RIN-M: the plug-in we’ve all been waiting for

Finally, it looks like someone has been paying attention. The MPG’s ‘Credit Where Credit Is Due’ campaign has been lobbying for better logging of production credits in downloadable digital music files for several years now, and a forward-thinking software company in Memphis has come up with something that we think has cracked it.

It’s called RIN-M and it’s a simple plug-in with the file extension ‘.RIN’: add it to any session on any DAW and all the right credits and metadata will be preserved all the way down the line. It’s made by Soundways Inc, an audio specialist working in recording, streaming, video gaming, consumer electronics and automotive gadgets.

You can download the basic version free from www.soundways.com, or spend about $40 on a ‘Pro’ version. Either way, it’s easy to get on board and join the movement to establish its use as standard practice.

The main points behind it are:

• The .RIN file contains the kind of liner notes you’d expect on CDs, with a rapidly growing roster of supporters including Apple, Amazon, Pandora, Spotify and over 30 others

• RIN stands for the Recording Information Notification standard, and the multi-platform RIN-M plug-in is the first product to make the addition of compatible metadata easy and convenient

• As you build a song, you enter the artist name and song title; select a profile or enter more information about participants in the session; add as many recording details as you wish; and export the RIN file with the project

With 4 Million downloads already we reckon the bandwagon is well and truly rolling and well worth jumping on: more and more record producers, mastering engineers, record companies and retailers are waking up to it, and you haven’t lost anything by adding it your project now. Eventually, we hope, everyone will be using it.

Check our more details at www.soundways.com