‘IT TAKES TIME TO DELIVER THIS LEVEL OF CHANGE AND NOT EVERYONE IS ABLE TO MOVE AT THE SAME PACE’

I have previously voiced my frustrations about how little we share in this industry when it comes to technology platforms and databases. I have also, however, identified some positive examples of sharing, and I am going to focus this article on one in particular, the ‘Virtual Recordings Database’.

VRDB is a system that was developed within SCAPR, the international association for performers’ collective management organisations (CMOs). It is a project that started in earnest in 2014. Its mission was to make a fundamental shift away from a claims-based model for international performer collections, to one based around a shared and agreed view of performer line-ups on sound recordings and audio-visual works.

Within the SCAPR community, the traditional model for performer payments flowing between countries was for each CMO to send out a file that listed all the recordings that had been played in their country within a given year (the ‘played recordings file’).

This file would be sent to all other performer CMOs, who would then match it to their local repertoire database. That society would then generate a file including a claim for every instance where a performer they represent was included in the line-up of those matched recordings.

To this day, this is how many significant parts of our industry continue to function. But it is a very inefficient way of doing things.

Not only does it result in large volumes of data files regularly flowing back and forward between each and every CMO, but it also typically results in the process being run from first principles every time. In a slightly Groundhog Day fashion, the processes get run again and again with little or no reference to previous iterations.

VRDB changed this model by putting a shared database of recordings and performer line-ups in the centre of things. That central database acts as the retained memory of recordings and their lineups and is at the heart of making the process much more efficient.

Instead of waiting for a played recordings file to be delivered, each SCAPR member proactively uploads into VRDB the recordings and performer line-ups that they hold and maintain locally. When these recordings land in VRDB, matching logic is used to determine whether any other societies have already uploaded the same recording. Where matches are found, the differences in the metadata between the VRDB view of things and the new upload are identified. Each recording in VRDB has a Repertoire Manager (typically the country of commissioning for the recording), who then receives notifications of these data differences and gets the opportunity to accept or reject them.

To date, more than 10 million distinct recordings have been uploaded and are now held in VRDB, with line-ups that are the result of sharing and collaboration. For the first time, all that work reviewing and amending performer line-ups that used to happen in-country and largely stay in-country is now being shared.

As well as being more efficient, it means that the allocation of neighbouring rights income is more accurate and more consistent. Who knew?

There are two other main components to VRDB. The first is playlist matching. When a CMO receives details of the music that has been played in their country, these playlists invariably include references to recordings that are not in that CMO’s local database. The CMO can upload those unmatched playlist items into VRDB where matching and searching functionality can be used to locate and download the necessary metadata.

This searching capability is not restricted to the uploading CMO. VRDB allows any CMO to assist in finding matches. This turns matching into a push and pull activity where you not only have the original CMO searching for matches, but you also have the other CMOs making recommendations.

This is an interesting feature as it leverages a CMO’s motivation to make sure that their recordings are being matched to. If, for example, a CMO has a lot of classical performer members, it is very much in that society’s interests to assist other CMOs in searching for and making those traditionally difficult classical music matches.

It also means that SCAPR can engage specialist third party matching services on behalf of the entire community. As well as being a very efficient way to procure such services, it allows SCAPR CMOs to benefit from matching approaches and technologies (such as AI and Machine Learning) that they may not be able to if acting alone.

The third and final piece of VRDB is the uploading of played recording files. When a CMO has completed the allocation of royalties for a given period, they upload the details of all the recordings that were included in that distribution.

To the extent that any of these are not already included in the VRDB database (they may have been held only in the local database and not yet uploaded), they will be matched to the VRDB repertoire database and VRDB IDs assigned.

Through this mechanism, the CMO has a link between all the local recordings that they distribute money against and the VRDB repertoire database. This allows them to use the repertoire synchronisation functionality of VRDB.

Through this, they can periodically download a file of all changes that have been made to the VRDB database for recordings that they distribute against. This ensures they have all the performer line-up additions and deletions that have been approved by the Repertoire Manager and keeps their local database synchronised with VRDB.

In recent times, a powerful reconciliation tool has been developed that allows a CMO to compare the performer line-up in their draft distribution results against VRDB and to identify where the line-ups differ.

