SoundExchange Reporting Blog

If you’ve already submitted your Q2 2011 SoundExchange reporting data to NPR Digital Services (big thanks!) – which are due on July 8, just two scant weeks from Friday! – or even if you haven’t yet (for shame), now is a good time to review the contact and stream information for your station that was provided to us in the past. People leave stations, new channels are added, formats and schedules are changed, etc. Whenever any of those things happen, we need to know about it for SoundExchange reporting purposes.

So, if you haven’t recently, please do the following as soon as you can, and on a regular basis in the future, such as when you submit your data to us each quarter:

1. Update your station contacts – These are the people responsible for SoundExchange reporting and the ones who should get SoundExchange-related email reminders and updates from us. To review and update the list in Composer Basic or Pro go to Edit Station Info under SoundExchange Dashboard using the What do you want to do? global navigation at the top of each page.
2. Review your station’s existing streams – These are the content channels that your station streams and for which reports need to be generated each quarter. This should be all distinct content streams, regardless of format. To see the list of streams we currently have for you, go to Edit Station Info and scroll to the bottom of the page. where it lists your Station Streams. For each stream, make sure that the Format is correct. If not, click on the Edit link for that stream and update it appropriately.
3. Notify NPR Digital Services and CPB of any new or obsolete streams – If the list of station streams that we have in Composer Basic/Pro for you is incorrect, please contact me to let us know which ones are obsolete or what new channels you’ve added (we have to add or remove streams from your account). For each new stream, please be sure to specify which of the follow formats it is:
   Classical
   Jazz
   Music Mix
   News and Information
   News/Classical
   News/Jazz
   News/Music Mix
   Adult Album Alternative  

   Also, you’ll need to notify the CPB of any new or obsolete streams, using their Internet Music Rights site.

4. Review channel schedules – Be sure to review the schedule grid that we have for each of your streams in Composer Basic/Pro, to ensure that they properly reflect when you streamed syndicated programs that provide NPR Digital Services with playlists for SoundExchange reporting (full list here). To review and update your schedule grid, go to Create/Edit Program Guide under Program Guide Composer in the global navigation. If you have more than one stream you can toggle between the schedule grid for each one using the My Stations drop down selector in the upper right corner of the screen.

Thanks as always and happy summer!

Does your station regularly air or stream only portions of a multi-hour syndicated program and, if so, have you ever wondered how you can get the correct playlists integrated into your SoundExchange reports? Well, wonder no more!

We’ve recently added the functionality to specify which hours of a syndicated program you air or stream. If we receive playlists from the show producer, we’ll then be able to integrate the proper subset of the show playlist into your quarterly SoundExchange reports and (if you’re a Composer Pro client) into your online Program Guide.

Wanna see how to do that? Sure, you do! So, let’s give it a try…

Let’s say that you stream the second hour of UnderCurrents on Wednesday from noon to 1:00pm. First thing to do is go to Create/Edit Program Guide and create the entry for UnderCurrents Wednesday at noon for an hour, being sure to choose it from the list of syndicated programs under Program, like so:

So, now UnderCurrents is in your guide and associated with the playlists that they provide directly to NPR Digital Services. Yay! Problem is, you air the second hour of the show but, by default, our system assumes that you start the show at the beginning and so the playlist we assign to that hour are for the first hour of the show.

What to do?

Here’s what you can now do to rectify this: go to Create/Edit A Playlist, which brings you to the Playlist Manager screen. Scroll down to Wednesday at noon and click on the Choose a different syndicated playlist icon there for UnderCurrents:

That’ll bring you to the following screen:

You may already be familiar with this screen, as it allows you to choose the specific episode of a syndicated program that you aired on a given date. Now, though, if you scroll to the bottom of the screen you’ll see:

This is where you can specify that you start the show with the second hour. Choose the hour of the show you start with, then pick the associated show episode and bingo! You’re now good to go.

Pretty cool – yes? Well, we think so…

Hopefully everyone knows by now that Public Interactive gets music playlists from a number of syndicated show producers. By filling out a schedule grid in Composer Basic or Pro and indicating which syndicated programs were aired, these playlists can then be integrated into a station’s quarterly SoundExchange reports. This makes being SoundExchange compliant easier for everyone.

