From repository to data space: governing music metadata under EU data law

Music metadata is central to remuneration accuracy and cultural visibility in AI- and platform-mediated markets, yet Europe’s landscape remains fragmented due to territorial rights management, divergent identifiers, and proprietary silos. The article reframes the resulting issues — unmatched royalties, inefficient licensing and distorted discoverability — as problems of governance and institutional design rather than purely technical ones. It evaluates whether a decentralized data space architecture, aligned with the EU’s Common European Data Spaces initiative, offers a viable alternative to repository-based models. Drawing on EU data and digital legislation (notably the Open Data Directive, Data Governance Act, and Data Act) and using the European Health Data Space as a reference point, it identifies key legal mechanisms, including interoperability obligations, constraints on unfair contractual terms, and intermediary governance structures. The analysis highlights persistent tensions between EU data law and regimes such as copyright and trade secrets, and assesses the extent to which the current framework can enable governed interoperability for music metadata, pointing to areas where more targeted, sector-specific intervention may be required.