April 20th: "I'm a Producer & Engineer. And I'm Invisible on Digital Music Services..."

It really does suck that the best the music industry has is All Music Guide... which is grossly incomplete, inaccurate and has horrible service. Somehow, IMDB (and IMDB Pro) manage to have largely complete and accurate credits on films, even the small indie ones.

I run an indie label, and we publish a digital pdf booklet on itunes with EVERY TITLE we release becuase credits are important to everyone who contributes to an album.

Couldn't agree more! Beside lack of royalties even "Search" in all services often miss the direct link into let's say "Featuring Eric Clapton" on a specific recording/track or the next big star who started out in some obscure indie band.

I've been preaching this for some 10 years but industry haven't seen the light (it is extra costs). Obviously you sell/stream more music if you are able to find it!

It's like all the fanboys of digital services kind of took over debate (and yes I am totally into these technologies myself) but losing metadata + sound loss is plain stupid.

The positive news is.. we'll get there.

Serioiusly...?  Get over yourselves!  I've worked in the industry for over 12 years now, highly involved in the production, distribution, selling, etc. of both digital and physical releases (probably had my hand in thousands of records), and have yet to have the first credit in a commercial release.  Not even in the "thanks" that I know of. I really hate to bust the bubble here, but if people care about that stuff, they're probably buying the vinyl or at least some sort of physical format of the record anyway.  If people can't plop down $10 for a album, they don't care who played the tin whistle on track 6.

Maybe you have lingering resentment over your chosen profession.

The recording industry has always been resistant to giving credit to anyone. They still describe their recordings as "works made for hire" even though the recordings with very few exceptions are never WMFH.

They would prefer to not name anyone who might come back later and say "hey, I worked on that album, I never saw or signed any kind of WMFH agreement, I want a cut of the SR royalties."

I think the point is that it is something that is very simple to do from a technological standpoint, so why isn't it being done.

You're right.  People don't care who sells the record.  Sounds like that was your job.  It's too bad you didn't ever get thanked by a band.

But to suggest that people don't care who created the art they love?  That's just incorrect.  

Couldn't agree more.

This is how I like to listen to music: sitting on my couch, holding my iPad, headphones on or even better using Airplay-AppleTV for playback on my stereo. Now the Spotify iPad App is beautiful and the album covers look great, but are you going to stare at the cover for minutes? Well, I’m surely not. I want to know more about the artist I’m listening to or read the lyrics.

I used to start up Google and search my way to the artist’s homepage, Wikipedia page and a site for lyrics. But more or less for my own convenience I have set up Spoticonnect.com.

I now listen, click the Spoticonnect icon on my iPad and the artist’s website, the Wikipedia page. the Lastfm artist page and the lyrics are just one click away. The only thing you need is an account at Last.fm  It is not just for Spotify, if you listen using iTunes or Windows Media Player the system works as well. Any player that scrobbles does the trick.

Maybe it is of some use for you as well. You can give it a try at  www.spoticonnect.com 

You guys not heard of Decibel?

http://www.decibel.net/

Haven't played with the APIs but if they do what they say on the tin...

Would it be straying off too far to say that there is a possibility of labels and the industry not wanting to include full meta-info?

Overloading the 'dumb' consumer with names could ruin the super-star facade that is created when one believes that every facet of the music is done by the artist.

Yes, I agree that this seems farfetched, but there are people out there with no understanding of the industry who think this.

It is not farfetched and you are right. It is all part of the marketing of "artists."

Consumers want to believe Taylor Swift does it all by herself.

Wow,

I am a definite music lover and I never even thought about this problem!  Of course these people should get at least the ability to be recognized by fans who enjoy their work.  

Were it not for album notes, I would never have known who Bob Rock or Steve Albini were, for instance.  

Great article on a problem that should definitely have a solution. 

I'm glad that this issue is getting some attention. It's complicated…like building infrastructure for an already-constructed and unplanned city.

A contract between a recording artist and an engineer or side-musician can't force a digital retailer to include a new table in their database. There has to be some requirement for the digital retailer to meet a new metadata standard. Who sets the standard? Who would the retailer be accountable to? 

I'm no expert, but it seems the current 'system' of ISRC codes and artist/label names, exists as a method for tracking songs in order to compensate copyright holders, whether that is sales on iTunes or reports of Pandora plays to Soundexchange. That music services also use this metadata for search and discovery, is a byproduct of that use. As you would expect when using something for a purpose it wasn't designed for, there is stuff missing. Classical music folks, for example, have been grumbling for years about being shoehorned into ill-fitting metadata buckets in iTunes.

I guess I can't imagine how any uniform policy regarding digital metadata could occur without a law forcing the issue and a neutral entity responsible (is there such a thing?) for setting the metadata standard.

Maybe some prominent digital music company needs to be a maverick and lead the way even if they are not required to. Hey Spotify, here's a leadership opportunity for you!

p.s. and kudos to Count for spearheading this issue. Count, by the way, does all my post-production, but of course you wouldn't be able to find that out unless you read the credits in my album packaging or on our respective websites ;-)

I hear ya...

Oh we can definitely relate to this article. In (50) world wide digital distribution deals on (34) tracks they forgot the signatures and to place Literati X (C) (P) on royalty-payroll. At a time when we should be laid back, we're whining like a bitch for quite a few billions. . .Phantom X, witness the powerful experience of the spoken word explosion as we spray the spoken spectacular throughout the universe--remember the good ole days ?

Important.

I can remember the days when liner notes incuded not just the names of the musicians and engineers but also the instuments used in the creation of the song. But alas, those days are long gone. Printing costs have skyrocketed and liner notes ultimately confined to casette covers and CD jackets became quite difficult to read and required more print space. So now there's a movement to right a perceived wrong, Oh Well, give credit where credit is due, should be required for all projects.

@Zoe Re: Classical music is a complete mess. I been in a handfull projects last 10 years and we always end up saying "We have to wait with classical..."

Beethoven gets composer as display artist eg. Barenboim.

Add there's no global standard describing each work of classical music well there are but there are more than one for some composers.

Add not all countries use English as only parameter (for instance in Denmark we translate "Swan Lake").

Not to mention transliteration of Tchaikovsky et al ;)

I List EVERYONE in any way involved on my Indie Label releases on my YouTube Page and the Label's site and FaceBook - where I have control!

Everyone should follow through on this!

PP