DDEX: The music industry's metadata standard explained simply
Every release that lands on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube via a music distributor travels as a standardized data package: The DDEX standard regulates how titles, ISRC, rights holders and credits are transmitted machine-readable from A to B – and thus silently determines discoverability and royalties.
What is DDEX?
Behind the standard is an organization in which labels, music publishers, distributors, streaming services, and collecting societies jointly define how music data is structured. The standards themselves are predominantly XML-based message formats that at the official standards consortium They can be used free of charge: All that is needed is a free license, but no membership.
Without this common standard, every distributor would have to maintain a separate data format for each platform. With the DDEX standard, however, all parties involved speak the same language – from small home studio releases to major catalogs.
Practical tip: So that your fully mastered song (keyword online masteringTo ensure your data arrives cleanly at the platforms, you first need a provider to forward it for you – which providers offer this service and what you should pay attention to can be found in our overview. Music distribution.
How does delivery to streaming services work?
When your distributor delivers a release to a streaming service, they typically send a standardized package: an XML file conforming to the ERN (Electronic Release Notification) standard, plus the associated audio files and artwork. This package is then transferred to the platform via a secure connection.
The platform then automatically checks the submission: Are the required fields correct? Does the ISRC match the recording? Are the territories and release date plausible? Only after this check is completed is the release scheduled. However, incorrect metadata can lead to rejections and delays – or to your song being incorrectly attributed later.
That's precisely why it's worth maintaining clean metadata from the very beginning: The quality of the data you give your sales team determines how reliably your release passes these automatic checks.
An overview of the most important DDEX standards
Digital Data Exchange is not a single format, but a family of standards. These are the most important ones:
| Standard | What he is there for |
|---|---|
| ERN (Electronic Release Notification) | Delivery of releases to streaming services and shops – the heart of every release |
| DSR (Digital Sales Reporting) | Sales and streaming reports from the platforms back to labels and collecting societies – the basis for royalty settlement. |
| MEAD (Media Enrichment and Description) | Additional metadata such as mood, instruments, or focus track – fodder for playlist algorithms and search. |
| rhine (Recording Information Notification) | Studio credits from the production: Who played, produced, mixed, and mastered? |
| MWN/MWL (Musical Work Data) | Data on compositions and works including rights – important for publishers and collecting societies. |
| PIE | Clear identification of the parties involved: artists, labels, rights holders |
ERN is therefore the crucial format for your release – and DSR also ensures that streams and sales are correctly accounted for.
What metadata is contained in an ERN message?
An ERN message carries all the data a platform needs to correctly display, discover, and bill your publication. This includes, among other things:
- Title, artist name and featuring information
- ISRC for each individual recording
- UPC/EAN for the entire product (album, EP, single)
- Copyright holders and copyright information (℗/©)
- Territories where the release will be available
- Release date and price category
- Genre, language and explicit labeling
- Credits: Songwriters, Producers, Contributors
- Audio properties of the delivered files
You enter much of this information yourself when uploading via your distributor – it is then automatically translated into the DDEX format. Therefore, any errors you make there (typos in the artist name, incorrect ISRC, missing credits) pass unfiltered through the entire chain.
The DDEX standard and AI labeling of music
Since July 2026, the DDEX standard has received additional attention: The associations RIAA, IFPI and BVMI, together with streaming services, have presented a voluntary, two-tier system for labeling AI-generated music (as of July 2026). According to this system, songs should be identified as either "AI-generated" or "AI-powered".
Technically, this labeling works via the same method as titles, ISRC, and credits: The AI information is transmitted as data fields in the delivery. Spotify has also supported the transmission of AI information via the DDEX standard since September 2025. You can read about how the system works in detail and what it means for your releases in our article on... AI labeling of music.
This makes clean metadata even more important: the labeling is only as good as the data provided by artists and distributors.
What does that mean for you as a musician?
The good news: You don't have to create DDEX files yourself. Your music distributor takes care of that – common distributors like DistroKid, TuneCore, or Believe automatically translate your upload information into the appropriate delivery format. Your only responsibility is data quality. Specifically, this means:
- Keep artist name, title and featuring spellings consistent – exactly as they should appear on all platforms.
- Correctly assign ISRC and UPC codes and do not accidentally reuse them in re-releases or remasters.
- Provide full credits: songwriters, producers, contributors – because this is also relevant for sharing the revenue.
- Honestly declare AI content as soon as your sales department offers corresponding fields.
- Deliver final audio data in the required quality – including correctly embedded ISRC codes in the DDP master.
If you want to know exactly what data your release needs, our [link to relevant tool/service] can also help you. Guide to data delivery continue.
Conclusion: The invisible standard behind every release
DDEX is the infrastructure that carries your music to the platforms – invisible to listeners, but crucial for your release to appear correctly, be discoverable, and for you to receive royalties. You don't need to master the technology behind it. But understanding that every upload detail ultimately becomes a data field in a standardized message allows you to provide cleaner data – and thus avoid rejections, delays, and lost revenue.
Prepare your release professionally now
Clean metadata is half the battle – but a professionally mastered song is the other half.
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Tip: You can order your finished mix directly through our upload form Upload it – we'll take care of the rest.
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
What is the DDEX industry standard?
DDEX is an industry standard for exchanging music metadata, developed by a non-profit consortium. It defines uniform message formats (e.g., ERN for release deliveries and DSR for sales reports) that labels, distributors, streaming services, and collecting societies use to exchange data.
Do I have to create these delivery files myself?
No. Your music distributor automatically generates the DDEX messages from the information you provide during upload. Therefore, the quality of this information is your responsibility: consistent spelling, correct codes, and complete credits.
What is a DDEX feed?
A DDEX feed is an automated delivery process through which a distributor or label transmits releases as DDEX messages to a platform. YouTube, for example, uses its own DDEX feed through which partners deliver music along with metadata.
What metadata is required for a release delivery?
Mandatory information includes title, artist name, ISRC per recording, UPC/EAN per product, rights holder, territories, and release date. Additionally, genre, explicit labeling, credits, and increasingly, fields for AI labeling are required.
What are the costs associated with using the standard?
Using the DDEX standards is free – all you need is a free license from the consortium. Costs may arise only for the technical implementation; as an artist, you generally don't pay anything for this because your distributor handles it.
What does the standard have to do with the AI labeling of music?
The two-tiered AI labeling system ("AI-generated" vs. "AI-assisted"), presented by the RIAA, IFPI, and BVMI in 2026, will be technically transferred to the platforms via DDEX metadata fields. DDEX thus forms the backbone of the new transparency labels.