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…

The Bluegrass Review is now providing playlists to Public Interactive for the purpose of SoundExchange reporting. This means that if your station streams the show, we can now integrate their playlist data into your quarterly SoundExchange reports, thereby helping you comply with the reporting requirements – so that’s good!

Please join me in thanking the Bluegrass Review folks for providing these data!

If your station streams the show, please be sure that your schedule grid in Composer Basic/Pro accurately reflects when you offered it. Also, make sure when adding it to your grid that you select The Bluegrass Review from the list of syndicated programs on the Edit Program page.

If the show was already in your grid, you’ll need to go back in and select it from the list of syndicated programs so that we’ll know to integrate those playlists into your quarterly SoundExchange reports.

Finally, remember, if you haven’t already opted-in for coverage under the new CPB-SoundExchange Webcasting Agreement, do it now! Lots of stations already have, but a good number of you that were covered under the old agreement (which expired at the end of 2010) still haven’t. Until you do, you’re on your own for royalty payments and reporting to SoundExchange…!

Good news for those of you who stream Afropop Worldwide: they’ve begun uploading playlists to Public Interactive for SoundExchange reporting purposes! Big thanks to the folks there for providing the data to us so you guys can meet your reporting requirements.

If your station streams the show, please be sure that your schedule grid in Composer Basic/Pro accurately reflects when you offered it. Also, make sure when adding it to your grid that you select Afropop Worldwide from the list of syndicated programs on the Edit Program page.

If Afropop was already in your grid, you’ll need to go back in and select it from the list of syndicated programs so that we’ll know to integrate those playlists into your quarterly SoundExchange reports.

Finally, remember, if you haven’t already opted-in for coverage under the new CPB-SoundExchange Webcasting Agreement, do it now! Lots of stations already have, but a good number of you that were covered under the old agreement (which expired at the end of 2010) still haven’t. Until you do, you’re on your own for royalty payments and reporting to SoundExchange…!

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!

Thanks to all who participated in yesterday’s webinar on SoundExchange reporting for syndicated shows. We had a good crowd on the line and there were lots of excellent questions asked. Below are links to a number of related files, web pages and documentation.

As promised, here are the slides from the presentation.

The video of the entire webinar can be downloaded here (format: WMV, size: 38MB).

General information on reporting by syndicated show producers is available here.

Specifics on playlist file formatting is here (including links to sample files and spreadsheets).

Details on uploading playlist files to PI are here.

As always, feel free to contact me with follow up questions or to register your syndicated show with PI so you can begin to submit playlist files to PI. Be sure to send me the following information:

• Show Name
• Show Contacts – People responsible for data submission to PI. For each, please provide: name, title, phone number, email address
• Show URL
• Playlist Management Tool (if any) – e.g., spreadsheet, Music Master, etc.
• Is this a syndicated 24×7 stream? If so, please provide the timezone for the playlists files that will be submitted

I’ll respond with the FTP account information that you’ll need to begin submitting data to PI.

Just want to remind everyone of two important SoundExchange-related events that are coming up soon:

1. We’ll be conducting a webinar this coming Thursday, September 16, 2010 from 2:00-3:00 EDT for producers of syndicated programming streamed by stations covered under the CPB-SoundExchange agreement. Anybody is welcome to attend, but we’ll be discussing a reporting process that’s specific to those folks. Here’s the description and registration information:

If you produce a syndicated show streamed by public radio stations, please join us to learn how to submit data on the music you stream to Public Interactive (PI, a division of NPR) for use in the generation of quarterly reports to SoundExchange (SX). This webinar will discuss the terms of the recent CPB-SX webcasting performance agreement and what syndicated show producers need to do to ensure that stations streaming their shows are in compliance with the terms of this agreement. We’ll discuss the required reporting data, as well the format and method in which the data should be reported to PI. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session.

Title:         SoundExchange Reporting for Syndicated Show Producers
Date:        Thursday, September 16, 2010
Time:        2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT

Reserve your seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/796174776

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements

PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

2. Q3 2010, believe it or not, will soon be over which means, if you haven’t already, please get your Q3 reporting data (covering July 1- September 30, 2010) to Public Interactive as soon as possible. We’ve set a deadline of Friday, October 8 to submit your Q3 data to us but please please pretty please do not wait until the last minute to submit your data! It leaves little to no time to correct errors and deal with unforeseen problems (e.g., missing streaming logs).

Anyway, as always, the basics of reporting are detailed here.

Onward!

As you hopefully know by now, Public Interactive (PI) currently collects music playlists from a number of syndicated programs for the purpose of integrating them into quarterly SoundExchange reports for stations that stream those shows. PI does this to help make SoundExchange (SX) reporting compliance easier for stations that have chosen to be covered by the CPB-SX webcasting performance agreement.

Until now, we’ve gotten playlists mainly (though not exclusively) from those programs syndicated through the “big three” networks (NPR, PRI, APM). However, we know that there are lots and lots of other syndicated shows out there, and we’d like to pull as many of those shows into the SoundExchange reporting fold as possible.

To that end, I’ll be hosting a webinar on Thursday, September 16 at 2:00 PM EDT to talk about SoundExchange reporting for syndicated shows. In the webinar we’ll discuss the terms of the recent CPB-SX webcasting performance agreement and what data syndicated show producers need to provide to ensure that stations streaming their shows are in compliance with the terms of this agreement. We’ll discuss the required reporting data, as well the format and method in which the data should be reported to PI. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session, and a representative from the CPB will join us to help answer questions.

Why is this important? Because producers who do not provide the required song data for SoundExchange reporting are putting the stations that stream their shows at risk of being in violation of copyright laws! If you, or someone you know, offers a program for syndication to public radio broadcasters, please plan on attending or passing along the invitation.

Here are more details, including registration information, on the webinar:

Title:         SoundExchange Reporting for Syndicated Show Producers
Date:        Thursday, September 16, 2010
Time:        2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT

Reserve your seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/796174776

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements

PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

We hope to see (er, hear) you there! Yes – YOU!