Artists who want to make the most money and reach the most people in the digital music world need to understand music information. Metadata makes sure that all platforms properly identify, categorize, and credit your music. Music metadata is important for your job. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
Why do we need music metadata?
Definition: Music metadata is the information that is stored inside an audio file and tells you about the music. It includes things like the artist’s name, the song title, the record, the genre, and more. It makes sure that your music is properly indexed and given credit everywhere it is played or sold.
Number of Types of Music Metadata
- “Simple Metadata”
[Artist Name]: The main act or group.
- Song Title: The song’s name.
“Album Title” is the name of the record, if it has one. - Genre: The type of song or style.
Track number tells you where in a record the song is.
- Higher Level Metadata
- Release Date: The date the record or track came out.
- Record Label: The company that put out the music.
“Producer” refers to the person or group that made the track. - Composer/Lyricist: The person or people who wrote the music and words.
Artists, session musicians, and other performers are listed under “Contributors.”
- Technical Metadata: ISRC (International Standard Recording Code): A number that makes each recording unique.
- UPC: A unique number that can be used to identify the whole song.
- Bit Rate: This tells you how good the music file is.
- Sample Rate: The amount of audio clips that are sent every second.
- Rights Metadata – Copyright Information: This is information about who owns the song rights.
- Publisher Information: The name of the person or business that releases the music.
Why Metadata Is Important
- Proper Attribution: This makes sure that the right artists, songwriters, and authors are given credit.
— Keeps disagreements about who owns something and who should pay fees to a minimum. - Collecting Money
- Correct metadata makes sure you get all the royalties you deserve from sales, streaming, and shows.
- Metadata is used to send payments by groups like PROs (Performance Rights Organizations) and media distributors.
Third, metadata helps music services and search engines correctly organize your music, which makes it easier for fans to find.
- More streams and downloads can happen when something is easier to find.
- Professionalism: Having complete and correct metadata shows that you are skilled and pay attention to detail.
- Record companies, distributors, and other people with a stake in the industry expect complete metadata.
The Best Ways to Handle Metadata
- Be Complete and Correct
—Fix all of your items by going over them again.
- Include everything that is important, even if it seems unimportant.
- Use Standardized Formats: Make sure that information fields are set up according to industry standards so that they work on all platforms.
Use tools like DDEX (Digital Data Exchange) guidelines to make sure everything is the same. - Keep Up To Date
- Make sure that the metadata is always up to date with any changes, like new partners or updated copyright information.
- Keep track of all of your releases and the information that goes with them.
- Use Metadata Management Tools: To handle metadata, use SoundExchange, Songtrust, or the services of your digital distributor.
- Use the tools that Armus Digital provides to handle and distribute metadata correctly.
Common Metadata Mistakes You Should Not Make
- Incomplete Metadata—Missing areas can cause royalties to be lost and make it harder for people to find your work.
- Make sure that all of the information for every track and album is complete.
- Inconsistent Information—Inconsistencies can lead to misunderstanding and the wrong person being blamed for something.
- Make sure that artist names, titles, and other important details are always the same.
- Wrong Codes: Tracking mistakes can happen when ISRCs and UPCs are used incorrectly.
- Make sure that the codes are given to the right recordings and are unique.
Final Thoughts
Artists need accurate and full music metadata to make sure that the right people are credited, that they get paid, and that their music can be found. You can improve your business image and get the most out of your music by learning about the different types of metadata and how to manage them in the best way. Armus Digital helps artists by giving them the tools and information they need to distribute their songs and keep track of metadata.
This is about Armus Digital:
Armus Digital is a platform for distributing music that helps artists get their songs heard all over the world. It lets you quickly distribute your music to more than 150 platforms, get paid every month, protect your content, earn performance royalties, and use label services. The platform lets artists upload their music, choose which stores to distribute it in, give collaborators, and make UPC and ISRC codes. Armus Digital makes sure that music can be heard all over the world and is properly made money by forming agreements with many digital service providers.