ISO TC 46, the standards body to which the International ISMN Agency with its standard ISO 10957 belongs, will have its next meeting in Ottawa, Canada, 6 - 10 May 2019.

IAML, the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and documentation Centres, will have its 2019 congress in Krakow, Poland, 14 - 19 July. Please view the congress website here.

CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, now launched a project to upgrade the ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code) to better serve authors societies and rights holders in the digital age. The new system will help speed up the process by which authors’ societies assign an ISWC code for use by digital service providers and publishers.

View the press release here: http://www.cisac.org/Newsroom/News-Releases/CISAC-launches-major-project-to-upgrade-the-international-musical-work-identifier

The Frankfurt Music Fair will take place 11 - 14 April 2018. Find all information here.

ISO TC 46, the standards body to which the International ISMN Agency with its standard ISO 10957 belongs, will have its next meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, 14 - 18 May 2018.

IAML, the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and documentation Centres, will have its 2018 congress in Leipzig, Germany, 22 - 27 July. Please view the congress website here.

The US performing rights societies ASCAP and BMI start cooperation to create a new comprehensive musical works database. It will deliver an authoritative view of ownership shares in the vast majority of music licensed in the United States. It will offer industry-wide data transparency and include song and composition titles, performing artist information, aggregated shares by society for ASCAP and BMI, International Standard Work Codes and other unique identifiers as well as IPI names and numbers. View more information on the ASCAP website https://www.ascap.com/press/2017/07-26-ascap-bmi-database or on the BMI website https://www.bmi.com/news/entry/bmi-ascap-announce-creation-of-new-musical-works-database.

The Frankfurt Book Fair, one of the most important book fairs in the world, will welcome the international publishing world from 11 October till 15 October 2017. This year's Guest of honor will be France. View more information here: https://buchmesse.de/en/fbf/.

The virtual library Europeana Music, supported by Europeana sounds, now brings together more than 371,000 music recordings, pieces of sheet music and other music items from across Europe. Access to these items can be found at http://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/collections/music.

IAML, the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres, held its annual congress in Riga, Latvia, from 18 - 22 June. Reports and papers presented there - including an ISMN update - are continuously put on their website and can be viewed at http://www.iaml.info/congresses/2017-riga.

The U.S. music rights organization SESAC and the Swiss collective management organization SUISA allied in Mint Digital Services to administer licenses to use musical compositions in multi-territorial online music services on behalf of publshers. The company will be responsible for invoicing and administration of these licence agreements with online service providers.
View the press release at https://www.suisa.ch/nc/en/suisa/stay-informed/recent-news/detail/artikel/2017/mar/suisa-und-sesac-starten-mint-und-gewinnen-warnerchappell-music-als-ersten-kunden.html.

"Imagine looking at original handwritten manuscripts of a piece of music while listening to different interpretations of it, and reading a biography of the composer."
Europeana Music is a new websource bringing together music recordings, sheet music and other music related collections of libraries, archives and museums across Europe. So far, more than 320,000 items are to view at http://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/collections/music.

The Linked Content Coalition (LCC), the unique media project that recently published its innovative technical framework to improve the management and communication of and access to online rights information, has been re-constituted as a permanent organization. The new LCC is a not-for-profit global consortium of standards bodies and registries with a remit to facilitate and expand the legitimate use of content in the digital network. Its Ten Targets for a Digital Future aim to ensure that every creator and every creation can be automatically identified on the net if they wish to be; that every creation can have machine-readable rights information linked to it (whether for commercial or free use); and that existing standards of different media types can be interoperable. View the complete press release here.

Armonia, the world's largest network for international music licences, got a new member: SUISA, the Cooperative Society of Music Authors and Publishers in Switzerland. The membership will strengthen SUISA's position in the online music bisiness. View the complete press release here.

As CISAC reports ITV, PRS for Music and Soundmouse announced a significant advancement in the automation and streamlining of the music reporting workflow process for broadcasters, using ISAN (International Standard Audiovisual Number) to identify productions and music cue sheets. View the complete press release here.

CISAC and BMAT, a technology company specialized in music identification technologies, signed an agreement to integrate the ISWC into Vericast, a global music identification service that monitors millions of songs over radios and televisions across more than 50 countries worldwide. this will improve transparent and efficient royalty distribution. View the complete press release here.

