Release History

Django-Music-Publisher was originally released in July 2018, and for the rest of 2018, development was very rapid, with major improvements being released in August, September and November.

From January 2019 to January 2022, major versions were released twice per year, then only once per year.

Minor versions, with bug fixes and security updates, are released when required. They are not mentioned in this document.

Major Release History

18.7 - 18.11

Initial release in July 2018 had a very simple data structure. It used external API for CWR generation. The code was open-source, but it was dependant on a free tier of a commercial service.

19.1 Epiphany

This version was focused on making DMP completely independent of any software not available as open-source and compatible with the MIT license.

CWR generation and complete data validation was added to the open-source code. Full support for modified works was added, as well as basic co-publishing support. Data export in JSON format was added.

19.7 Metanoia

This version was about making DMP compatible with both current and future requirements within the precisely defined scope: single publisher, single manuscript share. (This scope has not changed since, nor will in the future.)

Most notably, support for multiple recordings per work and CWR 3.0 (labeled as “experimental”) were added. CWR preview, for both versions, received basic syntax highlighting. Since this version, CWR files are zipped.

20 Twenty

Twenty-twenty was primarily about simplified deployment. Since this version, DMP can be deployed to the Free Heroku dyno (container) by non-techies.

Note

This free service was cancelled in late 2022. See “Rubicon” below.

Support for custom global share splits was added. MR/SR affiliations for writers were also added. Syntax highlighting for CWR acknowledgements was added, to simplify dealing with conflicts and other registration-related issues.

20.7 Endemic

This version added a lot of new features!

Processing of royalty statements is the most important new feature since the initial release. It can import statements in practically any CSV format. Processing is extremely fast.

Basic CSV imports and exports for musical works, and JSON exports for releases were added.

ISWCs can now be imported from CWR acknowledgements. Controlled writers with no society affiliation are now fully supported.

Index (home) page became clearer due to grouping of views. User manual was reorganised to follow the same structure. User manual links now lead to the relevant page in the user manual.

21.1 Victor

This version was focused on improving and extending existing features.

Support for CWR was extended to include latest revisions:

  • CWR 2.1 Revision 8,

  • CWR 2.2 Revision 2 (includes cross-references),

  • CWR 3.0 Revision 0 (includes cross-references, experimental), and

  • CWR 3.1 DRAFT (includes cross-references, experimental).

CWR Syntax highlighting was improved and now includes all fields DMP generates from data, with more detailed descriptions on mouse-over, for all supported CWR versions.

A side menu was added to all add/change/view pages, making navigation faster.

21.5 Mayday

The version focuses on improving data exchange with other solutions, most notably That Green Thing.

  • Support for writers with IPI numbers, but without CMO affiliations was improved

  • Internal notes for writers, artists and labels were added

  • More data is available in CSV exports:

    • separate manuscript, performance, mechanical and sync shares for writers,

    • data about an original publisher, with performance, mechanical and sync shares,

    • data about recordings, including recording ID, record labels and recording artists, and

    • society Work IDs.

  • More data is available in CSV imports:

    • data about recordings: ISRC, duration, release date, and

    • society work IDs.

  • Improved support for ISWC imports and duplicate handling.

  • Interface now also available in dark mode

22.1 Exofile

With very little to do in the realm of music publishing, within the defined scope, DMP has moved towards supporting music companies who are both publishers and labels.

This version added support for file uploads, either locally (for traditional installations) or to S3 storage (for containers). Please consult Installation for instructions how to enable and configure file storage.

Writers, artists, labels and releases received image and description fields, to be used in front-end representations. Recordings received an audio_file field.

Read-only REST API endpoints are available for releases and recording artists, enabling integration with websites.

Playlists can now be created, either by manually adding recordings, or by using batch actions in various list views, and shared using secret URLs.

Full metadata backup can be download using REST API endpoint.

23.4 Rubicon

As the release name suggests, this release is a game changer. Not necessarily in a good way for small music publishers without development/IT skills.

Since version 20 Twenty, it was possible for anyone to deploy DMP to a free cloud account using a wizard. The free cloud service no longer exists, so the wizard was removed.

Deploying to Heroku and Digital Ocean is still possible for those who can read and follow installation instructions.

Account # field was added to the Writer model. This field can be used for linking royalty statement data with accounting. This is the only visible change to an end user within DMP.

Several important projects based on TGT were released in the previous 3 years, not only targeting music publishers, but also CMOs (societies). That is what open source projects are really about, and DMP will in the future be more focused on providing the core for such projects. Optionally combined with consulting by the author and the team.

Source code has been reviewed and partly cleaned up, with average complexity reduced to A and no block more complex than C. Code style is now validated with Black.

Introduction chapter of this documentation was extended with graphs, and split into two separate documents. Several external articles were linked to improve clarity.

24.12 Holiday Special

It has been well over a year since the last major version came out. In the meantime, a new LTS version of Django Web Framework was released, so DMP had to be updated accordingly.

Both light and dark skins have been updated. Several minor improvements were added and the code was improved in several places.

All dependencies were bumped to the latest stable versions.

Future open-source features

Nothing is planned for the foreseeable future. Unless there is a significant change in the industry, the next major release will be out in 2026.

Bugfix and security releases will be coming out when required.