We usually encounter a song through its sound. A voice, a melody, a few words—and a feeling that makes us want to press repeat. The names of the people who made that recording often remain outside the listening experience. Sometimes we can find them in the credits. Sometimes the credits are far from complete.
On 14 October 2026, EUIPO Academy held the online webinar “Music & IP: Protect Your Creativity and Shape Your Future”. Taking part gave me a reason to look more closely at a side of music-making that listeners rarely see, but independent artists have to learn alongside writing, recording and releasing songs.
The programme brought together several subjects: protecting creative work, starting a career in music, using music on social media, and the questions raised by new technologies. The announced speakers included Sabine Jacques from the University of Liverpool, musician Andy Smeets and representatives of EUIPO.
What Travels with a Song Beyond the Studio
One of the most practical parts focused on metadata—the information that accompanies a musical work and its recording. The presentation showed a tagged audio file, an ISRC recording identifier, and information about a work in the BumaStemra catalogue.
It is easy to lose sight of people behind these technical terms. Yet they concern composers, lyricists, performers, producers, session musicians, recording engineers, and the people responsible for mixing and mastering. They describe who did what, and how that contribution is reflected in the release information.
One slide specifically addressed the consequences of inaccurate or missing rights data when ownership of a catalogue changes. It highlighted the risk to session musicians and other contributors entitled to income from subsequent use of a recording. Changing distributors and paying close attention to contract terms were also discussed.
For an independent artist, this is a very concrete subject. Work on a release continues after the music is finished: names, roles, identifiers and the information that will travel with the recording all need to be checked.
Music in the Digital World
Another part of the webinar focused on social media. It examined familiar situations: posting a story with music, using platform music libraries, sampling, muted audio and removed posts.
I find this approach through everyday actions useful. Adding music to a video is technically simple. Understanding the conditions that govern its use can be considerably harder. The webinar explored these situations through concrete examples, inviting participants to answer poll questions before moving into the discussion.
New Tools and Human Contributions
A separate section addressed artificial intelligence. The materials touched on content labelling, keeping records of the creative process, and copyright questions where uncertainty remains.
What matters particularly to me here is how accurately we describe the work done by a person. A single recording can bring together human-written music and lyrics, a vocal performance, instrumental parts and different forms of technical processing. I want the information accompanying the result to make that process—and the people involved—visible.
This is also a question I bring to my own work: how can we be honest about the tools we use while preserving the names, roles and contributions of the people who took part in a recording?
I explore this in a separate article: If There Is AI in a Recording, Where Is the Human? — with concrete examples and careful attention to the distinction between a creative contribution and the use of technology.
For now, the webinar has encouraged me to pay closer attention to what accompanies music beyond the audio itself. Credits can tell us a great deal about a recording: how many people worked on it, what decisions were made, and how its sound took shape. For me, keeping that information accurate is part of respecting the work we do together.
Update — 26 October 2026: The webinar recording and the presentation shown during the session are now available on the EUIPO Academy Learning Portal.
Watch the webinar and access the presentation →
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