Image source @ Visual China
Text | Musical precursor, author | Friends, Editor | Fan Zhihui
"A large number of new songs are released every day, many of which have very little metadata and lack link identifiers, which creates huge problems for the music industry."
In order to solve the long-standing "black box" royalty problem in the music industry, Bj rn Ulvaeus, a member of the well-known Swedish music group ABBA, and his music producers Max Martin and Niclas Molinder jointly launched an online free music collaboration platform Session, which aims to "change the mechanism of the music industry to motivate and reward creators".
What we wonder is why, in a situation where most musicians can't survive on music, there are so many royalties that can't be distributed correctly every year. And how will the newly launched Session solve the thorny historical problem of "black box"?
Session's "black box" solution
Due to metadata issues, $655 million in annual copyright revenue worldwide is not properly distributed.
Metadata usually refers to the information we see on music streaming platforms that is closely related to the song, including the song name, singer, lyrics, composition, record label, distribution company, and so on. These data need to be synchronized with the distribution and circulation of songs across various platforms and various media as they are distributed as a basis for the distribution of copyright income.
Due to the incomplete release of creator data, inaccurate distribution to the downstream, etc., so many royalties are unknown every year and are not accurately paid to music creators, a phenomenon known as the "black box phenomenon".
These royalties are largely unclaimed because they are not attributed to specific musicians, and eventually go to record labels or streaming platforms.
Today's musical works often involve a large number of creators, coupled with the increasingly diverse platforms and media for song circulation, the path of song royalty income generation has become more and more complicated, and the phenomenon of black boxes has also become more and more intense. The harm of this phenomenon is obvious, seriously infringing on the rights and interests of music creators, making the original meager music income even worse.
Based on this pain point, the core function of Session is to set up around accurate song metadata collection, synchronization, and distribution. According to the official website, the main functions of the Session are divided into six major sections: creator collaboration, synchronized song information, authoritative data sharing, clear branch work, data management, and creator confirmation. At present, it can be used simultaneously on the web, mobile device and PC side, and it is completely free for creators.
In effect, Session Studio is embedded in a digital audio workstation (DAW), so that as soon as the creator starts creating, the background begins to capture the song's information and data without having to spend time and effort on its own. Subsequently, the platform records the division of labor of each creator through the "Creator Points" system and reaches a consensus on royalty sharing among creators.
When the song is composed and ready to be released online, session's profile sends the song's metadata to record labels, songwriting rights management companies, and copyright collective management associations in a canonical format as the basis for the distribution of copyright revenue.
In a previous joint statement, Molinder, Martin and Ulvaus said the Session aims to "collaborate with other partners in the industry through technological innovation" and that its meaning is to "create a trusted benchmark that is open to all those who need to register copyrights, claims and pay for copyrights."
It can be seen that by standardizing the metadata collection and entry of songs from the source, rather than secondary entry led by the distributor, and enabling stakeholders to supervise the distribution of copyright income in the form of an open platform, the "information island" of song metadata is broken and the problem of lack of authoritative data is solved.
Today, the new data tool has received more than £1 million in investment from Spotify and YouTube, and is backed by ProTools maker Avid, Universal Music and DDEX (Digital Data Exchange).
Of course, Session wasn't a "turnout", as early as a few years ago, the three founders of Session launched the song data center Auddly to fill the gap in the music industry's data and capital flow. The new product Session launched this time is an iteration of Auddly. In 2021, Ulvaeus launched the Credit Due campaign, focusing on ensuring that the identity of creators is recognized and paid accordingly in the dissemination of works.
The most prominent contribution of the Credit Due movement is to clarify the five types of data that need to be recognized when the metadata flows, including the ISWC (International Standard Musical Works Code) for songwriting works, ISRC (International Standard Audiovisual Product Code) for phonograms, IPN for performers (International Performer Code), and ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier). The movement was the first to gain support from music companies such as BGM, SoundCloud, Hipgnosis and Kobalt Music Publishing.