Up until now, however, stations didn’t have the ability to specify which episode of a particular program was aired on a given day; the system simply assigned the playlist based on the date. This meant that stations couldn’t properly indicate when they aired a show rerun, aired multiple shows on a given day or simply aired the show on a different day from its original air date.

Thanks to some recent changes to Composer Basic and Pro, this has now been rectified, meaning that stations can specify which episode of a syndicated show they aired. Exciting – right?

To quote from the main Public Interactive blog:

We recently updated the Syndicated Show functionality a bit, so now you can also choose the episode you air.

• Just make sure your Program Guide is up to date.
• The system will automatically assign playlists for your syndicated programs as they become available. Syndicated show playlists will automatically appear on your program guide with a playlist icon, as they become available.
• For Composer Pro clients only: If playlists are uploaded ahead of time, they’ll also display in your ‘Now On Air’ widgets.
• To choose a different episode, simply log into your Composer Admin, and go to the Create/Edit Playlist screen.
• Click the choose Syndicated icon , and then select a different episode by ID or date.

Couple of important notes to note:

1. Producers upload their playlists at different times, and right now, many upload retrospectively, after the shows have aired.
2. This whole choosing an episode thing does not apply to continuous (24×7) syndicated offerings, such as Classical 24 and JazzWorks.

Again, the list of syndicated show producers currently providing playlists to Public Interactive is here.

If you produce a syndicated show and are not yet providing playlists to Public Interactive, here’s how you can.

Enjoy!

Now that Thanksgiving is over (though we’re still enjoying the leftovers!), it’s high time to start on my annual wish list for Santa. You can probably guess what’s at the top of my list, but if not, allow my friend and coworker here at Public Interactive, Suzanne Brendle, to spell it out:

Welcome back, hope you had a nice long weekend. I’m here to remind you that the Q4 deadline is January 7, 2011. This is right after the holiday season. Please think about your holiday schedule, and consider submitting data now so you don’t have to interrupt your celebrations. Think of it as an early holiday present from you to us.

I know Phil would appreciate it.

SoundExchange peace of mind really is priceless…especially around the holidays.

See http://soundexchange.publicinteractive.com for details.

Composer Pro and Public Interactive Streaming make the SoundExchange reporting process quick and easy. Clients who use both Composer Pro™ and Public Interactive Streaming don’t need to submit any additional data to SoundExchange for the required quarterly reports. Composer Pro™ also includes syndicated playlist information for both display and reporting.

If you’re interested in learning more about how we can make the SoundExchange reporting process easier for you, contact Marketing and Sales Manager Joe Orlando, at jorlando@publicinteractive.com or 888-729-8809.

Couldn’t have said it better myself, Suzanne! From her fingertips to Santa’s (and your) ears… Get those data in early, people, then go enjoy some eggnog.

The deadline for submitting your Q2 SoundExchange reporting data to Public Interactive has come and gone! Thanks to the many of you who got us your data on time and in the proper format and such!

For you stragglers, we can still try to squeeze you in, but you’d have to get us your data ASAP, and even then there are no promises, though we will do our best. Contact me if you do slip your data under my door in the next couple of days to let me know.

In the meantime, we’ve just posted a good reminder on the main Public Interactive blog about how to properly enter syndicated programming into your schedule grid, so that we can  integrate any playlists we get for your syndicated programs into your SoundExchange reports. Please take a few minutes to read and make sure your syndicated programs are entered properly into your schedule grid(s) in Composer Pro or Basic.

Anyway, thanks again to you stations that submitted Q2 data. Now, all we have to do is process it all…

As we quickly approach the next SoundExchange reporting deadline, here at Public Interactive we’ve made some tweaks to the SoundExchange Dashboard portion of Composer Basic and Composer Pro to (hopefully) make the reporting process a little bit easier.

Having now gone through two quarters of reporting with the Dashboard in place, it was clear that one of the biggest areas of confusion for stations has been how to specify their two chosen reporting weeks each quarter. Many folks didn’t know how to do this, as the screen used for it was hard to find. We’ve now made some changes in attempt to make it easier to complete this important step in the reporting process.

An aside, this step is particularly important because, if your station provides two weeks worth of reporting data but doesn’t specify which weeks in the quarter they pertain to, then SoundExchange will assume the data is not a sample but a census (that is a complete accounting) of all the recordings you streamed during the quarter. This effectively means you have under-reported and could, in theory, affect royalty payments to artists and key metrics used as benchmarks in the agreement between the CPB and SoundExchange (e.g. Music Aggregate Tuning Hours).

