Should I do something about metadata?

Oct 9, 2008

Should I do something about metadata?

It’s all very well being able to buy music instantly, and take it everywhere with you. But somehow, it feels like we’ve lost something along the way with downloading. Music – at least, recorded music – used to be this thing that you would hold in your hand, treasure, read through the liner notes and yeah – smell.

As a wise man once said: “Don’t front like you’ve never licked a record…”

I even met a prominent music industry professional this week who clearly recalls taking his early record purchases to bed with him, and keeping them under his pillow as he slept. But none of these things are ‘the music’. They’re all the bits around the music. It’s the artefact, the artwork, the accompanying text – and not actually the recording of the tune that was being loved in this way.

And while of course we love the music, when you separate the recording from the artefact, things change.

Digital is worth less (not worthless)
Let me say right off the bat that one of the main reasons that download sales aren’t filling the gap left by declining CD sales is that downloads ARE WORTH LESS. All that stuff that we music lovers used to smell, lick, read, touch, alphabetise, loan to friends, put under our pillows and wrap as gifts just isn’t really there anymore.

All that’s left is the noise that comes out.

But that information about the music – metadata (literally, information about information) is still really important to us, and there are ways in which we can make use of the fact, and start to create digital products that are valuable.

It strikes me that one way to reinvest value in recorded music, is to try and put the value back into the experience of music consumption, based on all of the information surrounding the recorded music. Something we can read, look at, pore over, alphabetise and engage with as consumers. Doesn’t have to be lickable, per se – but it’d be great if there was something.

Onliner notes
I wrote a blog post a long time ago about the ways in which information such as essays, recording session information, photographs and so on could be put together using XML, so that it could be packaged and presented in any number of ways, according to developer’s capabilities and audience preferences.

I think this is well overdue now.

There’s so much information that could be bundled with an album. Put into a zip file with the (high quality) album tracks. Link outward to (or draw information from) services like Last.fm, MusicBrainz, CDBB or FreeDB.

Best of all, there’s an opportunity to make that metadata interactive. To my knowledge, NOBODY is doing this. A standardised format that will allow music fans to contribute to, edit and expand upon digital liner notes in a distributed fashion.

If you know something about a band, or want to write a review of a gig you just saw them do, or have some photographs of the recording session, or can link the studio engineer to another album she was involved in, then there’s no reason that can’t turn up in my copy of the album’s liner notes. Equally, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to correct you on a factual error along the way – or amend my settings to ignore all cameraphone video contributions.

It’d take a bit of work to get all this standardised, but there’s such a wealth of information about any recording, and no longer any shortage of space, or cost of printing and replicating – seems a shame not to give it a try.

Tiny steps
Okay, so you don’t have to get a 3,000 word essay, a photographic portfolio, video package and PDF brochure into the zip file of your album download just yet (though it’s something to work towards). For now, the least you can do for your audience is provide decent track information on any digital music you make available.

Bare minimum should include Artist Name, Song Title, Album Title (if it’s not from an album, put something in here), Genre (be general – at least put in a genre that people have heard of), Track Number, Cover Art (even if it’s just your logo or a photo). Might be a good idea to put your URL in the Comments section too.

There’s nothing more unhelpful than having a download from your website with missing information. As a consumer, I’m likely to throw it into my collection, come back to it a few weeks later, not know who the song is by, and just hit the delete key. A bit more information, and I’ll pay a bit more attention.

The more information – the more metadata you include with your recordings, the more value your music will have.

Of course the music is the main thing. But consumers make meaning from music. It’s their main thing. And if you remove the clues and the anchors for that meaning, you’re just making it difficult for yourself.

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17 Comments. Write a comment or link to this post

Christian Ward

Bandcamp.mu are worth checking out in terms of helping new bands sort their metadata etc. Check the hilrious FAQs: http://bandcamp.mu/faq#id3

Oct 9th, 2008
Russell

What you’re suggesting is essentially a distributed Wiki. I’ve also thought that this might be useful for keeping all your social networking sites updated with current band info. If I could have one place to keep all the data you outline (as well as stuff like band history, personnel — stuff about the band in general not just associated with a recording) in one place and push it to MySpace, Virb, Imeem, CDBaby, etc…. (or have them pull) that would be a huge win. A standardized XML schema would be a great start. A central repository with a great UI would be the next step. And then the hard part, as you point out, would be getting others to buy in to the idea.

Oct 9th, 2008
Andy Mabbett

…or simply include a link to the relevant Wikipedia article on the artist and/ or recording…

Oct 9th, 2008
Russell

Yeah, a link to an updated Wiki entry would do it, but it’d be nice to actually suck the content into MySpace, Last.fm and the like…

Oct 9th, 2008
Sell Downloads

Yeah, the more you do the better results you will get.

