OpenMusE

To enable the music industry to benefit from licensing opportunities in the field of new technologies, it is important to establish a comprehensive music metadata infrastructure that improves the visibility and accessibility of the European music repertoire in digital and algorithmic environments. A policy brief from OME brought valuable insights in that regard.

Background

A policy brief was built on work done by the University of Amsterdam. It benefits from valuable insights that have been gathered during a hybrid workshop entitled “Metadata mainstreaming in the music industries. Data spaces and beyond” in Amsterdam on 14 March 2024, involving academics, policymakers and stakeholders.

The problem of insufficient metadata quality in the field of music – and literary and artistic works more broadly – is not new. Missing, inaccurate, or non-interoperable metadata can lead to a lack of adequate information on protected contributions, current rightsholders, and work- or production-related characteristics (title, genre, content, year of creation, etc.). In monetary terms, missing or inaccurate metadata can lead to foregone licensing opportunities, as works are not found or rightsholders cannot be identified.

Missing and inaccurate metadata can also have more indirect and subtle effects that can be both economic and cultural in nature. It can for instance cause biases is recommender systems for music streaming platforms, and can favour repertoires from larger markets or language areas over those of smaller ones, as a consequence of economies of scale associated with larger repertoires.

The problem of inadequate data quality in the creative industries, including music metadata, remains complex and unresolved. At the same time, there is an urgent need for improvement. Current developments in the increasingly digital and algorithmic information society make it more important than ever to take a fresh look at the problem and develop stronger regulatory support for music metadata initiatives.

Workshop key insights

In order to improve the visibility and accessibility of the European repertoire of works and to enable the creative industries to benefit from licensing opportunities in the field of new technologies, it is important to establish a comprehensive copyright data infrastructure focusing on European content, including smaller and lesser-known repertoires and reflecting the full cultural diversity of the EU Member States. In this context, the general framework for copyright data following the rules in the CRM Directive plays an important role. More concrete obligations to provide work-related data can follow from provisions in the EU copyright acquis.

Complementing the described data improvement options in the EU copyright acquis, the legislative and policy framework set forth by CEDS and DDL could offer the regulatory support necessary to achieve the described copyright data creation, harmonisation and improvement goals. However, the relationship between the copyright acquis and data and digital legislation, and in particular the carve-outs present in the latter with regard to specific copyright-related activities, need to be properly assessed. Nevertheless, despite the actual applicability of the DDL legislative framework to music metadata, it is undeniable that many of the obstacles that DDL is set to solve, have at least prima facie parallel in the field of music metadata. From this point of view, the development of a data space for music metadata (whether a CEDS or not), could certainly offer an interesting model, in line with the EU priorities for the data economy, that should be explored further.

In order to enable composers, performers, and the music industry to benefit from licensing opportunities in the field of new technologies, such as AI training, it is important to establish a comprehensive music metadata infrastructure that improves the visibility and accessibility of the European music repertoire in digital and algorithmic environments. Recognizing the need for metadata improvement, various European initiatives aim to increase awareness among artists and rightsholders and to build bridges between existing metadata collections and infrastructures. One central factor in the equation, however, has remained underexplored and underused to this day: despite the prohibition of formalities in the Berne Convention, it is conceivable to employ legal mechanisms, such as the notification of work-related information under Article 17(4)(b) of Directive 2019/790 on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, the opt-out mechanism relating to text and data mining that follows from Article 4(3) of the same Directive, and the EU rules on collective rights management, as well as the broader legal framework applicable to data spaces as vehicles to impose an obligation on rightsholders to constantly provide updated music metadata in standardised form. If information stemming from these channels is pooled, the resulting accumulation of EU copyright data could lead to a promising reservoir of music metadata that is capable of enhancing and boosting licensing opportunities.

Glossary

CEDS Common European Data Spaces

DDL Data and Digital Legislation

Keywords

music, songwriting, ecosystem, licensing, download, streaming, record, freelancers, market,  data collection, observatory, open