Beta Release of TrackOrigin is live. We are still running verifications throughout June.
TO-1.0 · ISSUED 2026 · MUSIC PROVENANCE STANDARD · EN
[ THE TRACKORIGIN STANDARD ]

THE STANDARD
FOR HUMAN-MADE
MUSIC PROOF.

ISRC identifies the recording. DDEX moves release metadata. TrackOrigin verifies human-origin provenance — whether the named person can credibly demonstrate a real creative relationship to the exact audio master.

Get verified → Read the methodology
STANDARD VERSION
TO-1.0
PRIMARY OBJECT
Track
PROOF TYPE
Signed
VERIFICATION MODEL
Live
[ §01 — WHAT IT IS ]

WHAT THE STANDARD IS.

The TrackOrigin Standard is a portable authorship-provenance layer for recorded music. It creates a signed, verifiable record that binds a human authorship claim to a specific audio master.

It does not replace ISRC, UPC, DDEX, label copy, royalty splits, publishing data or copyright registration. It adds the missing question those systems were not designed to answer: did the claimed human author credibly demonstrate authorship of this exact recording?

The standard gives artists, labels, distributors, DSPs, rights bodies, sync teams and fans a common way to understand whether a track is human-made, human-led with AI assistance, fully generated, conditional, disputed or unverified.

The result is a TrackOrigin Certificate, a public verification page, the Origin Seal and machine-readable metadata that can travel wherever the track travels.

[ §02 — BIOLOGICAL PREMISE ]

THE BIOLOGICAL PREMISE.

Music is not just an audio asset. Human hearing is built on older mammalian systems for voice, timing, arousal, identity, prediction and social attention. A finished track can trigger those systems whether it is human, synthetic or hybrid.

That is exactly why provenance matters. The listener's body can respond to sound before the market knows where the sound came from.

The TrackOrigin Standard does not claim that AI music has no effect. It makes a narrower, stronger claim: when human origin matters, it must be verified outside the waveform through process, declaration, liveness, identity continuity and cryptographic binding to the master.

The Origin Seal is the public mark for that verified origin. The certificate and manifest are the evidence layer behind it.

[ §03 — WHY THE INDUSTRY NEEDS IT ]

WHY THE INDUSTRY NEEDS IT.

The music supply chain was built for a world where making and distributing music had natural friction. Recording cost time. Production required skill. Distribution required access. Catalogue growth was large, but still human-limited.

That assumption has broken. A single actor can generate, imitate, duplicate and upload music at a scale that looks nothing like traditional authorship. Spam, synthetic impersonation, fake artist profiles, low-effort catalogue flooding and undeclared AI use are no longer edge cases.

The industry response cannot be only removal, tagging or disclosure. Those matter, but they do not create proof. A disclosure field can say AI was used. A detector can estimate whether a file looks synthetic. A spam system can remove obvious abuse. None of those proves human authorship.

TrackOrigin gives the market a higher-confidence signal: a human process tested live, bound cryptographically to the recording, and made available as both human-readable and machine-readable provenance.

[ §04 — POSITION IN THE STACK ]

WHERE IT SITS IN THE MUSIC STACK.

ISRC
Identifies the sound recording or music video. It tells systems which recording is being referenced.
DDEX / ERN
Delivers release metadata, resource data, availability and commercial terms from labels and distributors to DSPs and music services.
TrackOrigin
Adds a signed authorship-provenance layer: who demonstrated authorship, what was verified, which audio master was bound, what AI involvement was declared, and where the public certificate can be checked.
DSP / Platform
Uses the signal for ingestion review, artist-page trust, catalogue hygiene, disclosure display, fraud review, editorial context or fan transparency.
[ §05 — METADATA FIELDS ]

THE METADATA EVERY TRACK CAN CARRY.

TrackOrigin metadata can be stored by platforms, labels, distributors and catalogues as a track-level provenance extension. It can also be surfaced publicly through an artist website, EPK, track page or embeddable Origin Seal.

The metadata is intentionally simple. It does not require platforms to expose private verification media. It gives systems enough information to verify the certificate, understand the verdict and route the track through the correct trust workflow.

JSON · TO-1.0 EXTENSION 
{
  "trackorigin_standard_version": "TO-1.0",
  "trackorigin_cert_id":           "to_cert_...",
  "trackorigin_verdict":           "verified_human_made",
  "trackorigin_verification_url":  "https://trackorigin.io/cert/...",
  "trackorigin_master_sha256":     "...",
  "trackorigin_ai_disclosure":     "none | assisted | generated | undeclared_risk",
  "trackorigin_issuer_key_id":     "trackorigin-2026",
  "trackorigin_manifest_signature":"ed25519:..."
}
trackorigin_cert_id
The permanent certificate identifier attached to the verified track.
trackorigin_verdict
The human-authorship status: verified, human-led assisted, conditional, declined, revoked or unverified.
trackorigin_master_sha256
The hash of the exact audio master the certificate applies to.
trackorigin_ai_disclosure
The declared AI involvement category attached to the verification record.
trackorigin_manifest_signature
The cryptographic signature used to verify the manifest against the published issuer key.
trackorigin_verification_url
The public page where humans and systems can check the certificate state.
[ §06 — STANDARD VERDICTS ]

STANDARD VERDICTS.

