It doesn’t matter if you’re a major label dealing directly with iTunes or a self-released artist using an aggregator; iTunes wants a specific digital audio premaster so that they can do the encoding (i.e. mastering) in-house.

Digital music outlets like iTunes and Spotify, and the aggregators that connect independent musicians with them, want digital audio premasters. This article will help you know what to ask for from your mastering engineer, to ensure that your music is ready for the marketplace.

DDP was developed to provide replication facilities with a “consistent and complete description of the input media” used to manufacture CDs and DVDs. In other words, a DDP file set is data that completely describes a CD or DVD. From this data your master can be replicated without transmission error.

ISRC is the only standardized, non-proprietary system available to identify individual digital recordings in a global market. ISRC matters because it works, nobody owns it, and it’s virtually free for all to use.

Metadata is the term we use to describe any secondary data that is used to describe or organize the digital media itself (i.e. the audio data). Most metadata is medium-specific, meaning that the delivery method defines what the relevant metadata is, and how it will be delivered. This article covers some of the most frequently important points.

A backup is a working safety copy of your production data. The goal of a systematic approach to backups is to keep data loss from stopping or significantly delaying your work. If properly implemented, a backup system will contain current production data for all in-progress projects as of the conclusion of the most recent session.

Archiving may be the least exciting thing that happens in a recording studio, but none of the fun parts of music production have much point if the recordings they produce can’t be played back over time. An archive is long-term asset storage. The goal of a systematic approach to archives is to be able to reproduce the various (finished) master recordings associated with a project throughout its useful life.

If the various software and hardware products you’re using today aren’t going to be around in their current versions for the useful life of the sound recordings (i.e. the copyright term), the archived recording must be prepared to weather that obsolescence. The goal of preparing multitrack DAW data for archive is to minimize the layers of technology necessary to completely reconstruct the master recording in the future.

Here we'll look at the music industry standard protocol for providing archival materials, “Recommendations for Delivery of Recorded Music”, from the Producers and Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy.This article will get you started turning in master recordings that stand a chance of being around long after you are.

Audio production requires a lot of decision making. Listening tests like ABX are a trusted way to help guide your attention. Let’s take a look at how anyone with a basic DAW setup might be able to go about conducting a listening test of their own.