Importing a DDEX file needs both write and import access to Repertoire. Import access alone is not enough, because the upload lives on the Releases page and there is no second way in. DDEX is available to record companies on a recordings license.
Before your first import
Set your DDEX Party ID. Open organization settings, then the record company’s General page, and fill in DDEX Party ID (DPID). It looks likePADPIDA0000000000A. Until it is set, the DDEX tab under Data Files stays locked.
Ask Qlero to add your delivery partner. Every DDEX file comes in under a named partner, the distributor or aggregator the feed comes from. Qlero sets partners up for you, so contact support with the partner’s details before your first delivery.
Importing a file
1
Go to Repertoire › Releases
Choose Create New › Import from DDEX.
2
Pick the delivery partner
Choose the partner the file came from. If the list is empty, no partner has been set up yet.
3
Upload the ERN XML
Only
.xml is accepted. Upload the message itself, not a zipped delivery.4
Click Import
Qlero processes the file in the background. Nothing appears in your repertoire until it finishes.
What Qlero does with the message
Tracks are matched on ISRC. A track whose ISRC already exists is updated. Anything else is created. The release is matched on barcode, then catalog number. If neither finds an existing release, Qlero creates one. Updates only fill in what the message carries. A delivery can change a track’s title, artist, duration, and label, and a release’s title, artist, barcode, catalog number, release date, and label. Everything you set yourself in Qlero, such as external IDs, versions, variants, P lines, notes, and format type, is left alone. Tracks are added to a release, never removed. Tracks already on the release keep their position, and delivered tracks that were not there are appended to the end. Labels are linked, not created. A label name in the message attaches only if a label with that name already exists in your repertoire. Create the label first if you want the link. See Adding new labels. Contract auto-matching still applies. A newly created track picks up a contract that auto-matches on its label or artist, the same as a track you create by hand. See Assigning contracts to tracks and releases. A DDEX message carries no participation rates, so you set those yourself unless auto-matching covered them.What Qlero skips
Tracks with no ISRC. There is nothing to match them on. Repeated ISRCs. If the same ISRC appears twice in one message, only the first is used. The whole release, if any track fails. A release is imported as one unit, so a single unusable track means nothing from that message is saved. Fix the file with your distributor and redeliver.Checking the result
Open Data Files › DDEX. Each delivery is one row:- Release Identifier shows the barcode with the catalog number beneath it.
- Outcome is Created, Updated, or Unchanged, and it describes the release only: its own details and its tracklist. Unchanged means neither moved.
- Tracks counts what was in the message, then Created, Updated, and Reused split those into new tracks, tracks whose details changed, and existing tracks that were added to the release unchanged.