We’ve had our metadata standards included in the music submission guidelines up in our FAQ since the start, but we thought it was time to dive deeper and give you some examples of what we’re talking about! We asked some licensors we’ve enjoyed working with to let us use their songs as examples. Please note, however, the companies mentioned in the metadata text are not connected to this post. Of course, these aren’t laws but including all of this information in the metadata of your audio files really helps us use your music!
I am going to continue today with an example of correct metadata for a recording of an arranged public domain composition – the licensor is claiming an arrangement. In this particular example, we dissect a track from DeWolfe Music USA.
Supe Troop recommends that as much information as possible be included in the metadata of all digital music submissions. A lot of the fields are self-explanatory, but here are some helpful details specifically regarding metadata for a recording of a Public Domain composition. If you want to know about all the fields, please see the complete metadata standards.
- Composer – First name Last name – (Ownership %) (PRO CAE/IPI#) / repeat as many times as needed
- Info should be filled out with full names, PRO information (and CAE/IPI# wherever possible), and splits.
- If it’s a public domain song, start by saying “Public Domain” so that people can sort by the Composer field and all the public domain songs will show up together (i.e. Public Domain – First Name Last Name)
- In this particular example, the licensor is claiming an arrangement of a Public Domain song, so this field starts with “Public Domain Arrangement” so that people will still find the song when sorting by the Composer field amongst the public domain compositions but know that they’re claiming an arrangement [i.e. Public Domain Arrangement – First Name Last Name (Arr)]. This is really helpful because it tells us that it is an arrangement of a public domain composition and who arranged it.
- Genre – Include if you have it, but not required
- BPM – Include if you have it (very helpful), but not required
- Rating – Do NOT include rating. Have this empty so music supervisors can use it themselves if they want.
- Grouping – This is where we learn the sender has the song one-stop.
- The Grouping section includes the company that is the contact the music supervisor is dealing with, not the actual cue sheet publisher name (if they differ).
- Comments – Contact info for licensing party. If you want to include other information, put it here after the contact info please.
- Album – Album name
- Album Artist – Same as Artist above, or nothing
- Disc Number – Include if you have it, not required
- Artwork – Include if you have it, not required
So, now we’ve covered what to include in metadata for a recording of an arranged Public Domain composition, and we’ll be back soon with our next example! Our previous posts in this series discuss metadata for a recording of a public domain composition and for a cover pitched by the master representative.