Works Notification and Licensing

There are three Works Notification and Licensing standards each of which is used for different steps in the process of obtaining mechanical licences for musical works in the US. The DDEX standard that enables companies to exchange information on claims of ownership of musical works embedded in releases is the Musical Works Notification Choreography Standard (MWN). The standard that enables companies to request and to be granted licences for using such musical works is the Musical Works Licensing Choreography Standard (MWL). As an adjunct to this standard there is also the Letter of Direction Choreography Standard (LoD) which enables owners of musical works embedded in releases to notify users of such musical works that the ownership of the works has changed, in order that the new owner is paid the relevant royalties going forward.

The text of the Works Notification and Licensing standards with detailed explanations and advise about how to go about an implementation is available on the Knowledge Base.

The MWN, MWL and LoD standards are typically used by DSPs and/or record companies to request information on right share ownership claims and to license musical works from music rights societies, musical work rights administrators and/or music publishers, and for such organisations to provide information, licences and/or licence rejections and notifications of changes of ownership. These three standards are highly generic with limited variations in each one to reflect the nature of the particular business process they are used for, and share a common ontology/data dictionary.

DDEX has also defined how to exchange such licence requests and grants, alongside supporting documentation, for the licensing of physical products in Canada.