Back office efficiencies in the digital music supply chain

In this Music Ally blog post from October 2010, Martin Redington of Microgen, discusses the state of data management and back-end systems in the digital music supply chain.

Identifying and paying the multiple rights holders for each download or stream requires managing vast amounts of data in multiple formats. The lack of a uniform standard for identifying artists, tracks, and recordings presents a major roadblock. This complex process is labor intensive and prone to error.

The current state of affairs causes delayed payment to artists, and if standards are not introduced to increase efficiency, the entire digital music distribution chain is at risk.

Redington calls for:

• The creation of a standardized universal database and the business model to support its development.
• Agreement as to how this database will be populated. Stakeholders currently have no clearly defined financial incentive to share their data with competitors.
• Standards for exchanging information.
• Streamlined back-office processes that will serve the future growth of the digital music industry.

You can read the full post here.

Tom Crawford, Sr. VP of Microgen, will be speaking at the NARM convention in Los Angeles, May 12, 2011 about the challenges and business opportunities presented by digital media distribution.