UK Industry Agreement on Music Streaming Metadata

In the era of digital music, good quality metadata, which describes who contributed to a track’s creation and how, is essential to making sure music makers are accurately credited and paid.

But metadata is often not as accurate or complete as it should be, in particular in relation to songwriters and their song or composition. Incomplete or inaccurate metadata can lead to significant delays to creators being paid for the use of their works, and in some cases not being paid at all.

The UK industry agreement on music streaming metadata sets out a positive commitment from players across the music streaming industry to improve metadata on music streaming services in the UK. It includes:

• a shared ambition to progressively improve metadata in new recordings and consistent crediting on streaming services over a two-year period
• agreement to take steps to ensure a core data set is associated with all new recordings
• agreement to follow and promote good practice in industry
• agreement to establish and support expert working groups on education and technical solutions to drive forward further improvements during the two-year period

The voluntary agreement is the work of an IPO-chaired working group of industry experts, who met throughout 2022. It forms part of the government’s programme of work to address issues identified by the DCMS Select Committee’s Inquiry into the Economics of Music Streaming.

The full metadata agreement including annexes can be found under the documents section.

UK signatories to the metadata agreement include:

• Association of Independent Music (AIM)
• British Phonographic Industry (BPI)
• The Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) on behalf of its digital music service members (“DSPs)”
• Featured Artists’ Coalition (The FAC)
• Hipgnosis Songs Fund
• The Ivors Academy
• Music Managers Forum (MMF)
• Music Producers Guild (MPG)
• Music Publishers Association (MPA)
• Musicians’ Union (MU)
• Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL)
• PRS for Music

If your company or organisation operates in the UK as part of the music industry and you would like to sign up to the metadata agreement, please contact us at musicstreaming@ipo.gov.uk.