Release, edition, medium, group, track
A release anchors identity and ownership. Editions carry per-product facts and organize ordered mediums, groups, and tracks, while tracks point to specific recording versions.
v0.1-draft open specification
Music releases need a source of truth.
Labelcopy is an open standard for describing releases, editions, recordings, works, rights, manufacturing data, and the assets that tie them together. It is built for validation, provenance, archiving, and exchange.
Open standard. Practical metadata. Verifiable packages.
Designed for labels, artists, mastering engineers, pressing plants, archives, distributors, and tool builders.
What Labelcopy defines
The current work focuses on a clear canonical model for release data and a native exchange container called LCX.
Works, recordings, resources, parties
The model separates the composition, the performance, the mix or master, the binary asset, and the people or organizations involved.
LCIDs, CIDs, commits, branches
Stable logical IDs point to immutable content IDs through a hash-linked revision chain, so release states can evolve on branches, be audited, and be sealed with tags.
Built for the messy middle of music
Labelcopy is not trying to replace every downstream standard. It gives projects a trustworthy internal model that can export, import, and preserve.
For independent releases
A small label or artist should be able to keep accurate, portable metadata without enterprise-only tooling.
For production workflows
Editions can represent mastering candidates, final masters, territory variants, digital bundles, and physical manufacturing instructions.
For long-term archives
LCX packages are designed as self-contained, content-addressed release packages with signatures and optional encryption in scope.
The release graph
The draft schemas keep industry concepts separate instead of flattening everything into track rows.
ReleaseEditionMediumGroupTrack
Labelcopy is currently pre-release. Breaking changes are expected while the architecture is being refined. Commercial tools and services will live separately at labelcopy.com as they become available.