Display Titles in RDR
The concept of a “display title” has been introduced into the DDEX ecosystem via the Electronic Release Notification (ERN) message suite standard. It is used by record companies to send information to online retailers on how the record company prefers titles of sound recordings and Releases to be shown to consumers. The RDR standards have inherited a DisplayTitle composite from the ERN standard.
Even if music licensing companies do not need to display title information to consumers, they can use this information for matching purposes. It is therefore strongly recommended that record companies send DisplayTitle information to music licensing companies as well as to their retail partners (and that music licensing companies forward display title information to other music licensing companies when forwarding claims).
Classical Display Titles
The same approach should be taken for cases where composer (or even performer) information is included in the DisplayTitle. This is a regular occurrence for classical music where a sound recording may well have a DisplayTitle of “Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor Op. 125, 4thMovement” – even if the title should ideally just be “Symphony No. 9 in D minor Op. 125, 4thMovement”.
Labels are encouraged to communicate the a DisplayTitle with composer (or even performer) information to music licensing companies.