With the digitization of music came a problem that no one really thought of ahead of time: metadata. The ability to track and trace music files as they fly from point to point in the industry is absolutely crucial, yet there is no standard system in place to do so.
The only way to ensure that your songs and all of the information associated with them are being accounted it for is through the correct use of metadata. Here’s what we mean:
What is Metadata?
In technology, metadata is the information embedded within a file through text tags. When you swipe up on a photo in your camera roll for example, you’ll find the photo’s date, the make and model of the camera it was taken on, the lens information, the camera settings, and the location it was taken at. All of those things are the metadata that exist within the photo, and travel with it no matter where it’s sent.
For music, metadata works the same way. Instead of camera information, it includes the artist name, song title, genre, label, album name, track number, and ISRC code. As you can imagine, the computer can’t extract this information from the DAW file or final file version of the master. Most music metadata has to be entered manually, which is why it’s so crucial to do it correctly.
What Does Metadata Do to Song Files? What’s it For?
Metadata is necessary in order for music to be properly classified, for songwriters and composers to be properly credited, and for royalties to be properly attributed. Streaming services, PROs, and any music library online rely on metadata to accurately organize, sort, present, identify, and track songs.
As you can see in the example above, there are a number of categories that can be filled out in music metadata. Together, they serve 3 purposes in informing streaming services and other companies of a song’s details.
- Descriptive metadata describes tags like artist name, featured artist, song title, release date, track number, main genre, and year. Most of the time, artist name, song title, and release date can be scraped by Spotify and the like on their own, but further details must be entered manually.
- Ownership rights metadata describes who contributed to the writing and performing of the song: lyricists, producers, songwriters, composers, session musicians, etc. This must be entered manually, as services can’t know this on their own.
- Recommendation metadata describes how the song sounds. These mostly cover mood and subgenres, and these are the tags used by recommendation algorithms on streaming services to suggest music to listeners.
How to Manage Your Metadata
If you’re a signed artist, your label will take care of the metadata side of things for you. If you’re an independent artist, you digital distributor will, given you provide the correct information. Doing it yourself is possible as well if you take care of it before sending the file off to a publisher or distributor, and the easiest means is iTunes.
⭐️ By simply opening your mp3 file in iTunes, right-clicking on it, and selecting “Get Info”, you can manually enter the metadata you want to embed in the file. Export it, and you now have metadata attached to your song.
Unfortunately, there’s no precise standard for how metadata should be entered, yet spelling or labelling something incorrectly could result in huge errors as it travels through the industry’s databases. Check your distributor’s metadata guidelines, and if you can’t find them, run through this metadata style guide by the Music Business Association to get a better idea of what to look out for.
Making the Metadata Process Easier
Having all your information ready to go beforehand is the best way to make the process smoother and more efficient.
This means keeping track of everyone who worked on a piece of music and having a record of what they contributed, and coming to agreements on royalty splits well before an intended release date.
This will help facilitate processing, payment, and many other administrative hoops you’ll have to jump through as your music gets published. You’ll be saving you and your team a lot of time and energy down the line!
Key Takeaways
- Music metadata is information embedded in a song file
- Metadata categories range from song title and artist name to composer credits and subgenres
- Metadata is used by labels, streaming services, and many other music databases to track the use of a song and categorize it appropriately
- Algorithms use this data to recommend music to listeners, and PROs use it to pay artists and composers
- It is of the utmost importance that the metadata contains no spelling or labeling errors, and follows guidelines
- Labels and digital distributors take care of metadata for upcoming releases
- You can embed metadata yourself using iTunes
- To facilitate the process, keep track of all contributors during the music-making process and agree on splits beforehand
⎮Also read: Smart Links: Share, Track, and Analyze Your Music
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