YouTube has built a new tool which it says will deliver ‘more accurate reporting of music content’ to music publishers and collection societies.
As a result, the Google-owned business believes it will set into motion ‘a faster and more accurate payout and distribution of royalties’.
The new tech is pretty… technical sounding: a new open-source implementation and validation tool for DDEX’s Digital Sales Report Flat File (DSRF).
In a nutshell, that’s the industry standard format for digital licensees to report sales and usage to music licensors for both audio and audio-visual content.
YouTube says its customised adoption of the new format will lower the cost of processing ever-growing streaming data.
“YouTube is committed to helping the music industry by creating tools and resources and improving data flow.”
Christophe Muller, YouTube
Initial testers include YouTube, SACEM, GEMA, BMI, NMP and Kobalt.
YouTube’s Global Head of Music Partnerships, Christophe Muller said, “YouTube is committed to helping the music industry by creating tools and resources and improving data flow in the digital age.”
In a press release, YouTube commented: “A single format can support a broad variety of requirements, ranging from ad supported video streaming, music subscription services, TV on-demand, to multi content subscription services such as YouTube Red. This means lower operational costs as a single implementation will support a broad variety of services and partners.”
Laurent Lemasson, Head of International Projects for SACEM, an early tester of the tool, said: “I really like and encourage such open source approach as it is highly beneficial for the entire DDEX community.
“As a receiver of the file, one of the biggest benefits is the capacity for senders to validate the conformity of the files they generate before sending them to us: this drastically facilitates the set up phase and even the run phase for both senders and receivers.”
Richard Thompson of Kobalt Music Group and DDEX Executive Committee member, said, “DDEX’s new DSRF Standard is an important step forward in ensuring that songwriters are paid accurately and promptly. YouTube’s validation tool will strongly encourage swift, successful and conformant adoption of DSRF”.Music Business Worldwide
