IEC TR 63020:2016

Digital sheet music - Market, use cases, and related technologies

IEC TR 63020:2016(E) provides information related to digital sheet music. It starts with a brief overview of the sheet music market and then explains the use cases for traditional sheet music as well as additional use cases for digitized sheet music (digital sheet music). Finally, it shows examples of each area of technology areas.

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 11-May-2016
• ICS: 01 - GENERALITIES. TERMINOLOGY. STANDARDIZATION. DOCUMENTATION
• ICS: 29.035.20 - Plastics and rubber insulating materials
• ICS: 33.160.01 - Audio, video and audiovisual systems in general
• ICS: 37.080 - Document imaging applications
• Technical Committee: TA 10 - Multimedia e-publishing and e-book technologies
• Current Stage: PPUB - Publication issued
• Start Date: 12-May-2016
• Completion Date: 12-May-2016

Standards Content (sample)

IEC TR 63020
Edition 1.0 2016-05
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Digital sheet music – Market, use cases, and related technologies
IEC TR 63020:2016-05(en)
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IEC TR 63020
Edition 1.0 2016-05
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Digital sheet music – Market, use cases, and related technologies
INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 33.160.01; 37.080 ISBN 978-2-8322-3287-3

Warning! Make sure that you obtained this publication from an authorized distributor.

® Registered trademark of the International Electrotechnical Commission
---------------------- Page: 3 ----------------------
– 2 – IEC TR 63020:2016 © IEC 2016
CONTENTS

FOREWORD ......................................................................................................................... 3

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 5

1 Scope ............................................................................................................................ 6

2 Normative references..................................................................................................... 6

3 Terms and definitions .................................................................................................... 6

4 Overview of the sheet music market ............................................................................... 6

4.1 Market relevance .................................................................................................. 6

4.2 Use cases for the sheet music market ................................................................... 7

4.3 Use cases for the digital sheet music market ......................................................... 8

4.4 Market structure and impact of digitization ............................................................. 9

5 Elements of digital sheet music infrastructure ................................................................. 9

5.1 General ................................................................................................................. 9

5.2 Music notation markup language ......................................................................... 10

5.2.1 General ....................................................................................................... 10

5.2.2 Symbolic music representation (SMR) .......................................................... 10

5.2.3 Standard music description language (SMDL) ............................................... 10

5.2.4 The music encoding initiative (MEI) .............................................................. 10

5.2.5 MusicXML .................................................................................................... 11

5.2.6 LilyPond ...................................................................................................... 11

5.3 Metadata for sheet music .................................................................................... 11

5.3.1 General ....................................................................................................... 11

5.3.2 The Dublin Core metadata element set ......................................................... 11

5.3.3 Music metadata style guide .......................................................................... 11

5.3.4 The music ontology ...................................................................................... 11

5.4 Musical font and font layout ................................................................................. 12

5.4.1 General ....................................................................................................... 12

5.4.2 Standard Music Font Layout (SMuFL) and compliant fonts ............................ 12

5.5 Digital rights management ................................................................................... 12

5.6 Reflowable sheet music ....................................................................................... 12

5.7 Annotation .......................................................................................................... 12

6 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 12

Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 13

Figure 1 – Market structure and impact of digitization ............................................................ 9

Table 1 – Major use cases for sheet music ............................................................................ 7

Table 2 – List of stakeholders ............................................................................................... 8

Table 3 – Additional use cases for digital sheet music ........................................................... 8

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IEC TR 63020:2016 © IEC 2016 – 3 –
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
DIGITAL SHEET MUSIC – MARKET, USE CASES,
AND RELATED TECHNOLOGIES
FOREWORD

1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising

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The main task of IEC technical committees is to prepare International Standards. However, a

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data of a different kind from that which is normally published as an International Standard, for

example "state of the art".

