What The Hexx Is DDEX?

Digital Data Exchange (DDEX) is an international standards-setting organization that was formed in 2006 to develop standards that enable music rights owners and other music companies such as Digital Service Providers (DSPs like Spotify) and anyone else in the digital music ecosystem to communicate information along the digital supply chain more efficiently (and less painfully!). To date, over 15,000 DDEX implementation licenses have been issued.

If you work at a record label, distributor, music publisher, DSP, neighboring rights organization, or metadata company, this blog is for you. Why? Because understanding and correctly implementing DDEX standards is critical to the way music metadata is shared, royalties are tracked, and revenue flows through the digital music ecosystem.

Whether you’re delivering assets, reporting usage, or managing rights, DDEX formats form the backbone of efficient and accurate communication between industry partners. Much of the language used by DDEX is now becoming standard terminology within the industry.

Be prepared as this is a heavy informative blog and if you need help or guidance on DDEX feel free to reach out to us at Synchtank and see how we can help with the heavy lifting!

Decoding DDEX

There are actually ten suites of DDEX standards that cater for different types of music companies, the rights they handle and the metadata they need to communicate.

Today we will highlight the key formats you need to know about:

• ERN – Electronic Release Notification
• MEAD – Media Enrichment and Description
• PIE – Party Identification and Enrichment
• MWDR – Musical Work Data and Rights Standards
• RDR – Recording Data and Rights

Throughout this article we will be referring to the ‘message structure’. This basically means that each of the formats sets out guidelines for the type of data that is being transmitted from one company to another using that particular message standard.

But first…

Matching DDEX Standards to the Roles Across the Music Industry

You’re probably thinking “That’s a lot of formats! Which one do I need? How much will it cost me? Do I need to understand XML files?” – don’t worry, we’ve got you.

Which DDEX format do you need?

• Record Labels you’ll need ERN, MEAD, PIE
• Distributors you’ll need ERN, MEAD, PIE
• Publishers you’ll need MWDR suite (MWN, MWL, LoD, etc.)
• DSP’s you’ll need DSR, ERN, MEAD, PIE
• Neighbouring rights orgs you’ll need RDR
• Metadata companies you’ll need PIE, MEAD

The good news is that the DDEX standards are free for anyone to implement! You don’t even need to be a member of DDEX, you just need to apply for an Implementation Licence.

The main costs are those of developing whatever system you are using to ingest and output your music metadata to be able to cater for these standards.

As for which format you need, well to answer that I need to use a phrase that often frustrates my colleagues when they ask me questions about the music industry, “it depends on what you need to do…”

If you’re a label wanting to schedule releases and send metadata to DSPs then ERN, MEAD and PIE are for you. If you’re a publisher wanting to send enhanced metadata to DSPs, pick the MWDR suite. The great thing about DDEX is that it’s modular, so you can use as little or as much as you need.

Below is a table we have put together to showcase the message type, who it’s used by and the purpose to help you locate the right format for your needs. 

Overall though, whilst it’s important to understand the formats, the key point for rights owners is to get the metadata right (which I think we all agree is always the most important thing, right?!) and allow a service like Synchtank to handle the heavy lifting of converting that data into the various DDEX formats using modules such as our Release Deals and sending it to the relevant parties using our Delivery Module.

Below dives into the full details of the key formats we previously listed.

ERN – Electronic Release Notification

ERN enables the communication of data about newly available releases and resources, such as sound recordings and music videos, and the terms under which those releases or resources can be made available by DSPs as digital products.

ERN is mostly used by record labels and distributors to communicate release information with DSPs. Key adopters are Universal Music Group, Beggars Group, Spotify and YouTube.

The message structure has four main components:

• PartyList: This contains the “who” – details of the artists, musicians, writers, and record companies, which can then be referenced throughout the message.
• ResourceList: The “what” for the tracks – details of the different resources that make up the entire release, e.g. sound recordings, music videos or images.
• ReleaseList: The “what” for the products – the different releases that make up the “product” being described, which can include both album releases and individual track releases.
• DealList: The “when, where and how” the releases can be made available by the DSP to consumers, including which territories, commercial models (which describe how consumers will pay for the music – subscription, pay per download, etc), usage types (how the user will get the music – stream, download, etc), pricing, and deal validity periods. One key point here is that the ERN structure can be used for pre-orders, instant gratification tracks and takedowns as well as standard releases.

The ERN can also reference related MEAD or PIE messages, allowing the rights owner to direct the DSP to call for extra metadata relating to the releases.

