Metadata delivery is a hot topic at SXSW this year.  On a panel about data featuring representatives from two large digital aggregators, a question from the audience raised a salient issue:  If retailers are being sued because they are not licensing songs properly, is it even possible for labels or aggregators to deliver song share information to retailers directly?

If aggregators were able to collect the split data on songs, particularly the long tail, at the time the tracks were “ingested” into the aggregators systems, would that do any good if the retailers aren’t set up to take delivery.

One aggregator said that they didn’t collect publisher information “because publishers change all the time.”  That’s really not entirely true.  Another said that they don’t require the information, and that they don’t collect splits.  That suggests that the information is being collected for credits purposes.

In a separate conversation with a…