1 Introduction

This document defines Part 2: Musical Work Cluster Notification of the Entity Cluster Message Suite standard (ECM) and was developed by the member organisations of the Digital Data Exchange, LLC (DDEX). Any organisation wishing to implement this (or any other DDEX standard) is required to apply for an Implementation Licence. The terms of the licence and an application form can be found here and here.

The ECM standard is composed of multiple parts, with this Part 2 defining the message structure and protocols related to communicating data about Musical Work Clusters as defined in Clause 4.1. It establishes the messaging framework that enables two parties to exchange structured and interoperable data pertaining to sound recordings and music videos that reference the same underlying musical work.

Clustering, in this context, refers to the systematic grouping of entities based on deterministic or probabilistic matching criteria. This approach has become instrumental in streamlining workflows within the music industry’s supply chain, particularly in aligning audio assets with their corresponding metadata representations.

A Musical Work Cluster is defined by the intrinsic relationship between all sound recordings that embody the same musical work. As such, it is inherently dynamic — new recordings can be added any time.

Further information, including best practices on how to implement this standard, can be found on the DDEX knowledge base.