In Good Time
Music Publishing Data: In Good Time
There are two sides to every story and in the case of a song, it's recording and composition. Most people are familiar with the recording component and the artists associated with those songs. In many cases, the artist is also a songwriter, or at least participates in the songwriting process; however, there's often a supporting cast of less visible songwriters attached to the composition that may not receive the same recognition. The data attached to the composition is complicated for a multitude of reasons that I'll be unpacking in parts over the coming weeks/months.
Timing is Everything!
One might think that publishing data is all confirmed by the time an album is released, but it is frequently not the case. At the time of release, the label copy (core metadata) for the recording is often incomplete when it comes to songwriters and other participants:
Songwriter info may be missing or an unconfirmed "best guess"
Songwriter info may be credited to a pseudonym instead of a legal name
Songwriter splits may be unconfirmed/un-registered
Administration of songwriter shares may not be established
The song credits above are an example of how writer credits may appear - pseudonyms, legal names, and the dreaded "first initial only". This song also contained several samples and writers are missing from this credit.
If songwriter metadata isn't confirmed by the time of release, what happens? Well, the release will go out with whatever metadata was provided at the time. A recording could be at the top of the charts but the composition is not yet registered, with a writer still uncredited and ultimately invisible to most. From the clearance perspective, it can take months or even years to track down all the applicable songwriters for a particular recording. It's a race against time to license and pay out the unassigned ("suspense") royalties each payment cycle
For physical releases, changes to the initial label copy require waiting for a reprint where new copies are manufactured and liner notes printed with the updated credits. In the digital world, it seems like updates should be delivered instantly; however, once songwriter metadata is confirmed, an update isn't always sent to necessary parties (such as DSPs), so incomplete or poor quality data is allowed to proliferate. Ultimately, this causes issues and delays with matching recording data to the associated work data, which in turn causes delays with issuing publishing royalties to the correct parties.
What Can We Do About It?
There are active attempts across the industry to do better in this space; for example, securing the metadata info in the studio and delivering it seamlessly through a pipeline to the A&R or publishing administration teams. For this to catch on, metadata capture needs to become part of the creative process and be as easy to deliver as sending a text message from the studio. In addition, driving a data-literate culture for those collecting and entering the data at early stages is critical. They may not even realize the impact of getting the data right at inception, leading to improved matching of recording to composition, increased speed of accurate royalty payments, and more insightful analytics.
The Musical Works Notification message has been in place in the US for several years now, choreographing a message between labels and publishers to confirm songwriter claims on upcoming releases. Similar steps are being taken in the UK, to secure songwriter info earlier in the process - the UK Industry Agreement on Music Streaming Metadata, through the Intellectual Property Office, went into place earlier this year (2023). In an ideal world, all songwriter information would be confirmed prior to the release of an album but in reality, it would delay releases beyond a reasonable timeframe.
As music releases are increasingly global, having disparate methodologies and legislation in different territories may lead to more confusion unless a distinct effort is made to unify. The Credits Due initiative was announced in 2021, which is a global initiative focused on complete and accurate metadata from creation. This would ultimately ensure more accurate royalty payments, and generally has widespread support from industry partners, but is still in the beginning stages.
These are critical steps toward the earlier connection of recording detail to composer claims, but truly closing the gap will require a massive concerted effort from majors and independent artists/songwriters alike, with buy-in at the earliest stages of creation and education across the board.