Do you know what an ISRC is? Do you know how metadata relates to making money from your music? Do you know the difference between a publisher, a distributor, an aggregator and a digital service provider? Did you know that every year $US2.5 billion is not paid out to artists and rights holders due to inaccurate and incomplete metadata?

Many in the music industry answer no to some, if not all, of these questions. A place full of confusion, opaque practices, and inconsistent language.

As an artist, then a record label owner and now a technology company with Envoke Network, Merida Sussex has always tried to reconnect and re-engage artists with their music and their music business, and one of the direct ways to do this is re-connecting artists to their metadata, as artists are the source of information about their music.

Over the pandemic, Prof Ellie Rennie (RMIT University) and Merida have interviewed artists, labels, publishers and managers all over the world about their processes of creating and communicating metadata. This research and subsequent development was partly funded by the ARC Cooperation through Code research project, the Australia Council, and the VMDO.

At our next VMDO Links session, Ellie and Merida will discuss some of their findings and some of the practical tools and practices people can do to ensure that their metadata is accurate and complete. They will also be joined by one of the artist's they interviewed - N'fa Forster-Jones.

Join us at Music Market on Thursday 3rd November, 5pm – 7pm. 

Doors open from 5pm, panel starts at 5:30pm. The session will be followed by a music industry mixer. Drinks & nibbles will be provided.

This is a free event hosted by VMDO, and RSVP is required to attend.