When a new title is introduced into our system it is ingested and automatically correlated to a master title. There are two ways to ingest a title into STOREFRONT:
- Automated title correlation - the new data source are identified and compared to all master title records to see if a match exists
- Manual title correlation - If no match can be determined, it will need to be manually correlated
Note: 60-75% passes automatic correlation and the remainder go through manual review
Correlation from a Retailer
When pulling titles from a retailer, STOREFRONT keys off of the below fields in order to identify a master:
- Title
- Release Year (+/- 1 year) (if present)
- EIDR (if present)
- Runtime
- Cast/Crew (if present)
For every title, STOREFRONT compares the above fields to all master instances to see if it can find a match.
The below is an example for the title Blade Runner on iTunes:
STOREFRONT automatically looks for all master titles to see if there are any exact matches with the above data.
Once it finds one that matches, it automatically correlates this title to that master title.
Manual title correlation
There are occasions where the data from the retailer does not match the master title record exactly. Master title records are generated from the first title instance that comes up. If a title record differs from what has already been created, then the programmatic correlation is unable to determine an exact match.
For example, on iTunes, the below title is called Lolita malgre moi:
The master title record in STOREFRONT is Mean Girls:
If the title is not able to be correlated programmatically, then the title is pushed to a queue for manual review.
In this manual correlation queue, STOREFRONT correlation operators are presented with titles from the retailers that have no master title. They have the ability to search the database for existing titles to see if any corresponding master title record exists. If a master record is found, then the avail record is manually correlated.
For example, the master title below, Mean Girls has various cuts and versions which are all listed under this main master title.
