SoundExchange Reporting Blog

Before getting into the main point of this post, allow me to remind all that the deadline for submitting your Q3 SoundExchange reporting data is this Friday, October 8, 2010. Sad, but true.

If you have already submitted data but haven’t checked with me yet, to ensure we have everything we need, please do so now!

If you haven’t yet submitted your Q3 SoundExchange data, then please, also, by all means, do so now!

Enough with the unpleasantries. I’m really writing here to let everyone know that Public Interactive has tweaked the statuses of your SoundExchange reports in Composer Basic and Pro. Previously, they were a bit confusing, so we’ve tried to  make them a little more self-explanatory. Here’s how they work now:

Incomplete – Means we haven’t received either playlist files and/or streaming logs from you.

Pending – Means we’ve received both playlists and streaming logs from you, but they haven’t been preprocessed. Before the final reports are generated, files get preprocessed to ensure they match our formatting and have the appropriate data fields. Playlist files get automatically preprocessed shortly after upload; streaming logs, on the other hand, get processed manually by PI staff, and so may take some time before they are preprocessed.

Ready – Means we have both playlists and streaming logs and that they’ve been preprocessed successfully to ensure we have enough data to generate a report; in other words, we have data from you and based on that we can generate a report.

Complete – The final report for SoundExchange has been generated.

Basically, this all means that reporting should work like this:

1. You upload your playlists and streaming logs to Public Interactive; your report status goes from Incomplete to Pending

2. PI successfully preprocesses your files, and your status goes from Pending to Ready.

3. Just before final submission to SoundExchange, PI generates the actual reports, and your status goes from Ready to Complete.

There you have it. Hopefully, this is somewhat less confusing than it was. If not, as always, contact me and I’ll try to clear it up…!

Some very promising news came out of our nation’s capital yesterday: a bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives that would eliminate the Performance Complement of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) for public radio stations.

The Performance Complement, you may recall, is that particularly annoying bit of law that says things like you can’t stream more than four songs by the same artist in a three hour period, etc. and so forth. Needless to say, eliminating these silly restrictions would be a great boon to all.

Below is the official press release from NPR with more details.

Before you get too excited, though, there are a couple of things to bear in mind:

1. This bill is not law yet – it’s just a bill, yes it’s only a bill. Until and unless it becomes a law, the Performance Complement is still in effect.

2. If this bill does become a law, this won’t affect SoundExchange reporting. That is to say, all of the music you stream would still have to be reported as it is currently, including the onerous “report each track individually” requirement. Changing that is a whole other kettle of fish.

But still – exciting and hopeful! Thanks to all who helped get things this far. Keep all your digits crossed.

NPR Applauds the Introduction of the Public Radio Music Enhancement Act of 2010

September 30, 2010; Washington, D.C. – NPR expresses its support of the Public Radio Music Enhancement Act of 2010, H.R. 6307, introduced yesterday by Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The bill will improve the audience experience provided by public radio music stations in communities across America by easing restrictions on public radio stations’ music streams imposed by the performance complement.

“My legislation offers a narrow fix that has broad implications for the music-loving public in my home state of Wisconsin and across the country,” said Congresswoman Baldwin. “I look forward to working with NPR to further enhance its programming and better serve its listeners,” Baldwin said.

“We are enormously grateful for Congresswoman Baldwin’s leadership on this issue. Music is a critical element of public radio’s community service, connecting audiences with the performers, songwriters, musicians, lyricists and composers who enhance their lives. Congresswoman Baldwin’s common-sense legislation would allow public radio to improve that service and enhance audience enjoyment in the digital age,” said Vivian Schiller, NPR’s president and CEO.

Included as part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998, the performance complement arbitrarily limits the number of times stations can stream songs online from the same artist, album or compilation within a 3-hour period. In effect, this prevents public radio stations—some of the last free sources of music in quintessential genres like classical, jazz and folk—from streaming symphonies in their entirety, promoting local and emerging artists, or properly educating their listeners about the lives and careers of American musical masters.

“We look forward to working with Congresswoman Baldwin on this important legislation as the process moves forward,” Schiller concluded.

-NPR-

Media relations contact: Danielle Deabler, ddeabler [at] npr [dor] org / 202.513.2303