So, it’s very important you set these dates in the tool.

To try and make a little more obvious as to how and where to do so, we’ve made the following changes to the SoundExchange Dashboard:

1. The Select Report Dates screen can now be accessed from the global What do you want to do? navigation at the top of each page, under SoundExchange Dashboard:

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2. The View Reports screen now displays the chosen reporting weeks for each of your content streams for the current reporting quarter, which are linked to the Select Report Dates screen:

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3. The chosen reporting period for the current quarter is now also displayed on the Upload Playlists/Streaming Logs screen, and a link to the Select Report Dates screen is provided:

the

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4. We’ve removed the previous functionality on the Upload Playlists/Streaming Logs screen that required you to specify the start and end dates for each individual playlist or streaming log file you uploaded to us. This was only causing confusion for users and these dates are now deduced from the files themselves.

5. If you have more than one content stream (e.g., an HD2 channel), you must specify reporting weeks for each one separately. You can now navigate between the Select Report Dates screens for each of your content streams by using the drop-down toggle we’ve added to the upper right hand corner of that screen (like you were already able to do on the upload logs and guide management screens):

Click to enlarge

Important reminder: when specifying your two chosen reporting weeks in Composer Basic or Pro, you specify the start dates of each week, rather than the start and end dates of your reporting period. We do it this way because stations are free to choose two non-consecutive reporting weeks.

OK, if you haven’t already, please go forth, gather and submit your Q2 reporting data!

A new year has begun which, aside from meaning that we’re all little bit older (as my kids enjoy reminding me of frequently), also means that anther calendar quarter has ended for which SoundExchange reporting data are soon due.

What better way to begin a new year than by meeting legal requirements? I don’t know about you but nothing better comes to mind for me.

As you should know by now, the mechanics of reporting to SoundExchange through PI changed a bit from Q3 to Q4, mainly with the release of Composer Basic (and the renamed and revamped Composer Pro for our previous Composer clients). Here are the main points to keep in mind:

1. All reporting data from Q4 2009 (that is data from between the dates of October 1 – December 31, 2009) must be in the required format and submitted to Public Interactive  by COB Friday January 15, 2010, in order for us to guarantee that we can generate and submit reports to SoundExchange on your station’s behalf.

2. Playlist log files that meet our formatting requirements are required from all stations that are not PI Composer Pro clients. Also, streaming log files are required from all stations that do not host their streams through Public Interactive.

3. Composer Basic users must accept the Terms of Service before we can officially accept your data and generate reports.

4. Every station (both Composer Pro and Basic users) must specify their chosen reporting dates using the SoundExchange Dashboard in Composer Pro or Basic.

5. Stations that stream Classical 24 – again whether you are a Composer Pro or Basic user – must  update the guide information for each of your streams in Composer to properly reflect when you streamed C24 during your reporting period, so that we can integrate those playlists into your reports. IMPORTANT NOTE: When adding the Classical 24 program in your guide, be sure to set the Program Format to Classical: C24.

All stations that have registered with Public Interactive for SoundExchange reporting should now have a login to either Composer Pro or Composer Basic. If you do not, contact me and I’ll send you your login.

If you have already uploaded files to us, whether via FTP or Composer Pro/Basic and have not yet confirmed with me that we got them and they are in the correct format LET ME KNOW ASAP! We’re still working out the kinks in the new tools and don’t want anybody to fall through the cracks.

OK, let’s all start the year by being fully compliant! Thanks as always for your efforts.

Before 2009 waltzes out of our lives, allow us here at Public Interactive to say thanks to everyone for their efforts in the realm of SoundExchange reporting this year! We appreciate all the hard work by stations that have submitted data to us for reporting back to SoundExchange. We appreciate it, the CPB appreciates it and, believe it or not, SoundExchange appreciates it! Honest.

Before everyone disappears to drink egg nog and whatnot I wanted to remind folks about a few key things to keep in mind for submitting your Q4 data for SoundExchange reporting to us .

