1 Introduction

One main part of the music industry supply chain is the delivery of Resource, Release and product information from Release Creators – typically record companies – to Release Distributors – typically DSPs. This information flow can happen either direct or via intermediaries and DDEX has developed a series of standards for this: The Electronic Release Notification Message Suite Standard (ERN), supported by a series of choreography and profile standards. ERN has been designed to convey the essential information about the Releases, Resources, involved parties as well as the commercial terms and conditions under which such Releases and Resources can be made available.

To offer a rich user experience, especially for instance, to support voice-activated music discovery and playback, DSPs require rich information which would not normally appear in current ERN formatted messages even though some of it might be available at the record company. However, DSPs may also obtain such information from other sources, herein called Metadata Providers, and this standard defines the means by which a DSP can obtain such information as part of an ERN feed, a separate FTP-communicated message or via web services. 

This standard allows the communication of such rich information about Parties. It therefore offers similar functionality such as DDEX's standard for Media Enhancement And Description (MEAD). However, while this standard, Party Identification and Enrichment (PIE) focuses on Parties, MEAD focuses on "stuff", Releases, Resource and Musical Works. 

Any organisation wishing to implement this (or any other DDEX Standard) is required to apply for an Implementation Licence. The terms of the licence and an application form can be found here and here.