Human Music Provenance Profile
HMP defines a music-specific provenance policy above existing standards. It records production evidence, human authorship claims, AI disclosure, and unverifiable ingredients in a form that a verifier can evaluate.
Abstract
The Human Music Provenance Profile is proposed as an open, DAW-native provenance profile for music. It composes C2PA, DDEX RIN, IPTC Digital Source Type, Broadcast Wave metadata, W3C provenance concepts, verifiable identity mechanisms, and optional transparency logs into a policy that can produce a human-readable and machine-verifiable HMP level.
HMP classifies evidence for declared and verifiable human music production workflows. Generative, unverifiable, or disputed ingredients remain visible to reviewers within the same evidence model.
Motivation and scope boundaries
AI detection is probabilistic and adversarial. A provenance profile provides a positive record of what was captured, imported, edited, rendered, mixed, mastered, disclosed, and transferred. Verification can then evaluate documented production evidence rather than infer origin from the exported file alone.
Standards relationship
The draft uses existing container and metadata layers. C2PA serves as the cryptographic provenance layer; DDEX RIN as the music supply-chain representation; IPTC Digital Source Type as the source vocabulary; BWF/BW64 and related metadata as studio workflow carriers; W3C PROV, Verifiable Credentials, and SCITT as optional identity, audit, and transparency extensions.
Carries signed manifests, claims, ingredients, actions, soft bindings, repository receipts, AI disclosure, and validation status. Audio-relevant actions include mixing, mastering, remixing, placing, transcoding, and watermark binding.
Provides vocabulary for captured media, human edits, digital creation, algorithmic enhancement, trained algorithmic media, and hybrid compositions. Reusing these classifications gives HMP a shared vocabulary for source semantics.
Maps provenance evidence into a music-industry language for contributors, roles, performances, instruments, sessions, equipment, and handoffs between production, mixing, mastering, labels, and distributors.
Support professional audio interchange, timestamps, origin metadata, and optional immersive or broadcast metadata. Production stems can carry HMP evidence most directly in BWF/WAV/BW64 workflows.
PROV contributes the conceptual model of entities, activities, and agents. Verifiable Credentials can identify musicians, studios, software, devices, or certified components without exposing unnecessary personal data.
A transparency log can record that a manifest existed at a particular time. This is optional in the early profile but relevant for institutional auditability and dispute resolution.
Terminology and trust model
HMP levels summarize multiple evidentiary dimensions: source coverage, capture coverage, process coverage, identity coverage, AI disclosure, and continuity across production stages.
A signed record for audio or MIDI captured at input time, including project, track, take, timing, input, format, hash, and source classification.
An imported asset with a provenance state such as verified, unverified, sample-library, public-domain, licensed loop, declared AI, or detected-risk.
A handoff package for mixing, mastering, remote performers, or non-conforming tools, carrying stems, manifests, receipts, and policy state.
The verifier-facing bundle that contains final audio, manifests, fingerprints, watermark resolver data, certificates, and optional audit material.
HMP levels
The proposed ladder describes evidence quality. Lower levels indicate missing, incomplete, or weakly verifiable production evidence.
| Level | Evidence basis | Typical use | Known limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| HMP-0 | Absent provenance package or unsigned metadata only. | Unverified catalog material. | Insufficient positive evidence for human-made claims. |
| HMP-1 | Signed self-declaration plus credits or similar metadata. | Indie releases, legacy catalog, non-conforming DAWs. | Honesty-based and only weakly technical. |
| HMP-2 | HMP-conforming DAW log for capture, MIDI, imports, edits, plugins, renders, and export. | First practical product standard. | External files can still enter with incomplete origin evidence. |
| HMP-3 | Input-time capture receipts for important audio and MIDI material. | Vocals, instruments, remote musicians, field recordings. | Confirms the capture process; human performance claims require additional context. |
| HMP-4 | Essential creative ingredients are verified, certified, or explicitly declared as exceptions through the chain. | Labels, sync, distributors, collecting societies, competitions. | Requires compatible tooling across collaborators. |
| HMP-5 | HMP-4 plus hardware-backed keys, certified devices, identity credentials, and third-party or studio audit. | Litigation, acquisitions, archives, advertising, awards. | Higher cost and greater workflow burden. |
DAW-native workflow
The DAW has access to the production graph before it collapses into a final export. HMP therefore places the root of trust at project creation and records the relevant actions that transform takes, MIDI, imports, plugin outputs, bounces, stems, and masters into a final work.
Generate a Production ID, Project Instance ID, policy version, and hash-chained project log.
Record take receipts for audio and MIDI at the input path, including timing, device, format, source type, and hashes.
Classify every external ingredient before it becomes ordinary session material: verified, unverified, sample-library, licensed loop, declared AI, or risk state.
Preserve the relationship between source material, edits, tuning, stretching, plugin rendering, freeze, bounce, and derivative audio.
Move mixing, mastering, remote performance, and non-conforming DAW work through Transfer Packs that maintain the provenance chain.
Derive the HMP level only at export, after source coverage, process coverage, AI disclosure, continuity, and exceptions are evaluated.
Trust Pack and Audit Pack
The Trust Pack is the external unit of verification. It can be embedded, distributed as a sidecar folder or archive, or referenced through a repository. The public layer supports platform and listener review; the audit layer remains available for higher-assurance contexts.
Soft bindings
In HMP, watermarking functions as a resolver mechanism. The evidentiary record remains in the Trust Pack. The binding strategy uses three layers: container metadata when available, audio watermark or proof identifier when robust, and fingerprint plus repository lookup when files have been transformed.
Draft v0.1 scope
The v0.1 profile covers the evidence model, policy levels, import classifications, capture receipts, transfer packs, public and audit trust packs, C2PA mapping, DDEX RIN mapping, AI disclosure policy, and scope boundaries. Watermark robustness, hardware certification, legal guarantees, and absolute AI-free status remain reserved for later conformance work.