By now, everybody who has opted to be covered by the CPB-SoundExchange agreement and registered with Public Interactive for SoundExchange reporting should have access to the tools we have developed to make data submission easier. This includes both Composer Pro clients of ours, as well as Composer Basic users. If your station is not a PI Composer Pro client and has not yet received a login to Composer Basic, please contact me and I’ll get you set up.

Lots of detail on Composer Basic is available here, so I won’t rehash it all in this post. Here are some important things for everyone to keep in mind:

1. Data for Q4 reports must come from with October 1 – December 31, 2009 (i.e. the fourth calendar quarter). Basic information on the reporting data that you need to provide to us is available here.

2. Composer Pro clients don’t need to submit playlist logs to us (assuming they actually put playlist data into Composer Pro); however, if your streams are not hosted by Public Interactive you will still need to upload your streaming access logs to us. Composer Pro documentation is available here.

3. Composer Basic users will need accept the Terms of Service before we can officially accept your data and generate reports. You will then need to upload playlist log files to us, in addition to streaming access logs. Composer Basic documentation is available here; in addition a Composer Basic Quick Start Guide is available here.

4. Everyone, whether you are a Composer Pro or Basic client, must specify their chosen reporting dates using the SoundExchange Dashboard in Composer Pro/Basic. If you don’t we’ll assume that you are supplying us with a full quarter’s worth of data and will generate reports based on that assumption. To set your reporting dates in Composer Pro or Basic, go to View Reports, then click on Edit Report Dates for Q4 for each of your streams. Then uncheck the Disregard dates and use full quarter instead check box and use the date drop downs to specify the starting date of both of your chosen reporting weeks. Make sure to do that for all of your streams for which you are supplying reporting data.

5. Stations that stream Classical 24 – again whether you are a Composer Pro or Basic user – must  update the guide information for each of your streams in Composer to properly reflect when you streamed C24 during your reporting period. This is so we can integrate C24 playlists into your your station’s reports. In the future will be collecting and integrating playlists for other syndicated shows. IMPORTANT NOTE: When adding the Classical 24 program in your guide, be sure to set the Program Format to Classical: C24.

All of this (file uploads, setting reporting dates, accepting TOS, etc.) needs to be done by the deadline of Friday, January 15, 2010 in order for us to guarantee that we’ll be able to generate and submit Q4 reports on your station’s behalf.

That’s it for now! I’ll be out of the office starting Christmas day and will be back on Monday, January 4, 2010. In the meantime, feel free to submit your data to us using Composer Pro or Basic. Let me know that you have and I’ll review it – or answer any questions – when I get back.

Thanks again and Happy New Year to all and to all a good night – or day, you know, depending on when you read this.

It may only be December 16 but for you stations that have to do SoundExchange reporting through Public Interactive Christmas has come early (or, for some, Hanukkah has come right on time)! The long awaited, much ruminated, never to be duplicated (where’s Muhammad Ali when you need him?) Composer Basic has finally and officially been launched! Big thanks to all of you stations who helped us with beta testing.

It has been launched just in time, too, for stations to use for getting us their Q4 reporting data (from within October 1 – December 31, 2009) which you may already know is due to us by Friday, January 15, 2010.

Composer Basic is the tool you will now use to manage your station’s contact and stream information with us for SoundExchange reporting, upload playlist and/or streaming log files, specify your chosen quarterly reporting weeks and access completed reports that we have generated and submitted to SoundExchange on your behalf. Composer Basic will also allow you to specify your weekly schedules, for the purpose of letting us know what syndicated programming you stream, so that we can collect playlists from the producers of those shows and integrate them into your station’s SoundExchange reports.

Composer Basic is for stations that are not already PI Composer clients. As mentioned in an earlier post, those stations have been upgraded to Composer Pro, which offers all of the functionality of Composer Basic, plus playlist entry and public facing pages and widgets to display your guides and playlists.

If your station has registered with Public Interactive for SoundExchange reporting (and you’re not already a Composer Pro client) then your designated contacts should have already received an email from us with login information and basic instructions for getting started with Composer Basic. Please take a few minutes to login, review the data that we have on hand for you and get familiar with the tool.

If your station did not receive your Composer Basic login, please contact me and I’ll get that to you.

Full documentation on Composer Basic can be found here. Also, a Composer Basic Quick Start Guide is available here. Feel free to print these out and take them home; they both make for excellent bedtime reading – not to mention last minute stocking stuffers!

