Dart Music promises digital distribution for classical music thanks to metadata

We’ve seen genres outside the big pop and rock umbrella seek out creative ways to carve their own niches in the online music business. The latest one to appear is Dart Music, a digital distributor that caters exclusively to classical music. The services at Dart are very comparable to what you’d see at TuneCore or CD Baby, but all focused on the specific needs and wants of classical artists and composers.

Much of that specialization seems to focus on metadata. “At our core, Dart is a music metadata company,” CEO Chris McMurtry told Billboard. “We pride ourselves on creating the best music metadata in the world.” That means gathering accurate information about songs’ composers, orchestras, movements, or soloists in addition to the more common digital fields such as song title and album. Having that information is crucial for handling royalty payments, and that could give Dart an edge in this community. The company distributes to iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Rdio.