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Exploration is a digital rights administration company assisting copyright owners in compiling the information needed to get paid by the platforms that are obligated to pay them. We work with parties to maximize efficiency and profitability and are proud to enjoy great relationships with all.
Episodes
Thursday Sep 03, 2020
Thursday Sep 03, 2020
Tencent & Gaana, The MLC, #TheShowMustBePaused...everything that happened this week in the music industry. Plus a peek at what Steve Vai has been up to in the last year.
For the print version of our newsletter: exploration.io/news
For the interview with Steve Vai by Henry Rollins find it at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlkoSULRJxY&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=uDiscoverMusic
And finally for a look at Steve's artwork: https://www.fathom.gallery/steve-vai-art
Thursday Aug 27, 2020
Thursday Aug 27, 2020
TikTok, SESAC, Spotify - oh my! Lots of news to cover as well as a random rambling about the Beatles. And Rene's morsel for this week is a tribute to the legendary Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
We break our regularly scheduled programming to share with you Exploration’s partnership with the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce to present the annual Music Industry Report - 2020. This study has been in the works for quite some time, and we’re so excited to finally share it with you.
The 10-minute Survey to the Music Industry and Survey to Consumers of Music have been released today, which you can now take part in at the links provided. We would really appreciate it if you could participate - thank you so much for your consideration!
Monday Aug 17, 2020
Monday Aug 17, 2020
This week: Music streamers win their appeal; Apple One launches in October; Spotify launches in Russia; "Stairway" to the Supremes?; Universal's work for hire questioned; and Tencent Music Beats Spotify
Monday Aug 17, 2020
Monday Aug 17, 2020
This week: Instagram launched a new video feature and TikTok competitor called Reels this week, allowing users to shoot, edit, and post 15-second video clips set to snippets of music or audio. Google also recently announced that Google Play Music will soon be replaced by YouTube Music by December 2020. Snap Inc. secured a few licensing deals with major music companies and members of the NMPA and Merlin to launch a new feature that will allow users to incorporate music into posts on its app Snapchat.
Thursday Aug 06, 2020
Thursday Aug 06, 2020
Welcome to our “Music Industry - 5 Mins or Less” video series. These short bites are designed to help everyone understand the basics of the music industry and how it all fits together.
Many people have heard of an ISRC, but do you know what an ISWC is?
Click on these links for more information about this topic:
https://exploration.io/what-is-a-composition/#importantmetadata
https://www.themlc.com/preparing-2021
In This Video: The ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code) is a unique, permanent and internationally recognized reference number for the identification of musical works.
And ISWC is a 10 digit code that starts with the letter T is assigned by the PRO of a given territory where the song was written. For example if you are a songwriter in Japan, then when you register your song with JASRAC,, they will assign the ISWC code to your song. In the United States, the PRO designated to assign ISWC codes is ASCAP. Even if you are a BMI or SESAC writer, ASCAP will still assign the ISWC code.
The ISWC was first developed in 2002 by the France-based International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) in collaboration with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
The ISWC contains the following data:
Song title
Songwriter(s)
Music publisher(s)
Music publisher(s) ownership share(s)
The ISWC was created to help with tracking the usage of any given composition, which helps in the collecting of and distribution of royalties for a songwriter, publisher (if a songwriter is signed to a publisher), or performing rights society (depending upon the territory where they are primarily based).
No matter how many sound recordings are made of your song - it will always have the same ISWC code.
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
Welcome to our “Music Industry - 5 Mins or Less” video series. These short bites are designed to help everyone understand the basics of the music industry and how it all fits together.
You hear about it all the time, but what is an ISRC? If you are a music creator/owner/administrator - it is HOW YOU GET PAID!
Click on these links for more information about this topic:
https://exploration.io/what-is-a-composition/#importantmetadata
https://www.themlc.com/preparing-2021
In This Video: ISRC stands for International Standard Recording Code and it’s a 12-digit code that is assigned to each unique sound recording.
Any sound recordings that are made commercially available will need an ISRC. Without the ISRC, it would be impossible to keep track of when recordings are used and when one should be getting paid.
Songwriters and publishers should do their best to collect every ISRC code for every recording made of a song in their catalog. The MLC, Harry Fox, Music Reports, the PROS, and YouTube all use the ISRC code to connect the uses of music on their platforms back to the correct publishers and songwriters to pay royalties.
Updating metadata at all platforms ensures that songwriters don’t miss getting paid for a release.
any of the key players (artist, record label, and music distributor) can assign the ISRC to the works in question—it all depends on the particular situation of the artist.
It’s most typical to see a music distributor assign the ISRCs on behalf of the artist’s record label, although as stated above, an independent artist can take care of the ISRCs themselves, no record label or music distributor needed. This can be done most easily through services like CD Baby, TuneCore, and DistroKid or even Exploration.
Thursday Jul 23, 2020
Thursday Jul 23, 2020
You hear about it all the time, but what is Metadata? If you are a music creator/owner/administrator - it is HOW YOU GET PAID!
Click on these links for more information about this topic:
https://exploration.io/what-is-a-composition/#importantmetadata
https://www.themlc.com/preparing-2021
Welcome to our “Music Industry - 5 Mins or Less” video series. These short bites are designed to help everyone understand the basics of the music industry and how it all fits together.
In This Video:
Question: What Is Metadata?
Answer: Metadata is any piece of information tied to your copyright. For songwriters and music publishers, this data is essential to making sure you are getting paid every penny from every source in the music industry.
Metadata can include - title, writer names, writer IPI numbers, PRO work codes, HFA song code, writer/artist ISNI numbers, publisher names, ownership percentages including territories controlled, ISWC code and ISRC codes for any recordings of the song.
When possible, the most complete metadata should be registered at your PRO, HFA, Music Reports, YouTube, and other metadata repositories. You should double check the data already registered at these sources to make sure everything is up to date. You should also resolve conflicts with co-publishers as these can hold up money at source., And you should make sure any duplicate entries of songs in these databases are combined so all the writers are getting paid on every use. Doing all this work now, will not only make sure you are getting everything you are due, but it will make sure you are ready when it’s time for you or your publisher to get your metadata into the MLC.
Organizing your metadata and keeping it clean everywhere is important because the music industry has become dependent on accurate metadata to track and pay royalties on uses at digital platforms like Spotify, Pandora, Amazon and YouTube. If your metadata is incomplete you might not be getting paid everything you should be from a source. For example, you should be getting paid for Spotify from both your PRO AND Harry Fox Agency. If you are only getting paid from one, then you aren’t getting everything you should be.