Playlog data structure

I have heard that there is a proposed standard being discussed with regard to details to be included in playlogs. The interesting part of this proposal is that it apparently requires the recording of the start and stop times for every track played.

Immediate reaction - excellent data.

Considered reaction - this is unworkable except for small networks. Lets see, with average track play length of 30 seconds on a network that runs for 12 hours per day that would mean 1,440 references to the track name, 1,440 start times and 1,440 stop times just for one screen. For a reasonable network of 1,000 screens that is going to mean over 4 million data items a day, and that is not even a very large network.

I'll think on this but as it stands I fail to see the justification for such a proposal. Certainly it is not required by people I speak to in the advertising industry - and for data mining it is simple data overload.

I do see that being able to properly report the number of plays during particular periods is useful.