As CISAC (the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers) reports Koda, Kono and Teosta, three Scandinavian collective rights management societies, formed a cross-border alliance called Polaris Nordic. It "aims to create higher value for music creators, and lead the way for the future of music rights management". They have agreed to develop, and run, joint back-end systems for music reporting and distribution of the revenues collected by the organisations. View the complete press release here.

The Copyright Hub has launched its pilot website. It is a gateway to information about copyright in the UK and gives users the possibility to learn about copyright in general, to get permission to use s.b. else's work or to find out about protection of their own works. View the website here.

The International Music Council accepted two new member countries and now has 45 national music councils. A list of these can be found here.

Source: Book Industry Study Group (BISG)
A new report from BISG again stresses the importance of metadata. Survey results show that more metadata fields are needed by publishers and the supply chain to improve the presentation of published items. The article posted on 11 June 2012 may be viewed here.

Source: ISNI International Agency
ISO has officially published the International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI), a 16-digit code for the identification of public identities across multiple fields of activities. ISNIs are assigned to the public identities of parties that participate in the creation, production, management or distribution of cultural goods in the digital environment. It streamlines distribution chains, disambiguating natural, legal and even fictional parties that might otherwise be confused. ISNI's founding members are the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the British Library, the conference of European National Librarians, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO), the International Performers Database Association, OCLC and ProQuest. More information may be viewed here.

Source: Music Publishers Association (MPA)
The British government plans to improve UK's copyright laws. For this purpose Professor Ian Hargreaves earlier this year had given recommendations which also covered topics important to music publishers. Following his report, the government now launched its 'consultation on copyright' which will run until 21 March 2012. The article posted on 14 December 2011 and more information may be viewed here.
 

Source: Book Industry Study Group (BISG) 
BISG has published a policy statement that details best practices for assigning ISBNs to digital products. It aims to prevent product identification confusion. The article posted on 7 December 2011 may be viewed here.
 

Source: International Conferderation of Music Publishers (ICMP) 
The Global Repertoire Database Working Group, has now launched its Stakeholder Engagement and Scoping Study. The Study will involve a 20-week industry-wide consultation to determine the technical, data, business process and organisational design aspects of the Global Repertoire Database, as well as the approach to governance and funding. The article posted on 27 September 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 
As WIPO Director General Francis Gurry resumed the international intellectual property (IP) community faces three major challenges in the coming years – management of demand of IP applications, the migration of all cultural content to the Internet, and enhancing the capacity of least developed and developing countries to use the IP system for encouraging innovation and creativity. The article posted on 26 September 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Supply Chain Digest 
During the last months the Supply Chain Digest published several articles on the pros and cons and the future of RFID technology. Some of them may be viewed here: 6July2011, 27July2011, 10August 2011, 8September2011.

Source: International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) 
At the third World Copyright Summit, organised by CISAC (the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers) on June 7 and 8 in Brussels, over 730 participants brought representatives from all creative repertoires together to discuss the future of the creative industry. They found to "share a common goal in supporting the rights of creators. Participants also agreed on the necessity to jointly find workable solutions for the challenges of the current digital marketplace. These include: initiatives for a Global Repertoire Database (GRD) and cross-border licensing for musical works; proposals to uphold the value of book content through a specific pricing model of eBooks, or the use of DRMs and the launch of legal platforms by book publishers; the harmonisation of the resale right for visual artists in Europe and hopefully worldwide; the need to harmonise audiovisual copyright laws across Europe to support digital distribution of films and ensure that authors get remunerated every time their works get used." The article posted on 11 August 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) 
Younison as a pan-European pressure group that strives to get the voice of music artists heard by politicians at the European Union (EU) level teamend up with the Features Artits Coalition to make sure the European Commission (EC), the executive body of the EU, takes into consideration artists’ needs whilst drafting a new directive on collective rights management. They also proclaimed a growing need for a pan-EU licensing system. The article posted on 25 June 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: International Conferderation of Music Publishers (ICMP) 
"This significant agreement which aims to educate and direct people towards legal content online reflects the increasing awareness of the importance of copyright protection and enforcement throughout the world and optimises the relationship between creators, service and content providers and consumers." "Online theft not only jeopardises jobs and the creative economy but threatens the very creativity that provides us with such a rich cultural environment. This "Copyright Alert" system will help people become more aware of the wide variety of legal offers that exist." Ger Hatton, Secretary General, ICMP, the global voice of music publishing. The article may be viewed here.

