Music metadata is the collection of information that a song file includes, such as Artist Name, Producer, Writer, Song Title, Release Date, Genre or Track Duration, and many others. The more detailed the data is, the easiest will be the collection and distribution of the royalties generated. It also helps listeners to identify the content and its creators, and therefore improving their overall experience when using music services. But it does not end here.
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Metadata helps digital service providers (DSPs) like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music or Tidal that rely on metadata, to suggest similar artists to listeners. Also, curators benefit from it by creating the playlists where everybody wants to be included in. Last but no least, accurate metadata has a key role in allocating master and publishing to right holders and related royalties payouts.
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The accuracy of publishing metadata is a must to ensure creators are getting paid. If it is incomplete and detailed at the time of distribution by the content providers, the information will not be synchronized across the whole music ecosystem and therefore all rights holders involved will not be paid correctly, in proportion, as they should.