SoundExchange Reporting Blog

A new year has begun which, aside from meaning that we’re all little bit older (as my kids enjoy reminding me of frequently), also means that anther calendar quarter has ended for which SoundExchange reporting data are soon due.

What better way to begin a new year than by meeting legal requirements? I don’t know about you but nothing better comes to mind for me.

As you should know by now, the mechanics of reporting to SoundExchange through PI changed a bit from Q3 to Q4, mainly with the release of Composer Basic (and the renamed and revamped Composer Pro for our previous Composer clients). Here are the main points to keep in mind:

1. All reporting data from Q4 2009 (that is data from between the dates of October 1 – December 31, 2009) must be in the required format and submitted to Public Interactive  by COB Friday January 15, 2010, in order for us to guarantee that we can generate and submit reports to SoundExchange on your station’s behalf.

2. Playlist log files that meet our formatting requirements are required from all stations that are not PI Composer Pro clients. Also, streaming log files are required from all stations that do not host their streams through Public Interactive.

3. Composer Basic users must accept the Terms of Service before we can officially accept your data and generate reports.

4. Every station (both Composer Pro and Basic users) must specify their chosen reporting dates using the SoundExchange Dashboard in Composer Pro or Basic.

5. Stations that stream Classical 24 – again whether you are a Composer Pro or Basic user – must  update the guide information for each of your streams in Composer to properly reflect when you streamed C24 during your reporting period, so that we can integrate those playlists into your reports. IMPORTANT NOTE: When adding the Classical 24 program in your guide, be sure to set the Program Format to Classical: C24.

All stations that have registered with Public Interactive for SoundExchange reporting should now have a login to either Composer Pro or Composer Basic. If you do not, contact me and I’ll send you your login.

If you have already uploaded files to us, whether via FTP or Composer Pro/Basic and have not yet confirmed with me that we got them and they are in the correct format LET ME KNOW ASAP! We’re still working out the kinks in the new tools and don’t want anybody to fall through the cracks.

OK, let’s all start the year by being fully compliant! Thanks as always for your efforts.

Not to sound like a broken record, but hopefully, by now, you all know that SoundExchange reporting data for Q3 (July, August, September) is due to Public Interactive by Friday, October 16, 2009.

Allow me to highlight the basics one more time:

1. Your chosen 14 day reporting period must indeed be fully contained within Q3 (July 1 – September 30). SoundExchange will not accept reports containing data outside those three months.

2. When your data files are ready (the sooner the better), contact me and we will give you an FTP account on our servers to which you will upload your data files.

3. Your playlist files must be in the proper file format, described here, or we will not be able process them and, hence, will not be able to file reports on your station’s behalf. I am happy to review sample playlist files from you is you want to check that you are producing a file in the correct format.

Thanks to all for your hard work and efforts to be compliant – and for your patience with us as we work out the kinks in this process.

That is all.

Having now officially submitted Q2 reports to SoundExchange – big thanks again to all those who got, or tried to get us, data! – we are now already looking towards the next set of SoundExchange reports, for Q3 (July, August, September).

The fun just won’t end, will it?!

Recall that the vast majority of stations can pick any two 7-day-consecutive periods within the calendar quarter to report on. Once you pick your two weeks and have your data ready, we will take it! We are glad to get data early to help us spread out the report generation workload.

For those of you choosing two weeks late in the quarter – or for those of you procrastinators – we have set a  deadline for getting your data to us for the Q3 reports of Friday, October 16, 2009!! We will need your two weeks worth of data to us by then – and in the requested data formats (more on that in a second) – or we will not be able to generate reports on your behalf to submit to SoundExchange, and you will be considered non-compliant!

That would be bad. You don’t want to be non-compliant.

Again, to be crystal clear, that deadline for getting data to Public Interactive for Q3 SoundExchange reports is Friday, October 16, 2009! Please make a note and share this date with the appropriate folks at your station.

As I mentioned, we have now formulated file formatting guidelines for both playlists and streaming log files and have posted them on this here blog:

Click here for our playlist log file guidelines and to see a sample playlist log file.

Click here for our streaming log files guidelines and to see sample streaming log files.

As mentioned above, we need your data files to conform to these basic requirements or we cannot process them and hence cannot generate and submit reports on your behalf to SoundExchange! While we were quite flexible in taking data for Q2 reports, since the turnaround time for all involved was so quick, and relatively few stations were prepared to give us data, we now have to be more restrictive going forward in order to be able to process data from several hundred stations.

We appreciate your station’s efforts to meet these requirements.

Now, once you’ve chosen your two week reporting period and have obtained or generated playlist and streaming log files that meet our requirements, you’ll need to get us that data. How should you do that, you’re wondering?

Good question!

Depends on your situation and the timing. Here’s how:

• Stations that are existing Public Interactive clients who use both Composer and have their streams hosted with us won’t need to do anything! We’ll have all of your data. Just make sure your playlist data is complete and up-to-date.
• Stations that aren’t PI clients (or don’t use both Composer and our streaming services) will need to get us data files. As of right now, we provide stations with FTP accounts (one per content stream) on our servers to push the data to us. If I’ve already given you yours, use that. If you have data ready to give to us but don’t have a PI FTP account, contact me and I will provide one (or more).

Those who attended one of our SoundExchange reporting webinars will recall that we are building out a tool (based on our Composer product) called Composer Basic to allow stations to input their schedule data and upload playlist and streaming log files to us, all via the web. That tool is not yet availabl, but we’re hoping to have it ready for use before Q3 data is due. Once it is ready and available I will announce it here first!

OK, that’s the latest. Again, just to drive it into the ground, that deadline for getting data to Public Interactive for Q3 SoundExchange reports is Friday, October 16, 2009!

Don’t forget.

Please.

Thanks!

I’ve just whipped up a couple of pages outlining the formatting guidelines for both playlist and raw streaming access log files.

I’ve include some sample files to download and use as guides.

Please take a look and feel free to contact me with any questions.