Masterclass helps Management students understand the power of metadata
Friday 10 October 2025
Management students have been taken on a deep dive into one of most important but least understood areas of the music industry: metadata.
The masterclass for BA Management (Music Industry) and MA Music Industry Management students was given in collaboration with MusicFutures and the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), with Dr Sabine Jaques and Alexa Niculae leading the session.
Metadata, the information encoded in music files, ensures that artists, writers, and producers are correctly credited and compensated. “It’s quite a technical topic, but it’s absolutely crucial,” said Dr Jacques, Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at the University of Liverpool and co-lead of the MusicFutures project. “The industry is very much running on data. If the data is not correct, it can get complex, and it becomes very hard for the right money to go to the right people.”
Joining her was Romanian artist Alexa Niculae, who has nearly 20 years of music industry experience. Niculae advocates for intellectual property education through CLIP, a knowledge platform led by WIPO that aims to help creators understand the rights surrounding their work. Niculae’s experiences underlined the real-world impact of metadata on artists’ livelihoods. “So much money is being lost, your song can be used in so many ways you might not know about.”
MusicFutures is a five-year, £6.75 million project that brings together universities, industry, and local government to place Liverpool at the forefront of global music research and innovation. By combining research and theory with practical industry expertise, MusicFutures aims to create opportunities that benefit artists, audiences, and businesses within the sector.
Ben, an MA Music Industry Management student, really enjoyed the session. “There was great information about how you can keep the integrity of your own music, and how you can make sure you get revenue streams regardless of how that music was distributed.”
