Tuesday, June 6th, 2023.
Hey, it’s TJ Miller, “you want some game?” Let's #tipundathehat!
For the best indie music from indie artists, click, and follow Indie Artist Of The Week Unda The Hat. This week, Rizzo Blaze Be sure to hit the like button and follow this amazing group of indie artists. They will be big time soon.
What is the Meta with you?? - Let’s go -
Who out there under the age of 30 knows what a card catalog is?
Imagine, having to look up information in the library in this instead of a computer. The card catalog was a bunch of index cards that had all the bibliographic information about the book or music in a collection. Information like the author, the writer, the publisher, date, subject, players on the session etc. You could find yourself searching for multiple topics for a book report for hours. And for those of you who didn’t know that music was also cataloged like this, trust me it was. I worked in the music library while in grad school at Tennessee State. Info on Claud Debussy and the Impressionism period….wait, let me stop, I just had a flashback…. Ok I digress, anyway, this is where the data that you needed to know about a book or an album was located. Today we call that metadata. What used to take hours can now be done in minutes and even seconds; It just needs to get done. In todays music world, metadata refers to the song credits and other information that you see on platforms like Spotify, Apple Music and the other DSPs (Digital Service Providers). Simply, it makes your music discoverable, you could lose money, and who wants to lose money, I know I don’t. Being professional with your music means being professional with your metadata. You can’t have one without the other.
But it goes deeper than that; Your music royalties depend on your metadata being correct and accurate. Without the right data attached to your music, you run the risk of not receiving the proper credit for you streams. Metadata also includes all the information that you would find in those old card catalogs. Music metadata is data embedded in a song, album, or EP that displays that information. This would be titles, artist name, release date, genre, tempo, mood/style, similar artists, record label, songwriters, producers, split sheet or a cue sheet information, ISRC code, bar code, copyright ownership, and any information that you would use on your PRO (Performing Rights Organization). All this information needs to be synchronized in one place and be distributed to all platforms and websites so that everybody who should get paid, does get paid and acknowledged. This metadata, can also be used as keywords on your website to strengthen your SEO to get to the top of search engines. Yeah it’s a lot right?? I can hear you real artsy musicians out there saying, can I just sing my song, play my ax, rap or just do what I do? Well here’s the thing. When you submit you song for distribution, they are just the middle man between you and the DSPs. Spotify, Apple, and Amazon aren’t going looking for your missing information. They are not going to contact you, you will not talk to them, just know that without it, your songs might get rejected. So now that you posted on IG for a month and told mama ‘nem that your song was coming out on June 5th, it’s got rejected because you didn’t mention that your song was a cover song, or list the samples. Yep that’s a rejection from Spotify for sure. So after you’ve got the song all shiny and ready to go you can get the mastering engineer to embed the metadata as part of their service. I personally use mp3tag. 
Here are a few things to pay close attention to: Spelling (come on now pay attention to detail and spell check and get the format right.) Nobody’s going to hold your hand, so get it right. Correct language. Don’t get longwinded with information that is unnecessary, get to the point, but don’t forget anything or anybody. And yes, the artwork is a part of the metadata. Make sure the dimensions are correct and you aren’t oversharing. Streaming platforms don’t want URLs, social media handles or excessive text on the album artwork. Try and and you will have a delayed project. So get it right and you will have a great release experience.
This week's #IAOTW - Independent Artists Of The Week is - Rizzo Blaze straight out of Oak Cliff America (or the Oak Cliff section of Dallas Texas, your choice). This Hip Hop/R&B artists is brings real talk to life. Still relatively new in the game, he has already caught the ear of Atlanta producer legend Jazzy Pha and has no ceiling. He’s on his way! Click on his name link above, scroll down to his picture, then click and support. You won’t believe how talented this cat is.
For more information on this or to hire Unda The Hat as your brand or label consultant send a message via undathehat.com. See you next week!!