PASS

Verified human-made

The human author credibly demonstrated authorship of the exact audio master under the methodology version in force.

PASS

Verified human-led assisted

The track used AI or advanced tools, but the human role remained demonstrable, material and consistent with the declaration.

REVIEW

Conditional

The evidence was incomplete, conflicting or limited. The track may require further review, a new session or additional documentation.

FAIL

Declined

The claim did not meet the verification threshold, or the declared process conflicted materially with the evidence.

REVOKED

Revoked

A previously issued certificate was invalidated due to new evidence, fraud, certificate abuse, master mismatch or procedural failure.

NONE

Unverified

No TrackOrigin certificate has been issued for the track. This is not a negative verdict; it is simply absence of verification.

[ §07 — ADOPTION PATH ]

ACCEPT IT.
STORE IT.
SURFACE IT.

The TrackOrigin Standard is designed to be easy to adopt. A DSP does not need to expose the full audit record. A distributor does not need to redesign its entire ingestion flow. A label does not need to change its ISRC process.

Accept the certificate fields. Store them against the recording. Verify the manifest signature when needed. Surface the human-made signal where it improves trust: artist pages, track pages, editorial review, ingestion systems, rights workflows and fan-facing experiences.

The standard is strongest when used before release, but it can also be attached to existing catalogue masters through re-verification.

[ §08 — BY STAKEHOLDER ]

WHAT EACH PART OF THE INDUSTRY GETS.

[ DSPS ]

A trust signal at ingestion.

Use TrackOrigin status to support catalogue hygiene, spam review, impersonation review, editorial context and listener transparency.

[ DISTRIBUTORS ]

Cleaner delivery.

Give credible artists a portable proof layer and separate verified human work from synthetic spam and low-quality bulk uploads.

[ LABELS ]

Better signing diligence.

Verify that an artist, producer or band can demonstrate authorship before rollout, catalogue acquisition, sync pitching or investment.

[ ARTISTS ]

Proof fans can see.

Put the Origin Seal on websites, social profiles, EPKs, track pages and pitch decks. Show that the work came from a real creative process.

[ RIGHTS BODIES ]

A provenance record.

Use verification status as supporting evidence in disputes, claims, audits, attribution review and royalty-risk assessment.

[ FANS ]

A way to choose human.

Fans can support human-made or human-led work with confidence when provenance matters to them.

[ §09 — SCOPE LIMITS ]

WHAT THE STANDARD DOES NOT DO.

TrackOrigin is not a copyright registry, a publishing database, a sample-clearance system, a royalty-split agreement, a distribution licence or a replacement for ISRC.

It does not claim that a song is good, commercially valuable, legally cleared, contractually controlled, playlist-worthy or free of disputes.

It answers one critical question with higher confidence than audio-only tools or self-declaration: did the named human credibly demonstrate authorship of this exact audio master?

Everything else — rights ownership, revenue shares, sampling, publishing, label control and commercial permission — remains a separate legal and commercial layer.

[ §10 — IMPLEMENTATION LEVELS ]

IMPLEMENTATION LEVELS.

  1. 01

    DISPLAY

    Show the Origin Seal on public artist pages, track pages, EPKs, websites and profile links.

  2. 02

    STORE

    Store the certificate ID, verdict, verification URL and master hash against the track record in internal systems.

  3. 03

    VERIFY

    Check the signed manifest against the published issuer key and confirm the certificate has not been revoked.

  4. 04

    ROUTE

    Use the status in ingestion review, fraud systems, catalogue hygiene, rights review, editorial workflows and listener transparency.

  5. 05

    REQUIRE

    For high-risk releases, suspicious catalogues, impersonation-sensitive uploads or premium human-made campaigns, require TrackOrigin verification before release or promotion.

[ §11 — THE INVITATION ]

ADOPT THE HUMAN-MADE SIGNAL.

The music industry does not need another vague AI badge. It needs a precise, verifiable, track-level signal that works for human-made music, human-led AI-assisted music and fully generated music without pretending those categories are the same.

TrackOrigin gives that signal a standard shape: a certificate, a manifest, a seal, a verdict, a public verification URL and a cryptographic binding to the master.

If you operate a DSP, distributor, label, rights body, sync library, artist platform or catalogue system, the path is straightforward: accept the fields, preserve the certificate ID, verify the signature and display the human-made signal where it creates trust.

Artists should not have to shout over synthetic noise to prove they are real. The standard should do that work with them.

[ SOURCES ]

PUBLIC DATA BASIS.

[ TO-1.0 · MUSIC PROVENANCE STANDARD ]

MAKE HUMAN
AUTHORSHIP
VERIFIABLE.

Add TrackOrigin to your track metadata, release workflow, artist page, catalogue system or DSP ingestion process.

Adopt the standard → Verify a track