Uniform CD Filing Guidelines

At World Music Portal we would like to endorse a voluntary filing system for CD recordings (and future formats) developed by the world music member labels at AFIM (Association For Independent Music). Labels can use this system to identify their products and to suggest where they should be positioned on retail shelves, consumer’s collections and music libraries.

Background File-under Descriptive Language

Examples 

Location of the file under information

Background

In response to a retail survey conducted by the 1995 World Music Special Interest Group at AFIM (it was then known as NAIRD), it was determined that a majority of important retailers welcomed ";file under"suggestions offered by record labels. In subsequent conversations with retailers and members of that year's World Classification Committee, it was agreed to adopt a uniform ";file under"format which member labels could use to identify their products and to suggest where they should be positioned on retail shelves.

All world music labels are asked to ascribe to this uniform filing code adopted and promoted by the World Music SIG. Uniform ";file under"language helps all labels, and also provides valuable information to buyers, retailers, and consumers. The ultimate goal is to get the product to its shelf space as easily as possible, and to allow the consumer quick and orderly access to this product. The uniform ";file under"language facilitates this process.

File under Descriptive Language

The ";file under"format is as follows:

File under: 

continent (optional), country, artist’s last name in quotes

Examples:

• An African album by King Sunny Ade might read as follows:

       File under: 

       Africa, Nigeria, ";Ade"

• and an Indian album by Ravi Shankar would be:

       File under: 

       India, ";Shankar"

• A compilation of Latin American music might be:

      File under:

      Latin America, Compilations

Please remember to use the words ";file under"followed by a colon, then the continent (optional as in India above) + comma, then the country + comma, then the artist’s last name in quotation marks.

Any release that does not fit the above format may be improvised upon. For example, Celtic music recordings might be filed under the cultural term Celtic rather than the country Ireland. Native American recordings might not necessarily be listed under United States, but rather Native American. A compilation of Cajun recordings might be listed as:

File under: 

Cajun, compilations

Use your judgment in determining the filing instructions that will get your product to an already existing bin area, but whenever possible, please follow the suggested guidelines above, complete with colon, commas and quotation marks when applicable.

Location of the file under information

The file-under descriptive information should be printed on the CD tray card, either directly above or below the bar code. Use an easy-to-read typeface such as Helvetica, since the type size in most cases will be small, 6 or 7 points.

Last Updated 04/03/2003 12:47PM; 3,445 Hits