IEC TR 63020, which is a technical report, has been prepared by technical area 10:

Multimedia e-publishing and e-book technologies, of IEC technical committee 100: Audio,

video and multimedia systems and equipment.
The text of this technical report is based on the following documents:
Enquiry draft Report on voting
100/2540/DTR 100/2648/RVC

Full information on the voting for the approval of this technical report can be found in the

report on voting indicated in the above table.
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– 4 – IEC TR 63020:2016 © IEC 2016

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the stability date indicated on the IEC website under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data

related to the specific publication. At this date, the publication will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
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IMPORTANT – The 'colour inside' logo on the cover page of this publication indicates

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colour printer.
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IEC TR 63020:2016 © IEC 2016 – 5 –
INTRODUCTION

Music notation was invented more than 3 000 years ago. As it was with books, the first and

biggest technological change was introduced by the invention of the letterpress in the 14

century. Since then, sheet music technology has changed only insofar as the information age

and the rise of digital media have changed all media. Specific applications of technology to

sheet music are still in the very early stages. Various technologies and standards exist or

have been proposed as standards. Some technology, such as MusicXML [3] , succeeded in

introducing the concept of interoperability and data compatibility to the industry, but most

technologies provided little consideration for interoperability, compatibility with data and

processes, or standardization for quality. In this context, the sheet music industry hasn’t yet

been able to offer mature digital sheet music to the market.

This Technical Report starts by reviewing the current industry and the use cases around sheet

music. It then catalogues the technologies currently available in the area of digital sheet

music. Finally, the report combines these two aspects to illustrate the huge potential to

improve digital sheet music technology as well as the added value that standardization offers.

___________
Numbers in square brackets refer to the Bibliography.
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– 6 – IEC TR 63020:2016 © IEC 2016
DIGITAL SHEET MUSIC – MARKET, USE CASES,
AND RELATED TECHNOLOGIES
1 Scope

This Technical Report (TR) provides information related to digital sheet music. It starts with a

brief overview of the sheet music market and then explains the use cases for traditional sheet

music as well as additional use cases for digitized sheet music (digital sheet music). Finally, it

shows examples of each area of technology areas.
2 Normative references

The following documents, in whole or in part, are normatively referenced in this document and

are indispensable for its application. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For

undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any
amendments) applies.

ISO/IEC 10744:1997, Information technology – Hypermedia/Time-based Structuring Language

(HyTime)

ISO/IEC 14496-23:2008, Information technology – Coding of audio-visual objects – Part 23:

Symbolic Music Representation

ISO 8879:1986, Information processing – Text and office systems – Standard Generalized

Markup Language (SGML)

ISO 15836:2009, Information and documentation – The Dublin Core metadata element set

3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
3.1
score

collection of musical notations of different musical instruments for a musical composition

3.2
sheet music

piece of paper, sometimes bundled in a book or booklet, with musical symbols printed on it

4 Overview of the sheet music market
4.1 Market relevance

Very little information is publicly available on the market size of the sheet music industry.

According to IBISWorld, the sheet music market in the United States in 2013 was 345 M USD.

There is no verified or widely-accepted market size number for the sheet music global market.

Using the number for the US market, this report assumes the global market size of the sheet

music industry is 500 M to 700 M USD. The musical instrument market and music

playback/performance markets are closely related to the sheet music market, and they

generate 16 B USD and 16,5 B USD, respectively. Sheet music, musical instruments, and

playback/performance are equally important in music, but the sheet music industry is the

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IEC TR 63020:2016 © IEC 2016 – 7 –

smallest of the three. By enhancing the value of sheet music using the latest technology, the

sheet music industry has a good chance to grow.
4.2 Use cases for the sheet music market

Major use cases for sheet music are listed in Table 1. These use cases are categorized into

three groups, i.e. authoring, distribution, and consumption.
Table 1 – Major use cases for sheet music
Use case
Category Use case details
label

Authoring Compose Compose songs. Compositions can be as simple as a one bar jingle for

advertisement to full-scale orchestral compositions. Traditional composers
typically use pen and manuscript paper along with musical instruments while
composing. However, composing on computers (desktop music) has also become
common.

Arrange Arrange songs. “Composing” usually refers to creating an original musical work.

On the other hand, “arranging” is to transform original music into other forms,
such as creating variations, adding/subtracting parts for different sets of
instruments, as well as the changing of the musical style. Arrangers and
composers have the same requirements for sheet music.

Engraving Composers and arrangers cannot necessarily create playable sheet music. Their

handwriting can be hard to read and the layouts of notes and bars won’t always
consider playability. Musical engravers turn the musical works of composers and
arrangers into commercially-viable and musically-playable sheet music.
Distribution Print Printing music commerci
...