What’s all the fuss about metadata?
Anyone interested in getting their music licensed in the sync world, and certainly all our Lolly Box artists – colloquially known as ‘Lolly Boxers’ – have probably heard us banging on about metadata. But it’s probably a fair question to ask what metadata actually is and why it’s so important. In this guide we’ll discuss what metadata is, why it’s really important, and how you can help us to get your songs licensed!
So let’s start with a definition…
Metadata
/ˈmɛtədeɪtə/ noun
a set of data that describes and gives information about other data.
So in the music world metadata is all the information about your songs - and it’s the critical component that helps us find your music when we’re searching for styles, moods, keywords etc. in response to music briefs. Put another way, you could have the perfect song for a particular brief, but if it doesn’t pop up in our searches then it could be overlooked when we’re pitching tracks to the music supervisor.
Let’s look at how it’s done
Here’s an example of the metadata we received with a recent music submission. I’ve changed a few of the details to keep things anonymous, but this is a perfect example of great metadata. It might look like a lot of work but, rest assured, this artist has hugely increased the chances of their songs being found when we need them!
| Title | Down the Rabbit Hole |
| Time | 3:41 |
| Format | WAV |
| BPM | 110 |
| Artist | Alice and the Cheshire Cats |
| Album/EP | Mad Hatters Tea Party |
| Genre | Pop |
| Sub-Genre | Adult Contemporary, Pop Rock, Soft Rock |
| Style | Ballad, Duet, Easy Listening, Atmospheric, Ballad, Chill, Cool, Floating, Gentle, Harmonies, Hooky, Lounge, |
| Gender/Type | Female |
| Tempo | Medium |
| Featured Inst. | Piano, Guitar |
| Sounds Like | Lady Antebellum, Shania Twain, Lady Gaga, Toto, Journey, REO Speedwagon |
| Moods | Calm, Hopeful, Inspiring, Introspective, Love, Peaceful, Romantic, Sad, Sensual, Serious, Sexy, Slick, Uplifting, Sentimental, Sweet, Inspirational, Heartfelt, Emotional, Tender, Aching, Soft |
| Keywords | You Broke My Heart, How Long Can I Wait, Give me one little sign, Waiting for Love, Relationships, New Love, Broken Heart |
Depending on the music brief we receive, this artist has made sure that whether we’re searching on a specific tempo, style, mood or keywords, or any combination of search criteria, their songs stand a good chance of being returned in searches - which means they’re also much more likely to be included in the playlists we send to music supervisors.
OMG, where do I even begin!
Don’t worry, we understand that collating great metadata for all of your songs can be a big task, so the good news is that Lolly Box does most of the work for you. When you upload your songs our AI tagging robot automatically applies the majority of metadata tags to each track - including genre, mood, tempo, vocals and featured instruments. You can then use our simple metadata worksheet to collect your sounds like, lyrical themes, and keywords that we'll add to each song. Just drop us an email at licensing@lollyboxmusic.com and we’ll send you the worksheet.
So tell us what your songs are about! If your songs have vocals then what are the key themes or topics that will help us find them? If they’re instrumentals then what feelings do they inspire, what do you think the track is about, or what scenarios do you think it might fit – ‘running, chasing, summer, sunshine, playing, beach…’ Seriously, you can pretty much go to town with keywords – the more the merrier - because they often play a key role in getting your music noticed. And if it’s your song that matches a particular music brief then we absolutely will pitch it!
Dave Tenni
Director, Music Licensing