Session announces world's first music credits ecosystem

17 March 2019 - Press release

Initial Collaborators Include MXM Music, Avid Technology, Universal Music Group and DDEX. Proof-of-concept demo reveal at SXSW, Hilton Hotel, 4th St, Downtown Austin.
 

 

Today, Session (formerly Auddly), announces the world's first end-to-end ecosystem for creator credits in collaboration with leading music industry players. Creator Credits helps music creators effortlessly assign credits in the studio at the point of creation and automatically supply those credits downstream to managers, labels, music publishers, music rights societies, distributors and streaming platforms.

Session's initial collaborators include some of the biggest names in the music industry: MXM Music (the production and publishing company of the hitmaker Max Martin), Avid® (the maker of Pro Tools® DAW software), Universal Music Group (world leader in music entertainment) and support from DDEX (the supply chain data standards organisation). 

"We are super excited to announce this project and our collaboration. I'm convinced that the best way to involve the creators in the data collection is as early as possible in the creation process. Session's technology performs a short handshake with music society systems to authenticate creators and associate their vital industry identifiers with their account. When a creator walks into a Pro Tools powered studio their presence will be automatically detected and their identifiers, along with their typical contributions, can be easily added to a song," said Niclas Molinder, Session's CEO.

The proof-of-concept sees Avid embedding Session's technology into Pro Tools to automatically detect the presence of creators in the studio and allowing the addition of creator credits, contributions and crucial industry identifiers (IPI, IPN and ISNI) to a recording before it leaves the studio. Creator credits can easily be added to a song throughout the production process by automatically associating industry authenticated songwriters, musicians, producers and editors and their contributions.

The creator credits metadata travels with the track in music industry 'DDEX RIN' standard format as it is delivered to record labels and publishers. The creator credits package accompanies the audio and includes crucial industry identifiers for songwriters (IPI) and performing artists (IPN) as well as the emerging ISNI identifier. This creator identification information along with their contributions to the recording and song are assembled with the ISRC (recording identifier) & ISWC (composition identifier) enabling downstream music users and services to offer value-added features and assisting rightsholder royalty efficiencies

Once the song is distributed to a streaming service, fans will have the opportunity to enjoy a richer listening experience by accessing more information about their favorite songs. Streaming services will have richer creator data at their disposal enabling fans to discover more music they love and to follow their favourite performers, songwriters, musicians and producers across their career.

The proof-of-concept will take place during the course of 2019 and was announced on March 14th at SXSW at the Hilton Hotel, downtown Austin, where representatives from each company, including Bjorn Ulvaeus from ABBA and a co-founder of Session (formerly Auddly) and Session CEO Niclas Molinder, demonstrated the platform functions. The event, moderated by Susan Butler, author and publisher of Music Confidential, also featured Universal Music Group Executive Vice President of Content Strategy and Operations Barak Moffitt, Avid Director of Audio Product Management Francois Quereuil and Phil Sant, Chief Engineer at Stage.

"With Pro Tools software at the core of many of today's music production environments around the world, the Avid team shares in the vision that all contributors to a piece of music or any audio work should be clearly identified, recognized and rewarded appropriately throughout the production and distribution process. We are particularly excited to enter a technology collaboration with Session and work with key players in the music industry to provide a durable solution to the challenges associated with capturing and recognizing creators' credits in an increasingly complex digital world," saidFrancois Quereuil, Director of Audio Product Management, AVID.

"UMG is proud to work with Session's team to make the process of assigning credits even easier and to ensure that the important work of contributors to songs and recordings are widely available. In addition to our own efforts, we have been working closely with Bjorn and Niclas for a couple years on the development of this platform as part of our commitment to a robust and effective crediting system for the benefit of the entire music ecosystem," said Barak Moffitt, Executive Vice President of Content Strategy and Operations.