Which Release Profile for which ERN Version?
DDEX has defined a uniform message for the communication of Release details, including information about their parts, i.e. Resources (such as SoundRecording or Videos) and, in some circumstances also Musical Works from Release Creators (typically: record companies) to Release Distributors (typically: DSPs).
Such descriptions can, however, vary between different uses. For instance describing a Release that contains a single video ringtone track would differ greatly from a Release representing a digital equivalent of a 10-track pop album with previews. Similarly the commercial information regarding a subscription ringtone differs from commercial information regarding a pay-as-you go download.
In order to aid companies that only wish to communicate a small subset of the types of products that the “full” DDEX standards allow, DDEX has developed a series of “profiles”. These profiles come in two flavours. Firstly “Release Profiles” that define subsets of Releases to be communicated along the music delivery chain and, secondly, “Business Profiles” that define subsets of the commercial information governing the distribution of such Releases. The Release Profiles primarily concern the ResourceList and ReleaseList sections of the ERN. The Business Profiles primarily concern the DealList section of the ERN.
Over time, different versions of the Profiles and of the underlying XML standard were published and each profile standard has been written with a specific baseline XML standard (“ERN”) in mind. The table below provides this mapping (note that the table does not differentiate between version 3.4.1 and 3.4):
Business Profile | Release Profile | "Target" ERN |
|---|---|---|
1.0 | 1.0 | 3.3 and 3.4 |
1.1 and 1.2 | 1.1 | 3.6 |
1.2 | 1.2 | 3.7 |
1.3 | 1.3 | 3.8 |
n/a | n/a | 4.0 |
n/a | 2.0 | 4.1 |
While this table indicates that the Release Profile in version 1.3 is specifically for the ERN standard in version 3.8, most of the profile rules can — and should! — also be applied to Release notifications in accordance with older ERN versions. While some of the rules cannot be used (because they depend on a new feature in the ERN standard), most rules can. And even those than cannot be followed strictly still provide good guidance as to what to do.