Here are some important points to know about using Composer Basic:

1. In order to use Composer Basic your station will first need to review and agree to the Terms of Service that Public Interactive and NPR have developed, which grants Public Interactive permission to collect your data and submit reports to SoundExchange on your behalf,  and also gives you access to Composer Basic. You will not be able to access Composer Basic (and Public Interactive will not be able to collect your data and submit reports to SoundExchange on your behalf) until you do so.

2. Stations (and their vendors such as Spinitron and StreamGuys) that were previously given FTP accounts with Public Interactive to transfer data files to us, can continue to upload data files that way if they like. However, stations will still be required to login to Composer Basic to review whether data files have been uploaded and accepted and to specify their chosen reporting weeks each quarter and to update their guide data for reporting weeks.

3. Stations should take time to review what, if any, guide data we already have for your streams and make any necessary corrections. However, be aware that for Q4 2009 reports the only syndicated show for which we will be integrating playlist data is Classical 24. If you streamed this show during your Q4 reporting weeks, please make sure that the guide data in Composer Basic  properly reflects when you streamed the show.

That’s it! Thanks for everyone’s patience – both in the past and in the future – as we work to make this tool as useful as possible for everyone.

Happy… whatever it is you celebrate at this time of year!

I trust that everybody had a great Thanksgiving. I sure did! The last of the turkey leftovers was eaten last night. Always a sad moment when the bird is gone for good.

Speaking of turkeys, SoundExchange Q4 reporting data, as many of you know, is due to us here at Public Interactive by Friday January 15, 2010.

Here, again, are the relevant points to keep in mind:

1. Unless I have already told you otherwise, choose two 7-day consecutive periods within the quarter (October 1 – December 31, 2009) to report on. To repeat, your reporting data must must must be completely contained within Q4 or we cannot include it!

2. For each song streamed, the following information is required (yes, it is all required): song title, featured artist(s), album title, marketing label, start date and time, and EITHER end date and time OR duration of play.

3. Stations that are not Public Interactive Composer clients must submit a playlist log that matches our playlist file formatting requirements. Playlist files that do not match this format cannot be processed by us and will be rejected.

4. Stations that do not have their streams hosted by Public Interactive must submit streaming access logs that cover the chosen reporting period. Playlist logs alone are not sufficient; without streaming access logs (not aggregate usage statistics) we cannot generate reports on your station’s behalf.

This information should be old hat to many of you by now. Now, on to some new and exciting information!

This week we have begun rolling out changes to our Composer product to make data transfer, and managing of SoundExchange reporting information, easier. This involves two things:

1. Existing Public Interactive Composer clients were all upgraded earlier this week to Composer Pro! What is Pro? It’s the same Composer Program Guide and Playlist tools (with a new look), plus the new SoundExchange Dashboard. The Dashboard allows you to manage your contact and stream information with us for SX reporting, upload streaming log files (if your streams are not hosted with us), specify your quarterly reporting periods and access completed reports that we generate and submit to SX on your behalf.

If you haven’t already, please check out the Dashboard, review your contact and stream information and generally get familiar with it. An updated Composer Pro User Guide is also now available, detailing the changes.

2. A beta version of Composer Basic is now being shared with a handful of stations that are not PI clients. What is Basic? It includes the Composer Program Guide tool, for fletting us know what syndicated programming you stream, plus the new SoundExchange Dashboard. The Dashboard allows you to manage your contact and stream information with us for SX reporting, upload playlist and streaming log files, specify your quarterly reporting periods and access completed reports that we generate and submit to SX on your behalf.

This is the tool that the rest of you will use going forward which has a guide input tool to manage your weekly schedules, for the purpose of letting us know what syndicated programming you stream, as well as the SoundExchange Dashboard, which you will use to manage your contact and stream information with us for SX reporting, upload playlist and streaming log files, specify your quarterly reporting periods and access completed reports that we generate and submit to SX on your behalf.

If you’ve been lucky (or unlucky, depending on your point of view) enough to have been picked for beta testing, we appreciate your feedback and help!

We hope to make Composer Basic available to all stations who have registered with the CPB and PI for SoundExchange reporting in the next two weeks, so be on the lookout for an email from us with your login and connection instructions.

Thanks to those early bird stations that have already submitted their Q4 data, and to everyone for being patient with us as we build out these tools.