Scalability of UGC sales/usage reports

he UGC profile enables licensees to report to musical work licensors usage, revenue and royalties pertaining to music in user generated content. The format, defined in Part 4 of the DSR standard, is scalable to the requirements of the sender and recipient of the message. 

If used in a way that makes use of all available functionalities within the profile, UGC sales/usage reports can become very large and thus be too large for some companies to ingest. At the other extreme, if only minimal functionality is used, the format may not provide all the data needed to meet the commercial requirements of the recipient of the message.

The UGC format allows for each “master recording” (communicated in an AS02 Record) to have n records which detail the sales/usage figures relating to the that master recording (SU03). Each of the sales/usage figures can then have m subscriber type records (ST01), which in turn can each have p licensor-specific usage records (LI01), and which in turn can each have q records detailing licensor-specific work information (MW01). 

For each master recording there can also be s resource usage records RU01 or RU02 that provide details of the UGC resources that contain the master recording. In addition, the format allows for r label copy records (LC01) that provide, for each master recording, label copy data in the form provided to the licensee that is creating and sending the UGC sales/usage report. 

The layout of such a Block is depicted on the right.

Even comparatively low numbers of n, m, p, q, r and s data elements can quickly lead to very long blocks. This leads to very large sales/usage reports.

However, not all of these record types have to be provided in a UGC sales/usage report. The following record types can be omitted to reduce the size of the report:

  • The label copy records LC01 can either be omitted entirely or, the number of these records can be limited to a number agreed between the licensee and the licensor;

  • The licensee and the licensor can agree to use the RU01 resource usage Record to provide details for multiple UGC recourses rather than using multiple RU02 Records which can only each provide details for one UGC resource that use the master recording;

  • The licensee and the licensor can agree to a limit of the number of UGC resources that are listed in a particular sales/usage report;

  • The licensee and the licensor can agree to a limit of the number of subscriber types that are listed in a particular sales/usage report. This may be achieved by providing separate Records of only the top five subscriber types and then collating the remaining subscriber types into a single figure for each master recording in the ST01 Records;

  • The licensee and the licensor can agree to completely omit the licensor-specific data that can be provided in the LI01 Records; and/or

  • The licensee and the licensor can agree to completely omit the licensor-specific musical work data provided to in the MW01 Records.

Each of the possible simplifications can be agreed between the licensor and the licensee and will reduce the file size and complexity. However, this will mean that less data is provided in the sales/usage report. 

The licensee and the licensor will need to strike a balance that works for them.

Search