Source: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 
WIPO announced a project to build a common digital platform which will help streamline the identification of protected musical works across 11 West African countries, helping creators from these countries get paid for their work through a simplified and standardized rights registration system. The article posted on 8 June 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) 
Representatives of the creative sector worldwide have welcomed commitments on intellectual property protection made by the G8 Summit today in Deauville, France.The Netherlands have joined the ISMN system. The joint statement of 16 organisations may be viewed here.

Source: International Conferderation of Music Publishers (ICMP) 
The ICMP Newsletter of 26 April 2011 reports - amongst other topics - on a Panel they had organised at the Frankfurt Music Fair: "New models for selling printed music online". It showed that many models for selling online already existed but that a big challenge for the industry was competing with the ‘Freemium’ model. Now, paid-for services had to be created. The participants saw that PDF should remain the format for digital sheet music files and that new software would adapt around it. The newsletter may be viewed here.

Source: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML)
The preliminary program for the IAML conference in Dublin on 24th-29th July 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) 
ALA encourages libraries and other institutions to use Preservation Week to connect communities through events, activities, and resources that highlight what can be done, individually and together, to preserve personal and shared collections. More about the event may be found here.

Source: Featured Artists Coalition 
In the UK, Professor Ian Hargreaves is currently leading an independent review for the government into how the intellectual property system can better drive growth and innovation. The article posted on March 8th 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Music Industry Newswire 
"If there could be agreed-upon standardized methods of communicating data …, the metadata that describes them (and the identifiers themselves that uniquely identify them), it would be a big step towards more accurate accounting of use." The article posted on March 4th 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Younison (Younison is an advocacy platform for music professionals dedicated to ensuring that they are fairly, accurately and directly compensated for the use of their works in the new digital environment.) 
Featured Artists Coalition (UK), Technopol (FRA) and DJ Monitor (the Netherlands) have joined forces with Younison to advocate for changes to the collective rights management framework in the European Union (EU), in order to ensure that artists are accurately and efficiently rewarded for the commercialization and use of their creative works across the EU. The article from Younison posted on March 4th 2011 can be found here.

Source: International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) 
The International ISTC Agency, the official Registration Authority for the International Standard Text Code (ISTC), recently announced the appointment of four new official registration agencies (ISTC-RAs). All will start operating in early 2011. The text posted on March 2nd 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 
"…In this respect, Mr. Gurry said "an international music registry -- a global repertoire database -- would be a very valuable and needed step in the direction of establishing the infrastructure for global licensing."The text dated 24th February 2011 may be viewed here.

World-Renowned Creators, Political Leaders and Key Industry Players to Convene at World Copyright Summit in Brussels, June 7-8, 2011

Source: International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) 
CISAC announced the main program topics and speakers for the third World Copyright Summit - 7 & 8 June 2011: The release published on February 23rd 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: New York Times
The International Music Score Library Project has grown to be one of the largest sources of scores anywhere. The article posted on February 22nd 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: The European Library 
Registration is now open for The IFLA Presidential Meeting 2011. The theme is Libraries Driving Access to Knowledge: Action for Europe and the two-day conference will be held on April 14-15 in The Hague at the National Library of the Netherlands. The announcement may be viewed here.

Source: International Conferderation of Music Publishers (ICMP)
ICMP Secretary General Ger Hatton comments on European Voice article 'A lack of digital harmony' by Ian Wishart. The response from the ICMP can be found here.

Source: top40-charts.com 
ZMX Music today launched its new direct-to-fan sheet music delivery system. The article posted on February 16th 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) 
IIPA's 25th Piracy Report Documents the Challenge of Online & Physical Piracy in 40 Countries. The press release dated 15th February 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Supply Chain Digest 
"Other segments also focus on using RFID to improve their inbound and outbound quality, as well as minimize their shrinkage and manage their inventory". The article on how RFID helps the (apparel) retail supply chain posted on 2nd February 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Book Industry Study Group (BISG) - USA 
The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) is the leading U.S. book trade association for supply chain standards, research, and best practices. Comments surrounding the BISG research report on ISBN posted on 26th January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Max-Planck-Institut 
The report "Handling Scanned Sheet Music and Audio Recordings in Digital Music Libraries" may be viewed here.

