Today, I am releasing the software library I wrote for generating CISAC's Common Works Registration (CWR) files under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Full source code is available on Aporia's website here
If you are not already using a proprietary CWR system, this library can likely be integrated with your existing database systems with minimal effort.
Why am I doing this?
After more than 15 years of technological disruption, our industry is awash in whitepapers touting the benefits of transparency, metadata, a global repertoire database, blockchain, etc., etc., and there are very few results to show for it. For all the efforts made to agree upon open standards (DDEX, CWR, etc.), implementing those standards remains a challenge for most companies, and we are still complaining about things as basic as matching sound recordings (ISRCs) to musical works (ISWCs).
The music industry is now unmistakably a technology driven business, and yet technology solutions that power the industry's infrastructure continues to lag behind that of other industries. Large companies have developed in-house systems for copyright registration, contract management and royalty tracking, while smaller organizations have had to contend with a cottage industry of IT providers who may or may not be around 12 months from now, who may or may not be able to complete and support their projects.
Meanwhile, the software industry has entered an unprecedented period of innovation – the result of more than twenty years of open source development, in which the foundational infrastructure of today's technology start-ups was laid.
I believe it is time for the music industry to start looking after its own technology. The only way we, as an industry, will be able to create the sophisticated foundational infrastructure we require to function in the modern age is to create and support it ourselves — not as private actors, but as an industry. Not as whitepapers documenting open standards, but as source code implementing open standards.
Proprietary data systems are not helping anybody make write better songs or make better records – but they are entrenching the positions of the largest organizations, leaving many smaller companies behind, regardless of how good their artists or writers might be.
If you, or your organization is involved in building in-house software systems, I urge you to follow my example and release your source code under the GPL or other open source licensing system. Combining our efforts will result in a solid IT foundation for all music companies at reasonable cost in the shortest amount of time.
Sincerely,
Gord Dimitrieff
Owner, Aporia Records/Aporetic Music Publishing
gord@aporia-records.com
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