YouTube adopts ISNI ID for artists and songwriters

The millions of music artists, songwriters, composers and performers who have their content on YouTube will find it easier to have their works identified and credited.

The Google-owned YouTubeis the first in the music space to become a Registration Agency for the unique International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI).

ISNI identifies works, recordings, products and rights holders in all repertoires

YouTube will request that an ISNI be assigned to all those who create and distribute content on YouTube.

The platform will also share the ISNI with its label and publishing partners to ensure that it be adopted throughout the music industry.

“James Stewart, you say? Which one, there are at least 14 on YouTube!” says FX Nuttall,technical program manager at YouTube.

“By adopting ISNI, artists, songwriters and other creators will be unambiguously identified, enabling better visibility and tracking on YouTube.

“Bringing the ISNI open standard to music opens the door to more accurate credit for creators, discovery for fans, and transparency for the industry.”

The ISNI has long been used by libraries to cross-check catalogues.

There are currently 39 ISNI member organizations, 16 of which are Registration Agencies.

Over 10 million ISNIs have been assigned to date; about 650,000 are assigned to organizations and more than 9.4 million to persons.

“We’re delighted to partner with YouTube on such an ambitious effort”, said Tim Devenport,executive director, ISNI International Agency.

“Many organizations active in the music sector have already shown interest in using ISNI identifiers as part of the infrastructure they need to manage rights and royalties effectively.

“Working closely with YouTube, ISNI is very pleased to contribute its experience and skill-sets to these critical objectives.

“We view this as a transformative opportunity to offer the music industry a valuable identifier scheme and in so doing, to deepen ISNI’s knowledge of this domain and improve its technical facilities and approaches.”

Bloomberg also reported that YouTube has told musicians who have signed to its new partnership program – in which it funds significant amounts towards videos and marketing – to sign sweeping non-disparagement agreements.

Obviously these would stop musicians attacking YouTube for not stopping copyright infringement on its site and for under-paying compared to other platforms.

But for it to work, all or most of YouTube’s partners would have to sign the agreements.

After a strained relationship with record labels, YouTube has recently struck long term deals with the three majors, Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Music Group.

As reported previously in TMN, it is about to launch a music subscription service called Remix to take on Spotify and Apple Music.

It obviously does not need any negative vibes at this stage.

But the music community and the industry would expect YouTube to live up to promises on compensation and to ensure that Remix works – or the criticism will certainly be coming from all directions.