwork

Album artwork absolutely must be consistent with the metadata entered for the release. You have to give the artwork the same level attention to detail as the rest of the information about your release. Tyler White, Product Manager in the Music Publishers & Songwriters group at Spotify, suggests three actions that all songwriters should take to maximise their revenue as he believes that “Accurate publishing metadata is essential to ensure that you get paid as a songwriter.". 1.) Send your credits and your splits (the percentage you contribute to a track) to the appropriate people before a track is released. By agreeing to the appropriate writing splits with all co-writers and/or producers as early as possible -- and having a written document of this agreement -- you will avoid the unintended result whereby nobody gets credited or paid appropriately. Finally, agree on “label copy” with the artist, manager and label. This refers to how you, as writer or producer, will be listed on the public-view of the song once it is released. 2.) Ensure that whenever you complete a song, you send all the information about it to your publisher and your collecting society or performance rights organisation. Having an accurate registration of a song ensures that you receive publishing royalties from all sources, including but not limited to Spotify. This is important even when you are not certain when or if the song will be released. 3.) Log on to DSPs and ensure that the songs you wrote, entirely or in part, display the proper credit. If not, it likely means that the information was missing or incomplete when the music was ingested. In this case you should contact the company that distributes your work to digital music services, whether that be a label or a digital aggregator. “Your writing credits are like your pension,” “Investing in your publishing data is investing in your long-term future as an artist and your ability to be creative throughout your life.” says White. For more on the importance of Metadata and the resulting loss of billions to artists, check out this article by The Verge.com Or take advantage of our FREE online consultation offer to all members or book your royalty consultation with an expert below. Disclaimer:

This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide legal or accounting advice. Those decisions are ultimately yours to make. We're just here to help 😉 Sources https://blog.landr.com/music-metadata/ https://soundcharts.com/blog/music-metadata https://artists.spotify.com/en/blog/metadata-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters https://www.musicgateway.com/blog/how-to/music-metadata-for-sync-the-music-gateway-bible https://blog.symphonicdistribution.com/2021/05/types-of-music-metadata/ https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/29/18531476/music-industry-song-royalties-metadata-credit-problems