Purpose of MWN

The MWN standard supports a number of use cases, including:

  • A record company or DSP requesting and/or receiving information about claim(s) (a RightShare) in musical work(s) from a music rights society or music publisher. This use-case is usually the first step in a larger process of a licensee subsequently requesting a licence(s) for use(s) of a musical-work(s);

  • A licensee requesting a licensor to provide augmented and enriched data about a musical work(s);

  • A rights holder registering a musical work with a collective management organisation (CMO) to enable the CMO to manage any mandated rights and to enable the rights holder to be remunerated for the usage of the work;

  • The revocation of right shares in a musical work previously communicated by a rights holder to a CMO;

  • A CMO notifying rights holders of right share conflicts relating to a musical work claimed by the rights holders; and

  • The communication of relationships between musical works and resources and/or exploitations of the musical works.

As well as the exchange of information about RightShares which is at the heart of the process, the choreography of the messages defined in the standard allows for (and indeed encourages) the exchange of many data elements which should provide significant value, such as:

  • The licensee supplying the licensor with sound-recording, exploitation and release data along with the associated identifiers: 

    • ISRCs for sound recordings; and

    • UPCs or catalogue numbers for the releases; and

  • The licensor supplying the licensee with composer, lyricist or arranger information and the exact title of the musical work, along with associated identifiers:

    • IPI name number of the composers, lyricists, arranger and music publisher; and

    • ISWC for the musical work.

As well as sharing industry standard identifiers, it is also highly recommended that all messaging parties ingest each other's proprietary identifiers. Exchange and usage of identifiers allows for much greater automation of data management processes.

The MWN standard specifies four message formats and choreographies for four profiles. The message formats are:

  • MusicalWorkClaimRequestMessage

    • The MusicalWorkClaimRequestMessage enables to request information on musical works. This message is used in the musical work rights and usages profile and in the link notification profile. When creating the request, a requestor should include as much information as they have, and in particular should include as many identifiers as they have to aid efficient identification of the entities by the recipient;

  • MusicalWorkClaimNotificationMessage

    • The MusicalWorkClaimNotificationMessage enables the communication of information about musical works and claims for them. This message is used in all four profiles;

    • In the musical work rights and usages profile, it can be used to register a musical work with a CMO or to respond to a MusicalWorkClaimRequestMessage with information and claims on musical works;

    • In the revocation profile, it can be used by a rights holder to revoke right shares in a musical work previously communicated to a CMO or to a DSP;

    • In the conflict notification profile, it can be used by a CMO that has noticed right share conflicts in his system to notify the rights holders of these right shares in order to resolve these conflicts;

    • In the link notification profile, it can be used to communicate relationships between musical works and resources and/or exploitations of the musical works;

  • MusicalWorkClaimRequestRecallMessage

    • The MusicalWorkClaimRequestRecallMessage enables a sender of a MusicalWorkClaimRequestMessage to recall it if the sender has determined that it no longer needs the claim information;

  • MusicalWorkClaimNotificationRecallMessage

    • The MusicalWorkClaimNotificationRecallMessage enables a sender of a MusicalWorkClaimNotificationMessage to recall it if the sender has determined that the message was sent in error.

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