MWN and the Common Works Registration (CWR)

The Common Works Registraion (CWR) is a CISAC standard currently in version 3.0. The functional specification document defines the reason for creating the CWR as follows:

"The purpose of the Common Works Registration (CWR) format is to provide publishers and societies with a standard format for the registration of works.”

DDEX's MWN standard, however, was designed to support a different set of use-cases to CWR, and in particular was designed to provide support for the complexities of works licensing in territories which do not have “central” licensing infrastructures, such as the US (and Canada). It is understood that CWR does not presently provide support for:

  • Musical Work licensing process;

  • Letters of Direction process;

  • Communication of a UGC policy for a work (e.g. Track/Monetize/Block);

  • Sending audio files that relate to a work (e.g. for audio finger-printing);

  • Communicating lyrics;

  • Communicating information for print rights; or

  • Communicating UseTypes (i.e. sub-categories of Mechanical/Performing/ Synch Rights).

Additionally, DDEX’s MWN standard provides a richer conflict notification and resolution mechanism than is available in CWR. Conversely, MWN presently has limited or no support for:

  • Communicating work origin information;

  • Communicating cue information; or

  • Communicating a work’s instrumentation.

In certain scenarios it is possible to use MWN alongside CWR. For example, a publisher may wish to send work registrations/claims to a licensee using CWR, but may wish to receive notification of conflicts back in MWN

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