In essence, ERN handles your release scheduling with the DSPs – data relating to release dates and territories, formats, track listings and pricing can be packaged together using systems such as Synchtank’s Release Deals functionality and sent to DSPs for them to release to consumers.

MEAD – Media Enrichment and Description

The MEAD format enables the communication of enriched data about releases, resources, such as sound recordings and music videos, and musical works.

MEAD provides data that significantly supplements the core supply chain and rights management data that is communicated using ERN, this can include:

• Artist biographies and images
• Lyrics and liner notes
• Marketing information
• Historical chart positions
• Focus tracks for promotion

The MEAD message is again mostly used by record companies and distributors, but also is also helpful for DSPs seeking enhanced content to assist with curation and consumer discovery – it allows for additional categories of information to be associated with a release to help marketing and consumer discovery, directly improving user engagement and music discoverability.

PIE – Party Identification and Enrichment

PIE enables the communication of fuller information about parties such as writers, recording artists, studio personnel, labels and others.

Whilst MEAD is all about the releases, resources and musical works, PIE focuses on the individuals or organizations that have contributed in some way to the creation of a musical work, sound recording or music video.

PIE offers over fifty data points that can be communicated about parties, including:

• Biographical information and artist backgrounds
• Historical chart positions and awards won by artists
• Information about “focus tracks” (which can be for voice-activated services for example)
• Journalistic material and reviews
• Extended information of particular interest for classical music
• Names of other parties that have influenced a writer or artist

PIE is designed as a modular standard, so users can gain benefits from implementing only a small subset of PIE features. Companies have successfully implemented PIE with just a few data points and expanded over time as their business requirements grow, finding increased revenue from streaming services as a result.

PIE is particularly valuable for voice-activated music discovery such as smart speakers, where rich artist metadata helps improve search accuracy. For example, when someone asks Alexa for “that latest Chappell Roan track”, PIE data helps identify which recording should be played based on marketing campaigns and promotional focus, rather than just the most recently released track.

PIE is again mostly used by record companies and distributors to send rich artist data, as well as metadata companies specializing in artist information and DSPs seeking to enhance user experience with detailed artist information.

MWDR – Musical Work Data and Rights Standards

Whilst the message formats above cater mostly for record label and distributor information, DDEX also have formats for the music publishing community, most importantly in the Musical Work Data and Rights (MWDR, ominously pronounced Mordor!) suite.

As discussed most recently at the Society Publisher Forum in Toronto on June 25th, the MWDR family of standards can be used to complement CWR (Common Works Registration) to provide enriched metadata relating to musical works.

This family includes four key standards:

• Musical Work Right Share Notification (MWN): MWN enables the exchange of information about rights claims in musical works, as well as handling conflicts between rights owners. Music licensees can also use the MWN format to request claim information from rights owners.
• US Musical Work Licensing (MWL): MWL enables record companies to request mechanical licences from publishers in musical works, primarily in the US and other countries where collective mechanical licensing differs from the rest of the world. Publishers can provide or reject licenses using the format too.
• Letter of Direction (LoD): These are used to handle notifications regarding changes in catalogue ownership and acquisitions, allowing bulk transfers of catalogue from the previous owner to the new owner.
• Bulk Communication of Work and Recording Metadata (BWARM): BWARM is a relatively new format that provides a mechanism for the communication of data about musical works, sound recordings or music videos that make use of those musical works, as well as musical work right shares in bulk feeds.  It’s designed for communicating large sets of musical works efficiently and supports right share information for large catalogs, as well as the key function of linking works and recordings.

MWDR is used by music publishers, mechanical rights organisations (most notably the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) in the US), DSPs and record companies seeking licenses.

RDR – Recording Data and Rights

Sometimes historically neglected as a source of income for record companies but more recently a growth area as seen by the proliferation of neighbouring rights agencies, recording performance income (as opposed to publishing performing rights income) is also catered for through DDEX.

The RDR standards enable the exchange of data about sound recordings and music videos in respect of the rights administered by music licensing companies such as Soundexchange, PPL and GVL.

The major components are RDR-C, which is the main communication protocol, RDR-N, which is the key notification format covering recordings and rights claims and RDR-R which is used for neighbouring right revenue reporting. RDR key users are neighbouring rights societies, music licensing companies and record companies.

Also worth a notable mention are Digital Sales Reporting (DSR), which handles metadata about sales and usage generated by DSPs to the relevant rights owners and the Claim Detail Message (CDM), which provides a format for a response to a sales/usage report received by an owner/administrator of musical works to assert ownership for the works identified in the sales or usage report.