DDEX is a consortium of leading media companies, music licensing organisations, digital service providers and technical intermediaries, focused on the creation of digital value chain standards.

These companies realised that the developing legal digital music industry needed to adopt standards related to the way it communicated information about works, tracks and products (including ownership and sales information). This ‘metadata’ needed to be communicated in a common format and then delivered between companies in a common way so that each party requiring access to the metadata can understand it.

DDEX is now playing a critical role in the development of the digital value chain as more and more companies recognise the vital importance of standardisation. As well as developing standard format XML messages, DDEX is now looking at all aspects of standardisation within the digital music value chain. Most recently this has included automated message exchange, choreographies and business and release profiles. This reflects the focus of DDEX more recently on firstly, providing standards that make the digital value chain more technically sophisticated but secondly, finding ways to make implementation of the standards easier.

Rightscom provides the secretariat for DDEX.