In simple terms, sessions have made a good start to the standardized distribution of royalty income distribution, but sorting out copyright chaos and allowing creators to obtain reasonable income is a long way for the world.
"Technical problem solving" is just the starting point
Long before, there were many practitioners overseas who tried to solve the "black box" problem.
As mentioned above, DDEX, a consortium of three major records, Google, Apple, Amazon, Tencent Music, ASCAP and other industry parties, aims to improve the metadata problems of the entire music industry and explore international standards in the flow of information.
The online platform SongSplits also offers a service similar to Session, where musicians can manage the artists of songs and their percentage of ownership on the web, while it also creates a communication community for musicians to find partners, attracting 250,000 musicians. But for now the platform seems to be facing operational woes, with data on the page stuck in 2019 and its founders crowdfunding on the investment site startup engine.
Compared with other homogeneous services, Session's progress lies in the results of "technology", Ulvaeus first integrated the industry's opinion support, strengthening the industry's consensus on the importance of metadata in copyright revenue, while Session's launch as a technology supplement turned the campaign proposition into practical results, which also brought him a significant investment.
It is understood that from the development of Auddly, Credit Due to Session, BMG has always been its staunch advocate. The reason is none other, which is in line with the positioning of BMG's service musicians. In April 2021, BMG accelerated payments to more than 20,000 UK and US songwriters and, in its new contract, increased the statute of limitations for the distribution of copyright revenue from "90 days after the end of the royalties period" to 60 days under the old contract.
In addition to the efficiency gains, BMG also announced the removal of the "The Controlled Composition clause" from record contracts to boost copyright revenue for creators and artists. According to the record industry's tradition of agreement, an artist adds a song of his own creation to an album, and after the record company purchases your license, it will only charge 75% of the copy royalties to the songs in subsequent shares, sometimes even lower; and a cap (usually 10-12 songs) will be set to further reduce the total mechanical royalties paid by the record company for a particular album.
Unlike music companies such as BMG, SoundCloud, and Hipgnosis, which stand on the side of musicians, the decision-makers of streaming media platforms are very "head iron". In October 2021, mainstream music streaming outlets including Spotify, Apple, Amazon, and Google filed their lowest royalty rates ever filed with the U.S. Royalty Commission.
It is not difficult to see that there are two distinct camps in the industry on the issue of copyright sharing, on the one hand, the record companies represented by BMG and various associations in the industry, which are committed to creating a fair distribution mechanism to ensure the rights and enthusiasm of musicians; on the other hand, there are music streaming platforms, which strive for greater benefits in the game and negotiation with copyright owners.
So, streaming is an important source of copyright revenue, and if policymakers are reluctant to pay creators, the role that Session can play is actually very limited. Technology solutions simply provide a transparent "money-sharing" mechanism, and the entire industry has to strive to achieve the vision of "money to divide" and "willing to share".
At the same time, foreign activities to fight for the rights and interests of creators are also raging. The National Music CopyrightErs Association, for example, has been negotiating with streaming platforms to raise the royalty rates they pay, while The Ivors Academy Trust in the U.K., in conjunction with the Alliance of Musicians, has launched an "anti-buyout campaign" to encourage creators to oppose mandatory contracts.
In contrast, in China, there have always been doubts about the falsification of song playback data on the platform, and from the perspective of the creators, the situation is even worse, the one-time buyout of copyright practice has always been the mainstream, and the income gap between home and abroad is still far from the same.
epilogue
In the rapid change of the music industry, the problems brought by metadata are by no means the only "black boxes" on the road to optimizing the distribution of copyright revenue.
With the rise of various new scenarios such as short video, live broadcasting, secondary creation, and fitness, although Session has put forward a good example of "technology" problem solving, there are still many problems to solve to form a real income stream from theory to reality.
Not to mention, on the issue of entangled copyright distribution, technical support alone is not enough, and more perfect industry rules and standard consensus are needed. At the same time, the law also needs to be updated and adjusted in a timely manner in the flow of the media, so as to more effectively protect the interests of music creators.