Communicating lyrics

Until the publication of MEAD, the only way to communicate lyrics was to use one of the messages in the ERN standard. Specifically, this was achieved by including the lyrics in a separate, secondary, resource file linked, to its “parent” recording, via a LinkedReleaseResourceReference.

However, this approach had one significant drawback. Namely, that only the record company that provided a DSP with core metadata about a release and its resources could also send lyrics to the DSP. In many cases the source of lyrics may, however, not be a record company. Instead the lyrics may come from a metadata provider specialising on lyrics. Record companies might even be the recipients of messages containing lyrics from such metadata companies.

As a consequence, DDEX now recommends that MEAD is used to communicate lyrics as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<mead:MeadMessage xmlns:mead="http://ddex.net/xml/mead/11"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://ddex.net/xml/mead/11 http://service.ddex.net/xml/mead/11/media-enrichment-and-description.xsd" AvsVersionId="">
    <MessageHeader>
        <MessageId>1</MessageId>
        <MessageSender>
            <PartyId>PADPIDA1234567890</PartyId>
        </MessageSender>
        <MessageRecipient>
            <PartyId>PADPIDA0987654321</PartyId>
        </MessageRecipient>
        <MessageCreatedDateTime>2022-12-05T12:51:00Z</MessageCreatedDateTime>
    </MessageHeader>
    <ResourceInformationList>
        <ResourceInformation>
            <ResourceSummary>
                <ResourceId>
                    <ISRC>ATUV71500090</ISRC>
                </ResourceId>
            </ResourceSummary>
            <Lyrics>
                <Text Format="ASCII">
                    Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht
                    Alles schläft; einsam wacht
                    Nur das traute hochheilige Paar.
                    Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,
                    Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
                    Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!

                    Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
                    Hirten erst kundgemacht
                    Durch der Engel Halleluja,
                    Tönt es laut von fern und nah:
                    Christ, der Retter ist da!
                    Christ, der Retter ist da!	

                    Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
                    Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht
                    Lieb’ aus deinem göttlichen Mund,
                    Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund’.
                    Christ, in deiner Geburt!
                    Christ, in deiner Geburt!
                </Text>
                <LanguageAndScriptOfLyrics>
                    de
                <LanguageAndScriptOfLyrics>
            </Lyrics>

        </ResourceInformation>
    </ResourceInformationList>
</mead:MeadMessage>


Other file formats, such as the European Broadcasting Union’s Timed Text (EBU-TT) and LRC (which stands for LyRiCs), can also be used. Such formats have the advantage of enabling the communication of timing information in addition to the raw text of the lyrics.

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