Source: Publishing Perspectives 
"Enhanced metadata can increase discoverability of books and provide marketing information to the entire publishing supply chain." The article posted on 27th January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Publishers Weekly 
Five Degrees Of Metadata: Small Changes Can Mean Big Sales. The blog posted on 24th January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) 
How to easily identify all digital content contributors? The answer is ISNI - ISNI International Agency Established in London. The latest press release which was published on 23rd January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Booknet Canada 
ONIX (Online Information Exchange) is the standard in the publishing industry for computer-to-computer communication about bibliographic data. ONIX gives publishers the ability to share infinitely more information about their books with infinitely more people. More may be read about this topic here.

Source: International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) 
CISAC's Global Economic Survey analyses the royalty collection figures of CISAC's members worldwide and shows how they are protecting the interests (and incomes) of creators under a constantly changing environment. The latest Global Economic Survey which was published on 20th January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) 
The report outlines the way that record companies have revolutionized their business models to meet the demands of digitally literate consumers. The Digital Music Report 2011 which was published on 20th January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Music Industry News Network 
Musicnotes.com, the leading digital sheet music retailer and publisher, announced today sales of digital sheet music at its online store grew 25 percent in 2010. The article posted on 18th January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: European Commission, Information Society 
"Comité des Sages" on bringing Europe's cultural heritage online presents its report "The new Renaissance". The report which was published on 10th January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Europeana/The New York Times 
US playing catch-up in a digital library race. The article posted on 8th January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 
The Board of the International ISBN Agency commissioned a study from Digital Publishing Partners LLC to provide an evidence base for developing its policy and actions regarding the assignment of ISBNs to e-books. The study which was posted on 5th January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Global Repertoire Database 
The Global Repertoire Database Working Group releases its recommendations for: "The Way Forward for the Development of a Global Repertoire Database". The document which was published on 10th December 2010 may be viewed here.

Source: RightsFlow 
Digital Data Exchange ("DDEX"), a consortium of leading media companies, music licensing organisations and digital service providers focused on creating digital supply chain data standards for common use, today announced that several digital music retailers, labels and other rights owners have made strategic commitments to begin using the DDEX content and metadata messaging specification as part of their digital music supply chain infrastructure. The article published on December 10th 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: European Commission, Information Society 
Europeana is a project funded by the European Commission with the goal of making Europe's cultural and scientific heritage accessible to the public. Europeana gives online access to over 14 million examples of Europe's cultural heritage. The press release which was published on 18th November 2010 may be viewed here.

Source: European Commission, Information Society 
Commission calls on industry and European standardisation organisations to speed up the development of a common European sign for RFID. The news which was published on 5th October 2010 may be viewed here.

Source: GS1 
Two new guidelines show how to use GS1 EPCglobal standards-compliant RFID tags to tag assets in the supply chain. The press release published on September 13th 2010 may be viewed here.

Source: International Association of Music Information Centres (IAMIC) 
The IAMIC held its Annual Conference in Dublin, Ireland. The brochure "The future of music in the digital world" dated June 2010 may be viewed here.

Source: International Music Council (IMC) 
Sustainable futures for music cultures project publishes first newsletter. The newsletter which was published on 1st March 2010 may be viewed here.

Source: The International Inventory of Musical Sources - Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) 
The International Inventory of Musical Sources - Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) - is a multinational, non-profit joint venture which aims for comprehensive documentation of extant musical sources worldwide. In September, 2008, the U.S. RISM Office embarked on a two-year project to catalog music manuscripts. The article posted on 15th June 2010 may be viewed here.

Source: Midem 
DigiClef is a brand new way of retailing sheet music via smartphones. DigiClef unlocks the value held in sheet musical arrangements, packages it in state-of-the-art technology, and then delivers it directly to musicians on their iPhones. The presentation may be viewed here.

Source: National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. 
"The metadata that enables readers to identify and acquire books online also drives multiple functions for the publisher supply chain and for library workflows both before and after publication." The white paper dated June 30th 2009 may be viewed here.

Source: The Business of Classical Music 
"The music recording industry involves a number of discrete businesses. These businesses link together in a sophisticated way to create a "supply chain"." Full article posted on December 14th 2008 may be viewed here.