The International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) is an international standard code for uniquely identifying sound recordings and music video recordings. The code was developed by the recording industry in conjunction with the

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

technical committee 46, subcommittee 9 (TC 46/SC 9), which codified the standard as ISO 3901 in 1986, and updated it in 2001. An ISRC identifies a particular ''recording'', not the work (composition and lyrical content) itself. Therefore, different recordings, edits, and remixes of the same work should each have their own ISRC. Works are identified by ISWC. Recordings remastered or revised in other ways are usually assigned a new ISRC.

History

ISO 3901 was completed in 1986. In 1988, the

IFPI The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a non-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland and founded in Italy in 1 ...

recommended that its member companies adopt ISRCs for music videos. In 1989, the ISO designated the IFPI as the

registration authority Registration authorities exist for many standards organizations, such as ANNA (Association of National Numbering Agencies for ISIN), the Object Management Group, W3C, IEEE and others. In general, registration authorities all perform a similar fun ...

for ISRCs. The IFPI, in turn, delegated part of the administration of ISRCs to several dozen national agencies, which allocate ISRCs to both

record companies A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produc ...

and individuals. The national agencies began assigning ISRCs for music videos in August 1989. The Japanese recording industry began encoding ISRCs on

audio CD Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA or CD-DA), also known as Digital Audio Compact Disc or simply as Audio CD, is the standard format for audio compact discs. The standard is defined in the ''Red Book'', one of a series of Rainbow Books (named ...

s in November 1989. The IFPI and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) then developed detailed recommendations for this practice, and for ISRC assignment in general. The IFPI adopted the recommendations in March 1991 and they went into effect for IFPI members on 1 January 1992.

Format

ISRC codes are always 12 characters long, in the form "CC-XXX-YY-NNNNN". The hyphens are not part of the ISRC code itself, but codes are often presented that way in print to make them easier to read. The four parts are as follows: * "CC" is the appropriate two-character country code for the ISRC issuer. The code is assigned according to the ISO 3166-1-Alpha-2 standard. (High demand for ISRCs within the United States has caused the supply of available registrant codes to become exhausted; after December 6, 2010, new registrants in the US use country code "QM". The codes "CP" and "DG" are reserved for further overflow, and "ZZ" is reserved for codes assigned by the International ISRC Agency. Further additions continue to be made.) * "XXX" is a three character alphanumeric registrant code of the ISRC issuer. This number by itself does NOT uniquely identify the ISRC issuer as the same 3-digit registrant code may be used in various countries for different issuers. To uniquely identify an issuer, the country code and registrant code should be used together. * "YY" represent the last two digits of the reference year – the year that the ISRC was assigned to the recording. This is not necessarily the date the recording was made. * "NNNNN" is a 5-digit number that identifies the particular sound or video recording, unique within the scope of the reference year. Example: A recording of the song "

Crazy Eyes ''Crazy Eyes'' is the fifth studio album (and sixth album overall) released by the American country rock band Poco. Released in 1973, ''Crazy Eyes'' was the album with which founding member Richie Furay ended his original tenure with the group. ...

" by American duo

Daryl Hall & John Oates Daryl Hall and John Oates, commonly known as Hall & Oates, are an American pop rock duo formed in Philadelphia in 1970. Daryl Hall is generally the lead vocalist; John Oates primarily plays electric guitar and provides backing vocals. The two ...

has been allocated the ISRC code USRC17607839: * US for

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

* RC1 for

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

* 76 for 1976 * 07839 as the unique id identifying this particular recording

Embedding ISRC in files

ISRC may be embedded in most file formats as metadata. Example formats include MP3, M4A, AAC, FLAC, and WAV for audio and MP4 or M4V for video. * The standard for the ID3v2.2 tag that was designed for use in

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

files, was published in March 2019 and defined a way to embed ISRCs in a 'TSRC' frame. * In August 2020, the European Broadcasting Union published a specification for embedding ISRCs in

Broadcast Wave Format Broadcast Wave Format (BWF) is an extension of the popular Microsoft WAV audio format and is the recording format of most file-based non-linear digital recorders used for motion picture, radio and television production. It was first specified b ...

, a WAV-with-metadata format. * Audio CDs defined by the Red Book may also embed ISRC as part of the

CD-Text CD-Text is an extension of the Red Book Compact Disc specifications standard for audio CDs. It allows storage of additional information (e.g. album name, song name, and artist name) on a standards-compliant audio CD. The specification for CD ...

information. Metadata formats are not generally interchangeable as format converters may fail to translate the data. As a result, it is recommended to perform the embedding separately for each format.

Obtaining ISRCs

The provision of ISRCs is overseen by appointe
national ISRC agencies
These national ISRC agencies issue codes directly to the public and may also utilize authorized ISRC Managers to issue ISRCs. In the United States, the appointed agency is RIAA. ISRC codes can be obtained in large blocks directly from RIAA for an administrative fee ($95 at time of this publication), in quantities as little as 1 fro
ISRC.com
($2-$5), or in conjunction with other music-related services from other authorized ISRC managers. In territories where there is no national ISRC agency, users can obtain ISRC codes directly from IFPI or fro
ISRC.com
an
Quansic

References

External links