ISRC
More info
- Type
- Identifier
- Spec
- ISO 3901
- Released
- 1986
Twelve characters that identify a specific recording, not the song, and decide who gets paid when it is played.
Standardised as ISO 3901 in 1986, the code looks like SE-ABC-26-00001: country code, a three-character registrant, a two-digit year and a five-digit serial. It is written into a CD's subcode during mastering, carried in audio file metadata, and is the key that streaming services and collecting societies count plays against.
The distinction between recording and work is the whole point. A re-recording, a remaster or a radio edit gets a new ISRC, while the composition keeps its own code in a separate system. Anyone who uploads the same file twice with different codes has thereby split their audience — and their income — across two apparently unrelated tracks.