This rich functionality provided by VRDB is making a real difference to the efficiency and accuracy of international performer collections. By the end of 2022 there were 15 SCAPR CMOs that were fully operational on VRDB, with a further 10 that have started their transition journey.

I have personally been involved from the outset of VRDB, so I have seen much of the journey it has been on. At the most recent gathering of SCAPR CMOs in Belgrade there was a presentation on just how far VRDB had progressed, and it caused me to reflect on what it was about this little-known project that has made it a success.

Firstly, very importantly, VRDB is not a threat to local systems; it augments them. Rightly or wrongly, CMOs are protective of their technology systems. They are often a complex mesh of highly integrated components and staff knowledge, and business processes are often tightly coupled with the existing systems.

Secondly, we did not try to boil the ocean, nor did we seek perfection. We developed a set of core requirements that worked for most and adopted a minimum viable product approach in the delivery.

Even now, nine years on, we are still evolving the system to deal with the edge cases and trickier requirements. But we are doing it from a place where the existing functionality is well understood. Thirdly, through the delivery phase of the project, we took genuine business operations and technical experts out of their businesses to drive the project. Using an agile delivery model, that group of experts met in person for four-five days every month to thrash out the detailed requirements and solution design.

Over a period of about 20 months, those requirements were progressively developed and put live, with the role of the operational specialists increasing as the system transitioned into live use. Importantly, whilst that group was supported by a technology delivery partner, control was never relinquished to them.

Finally, but perhaps most importantly, we had patience. It takes time to adapt to and integrate systems that deliver this level of change and not everyone is able or ready to move at the same pace. There is still more functionality to refine, edge cases of functionality to accommodate and more on-boarding to be done, but the same patient and considered approach will prevail and VRDB will continue to succeed.

Perhaps one other reason VRDB was a success is that it kept a low profile. Large, multi-country technology projects are never easy to deliver, and to have the world watching in expectation seldom helps. VRDB was never about highprofile fanfares. It was about making practical and pragmatic improvements to the muck and bullets of CMO business processes and what it lacks in industry awareness, it more than makes up for in the success it is delivering.

WHAT I WISH I’D KNOWN

Elspeth Merry started her career in journalism before moving into publicity. She worked at Inside Out and Island Records before founding her own agency, Artists’ Way. Today, she reps acts including FLO, Holly Humberstone, Glass Animals and Joesef...

The first thing I wish I’d known from the beginning is that storytelling will remain so important throughout an artist’s career. When we talk about press, the perception is that it sits at the bottom of the chain. Spotify and YouTube have come along, which are incredibly important, but the story and publicity is always the foundation of an artist campaign. What we put into the messaging is what the radio pluggers and commercial teams go out and use and it’s also what informs social media.

Sigrid is a great example of how the story has remained intact. I worked with her when I started at Island and she’d just been signed. I sat down with her and said, Don’t Kill My Vibe is about a session with male producers who disrespected you; do you want to tell that story? Initially, she wasn’t sure because she didn’t want them to find out. We told her that she didn’t have to name them but that the message is going to be such an important one when people listen to this song. She decided that she did want to tell it and that, as a starting point for Sigrid, has really carried and influenced how people feel about her as an artist. She’s known for making very defiant pop music and being fearless in her decisions. As she’s grown, she has got more confidence to say it as it is and speak out.

When something becomes successful very quickly, you can lose sight of the pillars and objectives of why you started something and why the artist is doing music in the first place. FLO is a really good example of a campaign that’s become successful very quickly. It’s been going for 10 months now, although they’ve been developing for a few years.

I’m very conscious that I want to do some of the grassroots things, like podcasts that we might have missed. You could just go straight to doing massive cover stories and big broadsheet features but one of the best things we did was this amazing Madame Joyce podcast, where the girls had so much fun.

It was a young black presenter with three black women and there was so much value in finding the nuances to what they wanted to say. Sometimes, you can put young musicians in situations where they’re with an older journalist who thinks they know, but there’s power in speaking to the community. I have to constantly interrogate myself and be like, ‘What’s best for the artist right now?’ In that, there’s a diminishing of ego.

When I started Artist’s Way, my ethos was to serve the story and the art and not the ego and go back to why I loved what I did. I was reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron and journaling every morning and realised I was making a lot of excuses as to why I was staying in a job. I was at Inside Out as Head of Press and within six months, I realised the role wasn’t what I wanted it to be. I was managing a really big team and there was less chance to be creative and on the frontline of PR, working with the artists directly. I think my ego definitely led the decision to take on that role. It seemed like the obvious next step, but, as my dad said, the further up the greasy pole you go, the less fun and joyous it is.

