MUS: this three-letter abbreviation marks the core of the Euroradio music exchange. MUS is the database where all concert offers are saved and Members can order music of different genres. In 2012, more than 4,000 concerts were exchanged. The 20-year-old MUS software is now due for an upgrade and will also be better adapted to Members’ workflows.

To implement this project with the broadest possible participation of Members, Christian Vogg, Head of Radio, asked the chairs of four major Euroradio expert groups (International Relations,  Music, Contact Engineers, Users) to form an advisory board. This working group met on 5 November 2013 in Prague with the two project managers for a kick-off discussion of the project. Virginie Robineau, Euroradio Project Manager, with lengthy experience in using MUS, is supported by Katharina Giesen, a workflow and metadata specialist from BR, Munich.

Katharina will work as an intern on this project for six months. Her task is to analyze all relevant workflows and to come up with a detailed proposal for a solution. For this purpose, she will be visiting and interviewing music editors, international relations staff and contact engineers at Member organizations as well as EBU staff in Geneva. A questionnaire is being prepared to gather additional information and input. The main goal is to make MUS more user-friendly while maintaining the substantial reliability of the database and the added expertise of Euroradio team members. Another target is to expand the number of MUS users at EBU Members, whose workload should not increase. While no doubt eliminating many of the current copy-and-paste workflows, some operations might be performed more easily and quickly.

All input from EBU Members and MUS users is welcome.