Jason Levine – Healing People Daily with the Power of Digital Video & Audio

I want metadata, particularly where music is concerned. But you know, it never ceases to amaze me how the behind-the-scenes efforts of the content we view is generally over-looked. After all, this is 2007, we’ve got all sorts of groovy ways of acquiring content in a non-packaged distribution kind of way. But…if I download a tune from a popular site (and anyone who knows me already knows that personally, i don’t download Tunes), *and* if I want to know who engineered that tune and where (because I’m nerdy that way), or who produced that tune (because I’m musically geeky that way), or what publishing company handles the performance rights for that tune ('cause I’m a publisher as well), it just isn’t that easy (and generally, much of that data isn't there anyway). And all this, on material that is supposedly ‘properly’ meta-data tagged from legit sites. (note: you wanna see how much metadata you can put in a file? Check out Bridge CS3 & XMP. Fields upon fields of metadata, all available to you. Fill out those fields, and don’t be shy. Yeah baby, *we’re* looking out for ya!)

Well, I submit to you, Exhibit A, and what I like to call my personal cure for the Common Metadata, and common musical/visual/production curiosity…

Exhibit A - ManualMetaData MkIIIa - CDs and DVDs with Phat Booklets

What you see above might shock you…but all of those plastic-encased artifacts came from a store…a magical store called FAME in Amsterdam. I went in, I searched (he he) for hours, I cross-referenced, heck, I even auditioned a few before I decided to keep them, and I dropped a load of Euros. FAME just might be the last great record store in the world (for anyone who cares), and when I got back to my place, I popped one of those old-school artifacts into the CD player, (what the heck is that, daddy?) grabbed my Eye-Viewer & Accessories (See Figure 2…not to be confused with any “iViewer” or anything like that) and began filling my soul with massive amounts of meta-data. Who produced this stuff, who engineered this stuff, who remastered this stuff, what studio transferred, cleaned up, and removed dust and scratches from this material, whether it was widescreen, pan&scan, an HD transfer (and what studios handled all of that). I was replete with MetaData…I was happy…and I did not leave wondering, “Who did this?” And you know what else? It inspired me to seek out other releases by similar studios/producers/directors, in hopes of finding releases of similar quality (or, for that matter, which ones to avoid)

Now, over the years, we’ve had many manual meta-data methods. (nice alliteration)

Figure 2: The EyeViewer with much needed (caffeine) accessories (required for 'reading' the metadata...lol)

Old-school MetaData Mk1 - Vinyl, w/gatefold sleeves, etc.

MetaData MkI was, of course, vinyl, and over the course of 40 years or so, they attempted many ways to present and preserve the “Who did what aspects” of the materials you purchased. Inner sleeves, Gatefold sleeves, back cover printing, all the while trying to showcase who was really responsible for the goods. Vinyl was cool, and when The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper hit stores in June 1967 (40th anniversary this week), we were also treated to ‘lyrical metadata’, right on the back cover. Every word, and who wrote what, (including, producing/engineering credits) displayed right there, for your viewing pleasure. People read it, too. And re-read it. And re-read it.

Now, as the years moved on, and ‘budget’ releases came into play (along with other, less meta-data friendly formats) we started seeing less and less of the ‘who did what’. Gatefolds and elaborate front/back cover prints got expensive, so you were often treated with a track listing, publishing info, and that was it. Heck, lots of releases didn’t even have THE YEAR of release or copyright. Then came 8-tracks and Cassettes. Because of their casings (and lack of usable, printable space for text), early incarnations merely had track listings. Period. Later cassette releases would try to follow suit of the classic LP, with fold-out inserts, again, repeating the glory of years gone by. But this was short lived, and frankly, it was so small, few probably even cared to notice.

And then came the CD. Now, don’t get me wrong. Early CD metadata was non-existent. Shameful, in fact. Save for a few artists in the mid-80s and early 90s (and their associated labels), many early CDs gave you that cheap, throw-away, single-page insert. This included the ‘cover’ of the album on the front, a track list on the back, and nothing else. NOTHING. Early MCA Records CDs were the biggest offenders of this meta-data atrocity. They should have been ashamed…and they were. As by the time the mid-90s rolled around (and CD remastering became the rage, as well as ‘preserving’ the classic sound and contents of the original release) suddenly, metadata was back. All of it. Some, with intriguing tales by the artist of how it all came about. Life was good, those ‘behind’ the glass were happy, and everyone could now know ‘who did what’.

So, what is this rant really about? Well, it’s simply to say that metadata is wickedly important. Not only for tracking and monetization, but also for informing and inspiring those who read it. It was reading about George Martin and Geoff Emerick on the back of Beatles’ records (as well as the names Paul Rothchild and Bruce Botnick on Doors’ albums) that made me want to get into production and engineering…and it gave me people to aspire to be like. (oh…and the sound of the format did too…high-quality sound…but that’s for another blog post)…{subliminal message…FLV rocks...end subliminal message}

Oh, and should you be feeling old-school (and you happen to be in Amsterdam)…check out FAME. It’s truly the last great standing structure for packaged music and video. A dying breed? Yes. A manual meta-data mecca? Absolutely.

Blog on, make metadata, make people smile, and fill out those metadata fields!