You are told to keep climbing that ladder and that there is only one route to success, but, actually, there are so many people going independent now who realise they want their own business. They don’t want to be dispensable because, ultimately, if you’re working at a big corporation, you are dispensable. Taking that power back and setting up a business, navigating and negotiating my own fees, has been a massive learning curve. I’ve had to ask, ‘What am I worth? What is my value?’ You can go and work for someone else’s dream and I really felt that at an agency. At a label, you feel more like you’re working towards the same shared goal, but I can still do that, I just don’t have to be in the office.

Another thing I’ve learned is to be critical of failure. In the music industry, there’s a propensity to always say, ‘Everything’s great. Everything’s going really well’ because people are afraid to be honest. But actually, it’s really important to ask, ‘What didn’t go well on that campaign? Where can we be better here?’ When you’re doing PR, you have to be brutally honest. You’re trying to convince people to love something as much as you do and you’re not given a marketing budget that will allow you to put money somewhere and make things happen. You’re speaking to individuals who would put their name next to an artist and vouch for them.

On that note, there’s a saying that I feel is really true of music: success has many fathers and failure is an orphan. I’ve worked a lot with artists who have been really successful at points and those who have not been as commercially successful as people would want or expect. A lot of the people who do the hardest work aren’t shouting the loudest but when something becomes very successful, everyone takes credit for what’s happening. When you’re a publicist, you’re the person that’s brought onto the team at the very beginning. Something will land on your desk when it’s not successful yet and you have to try and make this artist be seen, you have to build their profile. It feels really satisfying and fulfilling to have been there throughout the whole journey.

Some people will come on at a later stage and take unwarranted credit for something.

Sticking around and being that person the artist can trust and confide in has always been the role of a publicist. You could be in a situation with an artist where it might be uncomfortable, like doing an interview or a shoot where you’re not sure about the styling, and having to manage all the relationships on set. I really love being the person who is ultimately protecting the artist and trying to make the process feel as enjoyable as possible. If you’re not enjoying it, what’s the point? It goes back to the story being at the centre. It’s important for artists to constantly ask themselves, ‘Why are we doing this? Why do we want to be a pop star? Why do we want to make this music?’ You can get so caught up in everything and wonder why you were there in the first place.

The other thing I wish I’d known is that boundaries are essential. We all have such an emotional response to music, from how it soundtracks our lives to the artists who we feel see us and understand our traumas and heartbreak. I often find myself feeling so grateful to be working in this industry and be close to incredible art, but the nature of the job — from maintaining relationships to being immersed in a social industry centred on youth culture and gigs and festivals — means the boundaries can become blurred. It can become impossible to switch off and find balance outside of work.

Setting up Artists’ Way forced me to be more boundaried, because running a business means you can work forever, you can fill every second with tasks and a need to be in forward motion. But there is power in closing your laptop at a certain time, not refreshing your inbox and instead going to a gallery, reading a book and finding inspiration -— because it will all make you a better publicist or industry exec. In a recent podcast we did with Sigrid and BBC Music Life, Sigrid spoke to Maggie Rogers and Finneas about the power of boredom and normalising it. We live in a society where we feel like we have to constantly be improving otherwise we are not growing. We need rumination time!

Also, connecting people from different areas of culture will play an important part in your job. Publicists are connectors between writers and artists, but also between photographers, editors, fashion PRs, poets and politics. I have always loved connecting people from different disciplines and watching how their relationship leads to new ideas and great art and collaboration.

As an example, I saw parallels between my client Joesef’s story and that of Booker Prize winning novelist Douglas Stuart. Both of them grew up in the east end of Glasgow, with their city being their muse. Joesef writes songs that are nakedly, wrenchingly honest, but with a sense of humour that “underlines the harsh punchline”, and Douglas does the same with literature. We set up an ‘in conversation’ with Joesef and Douglas, where they discussed how they found inspiration in Glasgow and how they navigated queerness and mother bonds and moving away from their home. It was a beautiful interview and introduced Joesef to a new audience.

And lastly, enjoy the process. The team really makes any artist campaign. Work with people you love and respect, and who love and respect you too.