Oct 9th, 2008
Andrew Potterton

Big gatefold vinyl. The smell………..the artwork…………etc……..

Oct 9th, 2008
TJR

I’ve been saying for years now, that when the industry switched to the CD, they should never have lost the packaging that came with records.

All that big artwork, gatefold covers, lyrics sheets, booklets, posters, etc.

You can’t download that stuff.

It would have been so easy to just put the CD in a mylar sleeve and include it with the record album packaging.

Notice how DVDs are packaged? There are often times various versions some of them limited with collectible items included.

Years ago, I thought to myself…..If I was big famous music star, I could afford to do just that. Release my CD w’ record album packaging. I’d make sure it had a gatefold cover with cool artwork and a lyrics booklet with even more artwork.

I really do believe that it would have sold big time. But I am not a huge famous music star so I can’t afford to do that, and I don’t have the fame needed to get any press coverage for doing it. I don’t even know if I can afford to make CDs any more and may have to go digital only.

But I do beleive the music industry would be in a different place right now if they had ditched the jewell box and kept the album packaging.

Oct 9th, 2008
Universal Indie Records

Interesting article.. you’ve provided me with a lot to think about! though some of this I’ve been working on as well…

TJR said “Years ago, I thought to myself…..If I was big famous music star, I could afford to do just that. Release my CD w’ record album packaging. I’d make sure it had a gatefold cover with cool artwork and a lyrics booklet with even more artwork.”

With my next release i’m including a PDF of the cd artwork but I’m not sticking to the standard cd cover size. WHy should I? Since there’s no physical cd you’re not limited to cd booklet sizes. Why not do a vinyl sized PDF of the album cover?

I’ve also been toying with creating a “Cd booklet” use flash flip technology ( http://page-flip.com/ )where you’ll actually be able to turn the pages.

Oct 10th, 2008
Learn and Master Guitar

Yeah, the more you do the better results you will get.!!

Oct 10th, 2008
beez

I’m allover this. As a serial sleeve reader and follower of producers and musicians I find the worst thing about downloaded music to be the lack of information. I wish all my my iTunes files had Producer credits and listed the players. Yes I can enter it myself when ripping CDs (gracenote is very very weak) but entering it for music downloaded from peoples own sites or from official leaks is almost impossible. That information is often not available anywhere. There are a lot of useable fields in an MP3’s ID tags and you don’t really have to use them all as they’re supposed to be.
Where is today’s Herb Powers Jr.? Tagging the comments section with his opinions on the song and shouting out his girlfriend?

First artist to fill all the ID3 fields in an MP3 with useful information wins a free “my regard”.

Oh and is this comments section advocating the return of CD long-boxes? My collection of 87-91 classic rap long-boxes takes pride of place amongst… amongst… no they don’t fit amongst anything. That was the problem.

Oct 11th, 2008
glen marshall

Hi
I am a producer and a studio owner. I have been following nms for about a year or so. Ive passed on your links to hundreds of clients and friends and have had such great success with so many of your suggestions and directions I just thought I would finally stop and say thanks for your insights.

Cheers,
Glen Marshall,
Producer + Partner,
Vibewrangler Studio.

Oct 11th, 2008
Andrew Potterton

I just want to echo Glen Marshall’s last comments. The New Music Strategies is great stuff.
I tell many clients about your site.
Keep up the good work.

Andrew Potterton. Manchester

Oct 13th, 2008
Universal Indie Records

We’ve just done a virtual cd booklet for our next release for those interested in seeing it…..

http://universalindie.com/virtual/thathrowback/

Oct 14th, 2008
Rafael Aldon

The price of convenience….

This article highlights some very real failings in the download buying experience and raises some great questions.

Having made the conscious decision to stop storing hundreds of cd’s on my walls, for the last 9 years I have lined Apples pockets downloading music only to be left feeling somewhat vacuous by the experience. I now believe this lack of supporting information is doing the artist, label, producers etc a massive disservice.

This was reinforced to me recently whilst in the studio recording a new track. Having done an initial mix our attention turned to who we would ideally want to master the song and very soon the moment of realization came that the thousands of downloads I had bought were of no help whatsoever as they don’t include it.

Every download should have to have credits on who wrote, performed, produced, mastered etc it as a bare minimum but surely labels should be looking at how to add value to legal downloads to build customer loyalty.

I am certainly going to make sure anything we release addresses these points.

Thanks for a great site!

Apr 27th, 2009