ISRCs: A Brief Introduction

What are ISRCs? What do they do? Do I need them?

At EmuBands we get a lot of enquiries regarding ISRCs: What they are? What do they do? Do I need them?

With that in mind we've put together our own introductory guide to ISRCs, answering some of the most common questions that we get asked by artists and labels about ISRCs and how they relate to distribution.

In this blog we will look to cover the below:

1. What is an ISRC?
2. What do ISRCs do?
3. Do my tracks need to have ISRCs before I can distribute my music to iTunes?
4. Where can I get ISRCs?
5. Do my ISRCs need to be embedded into the audio files I supply for distribution?

1. What is an ISRC?

International Standard Recording Code

ISRCs are made up of 4 parts, here's an example.

GB - EMU - 12 - 00001

GB is the Country Code and identifies the country of residence of the registrant.
EMU is the Registrant Code and identifies the person or company assigning the ISRC.
12 is the Year of Reference and identifies the year in which an ISRC is assigned.
00001 is the Designation Code and is assigned by the registrant, normally sequentially.

2. What do ISRCs do?

Almost every time a recording is used, a royalty is generated. By allowing sound recordings and music videos to be identified uniquely, ISRC codes allow these royalties to be reported accurately worldwide.

Here are a few examples of where ISRC codes are used;

* Digital retailers such as iTunes reference ISRCs to assign and report royalties.
* Collection agencies such as PPL reference ISRC codes to assign and report royalties.

3. Do my tracks need to have ISRCs before I can distribute my music to iTunes?

Yes. All online retailers including iTunes, Amazon MP3 and Spotify require an ISRC to be assigned to each track. The ISRCs for your tracks are supplied to retailers along with all other metadata relating to your release, i.e. track titles, durations, genre etc.

4. Where can I get ISRC codes?

At EmuBands we can assign ISRCs completely free of charge for your tracks should you require these. If you would like us to do this for you, you can simply leave the ISRC field blank when adding your release.

Alternatively, if you are a UK resident you can join PPL (www.ppluk.com) who will then assign to you a unique registrant code. You can then use your registrant code to generate your own ISRCs for your recordings.

If you are based outside of the UK and wish to assign your own ISRCs, you should contact your local or national licensing body. The IFPI provide a list of these which you can access here here.

5. Do my ISRCs need to be embedded into the audio files I supply for distribution?

No. ISRCs are generally supplied to retailers as part of the release's metadata, not as part of the audio file. With EmuBands, you will be asked to confirm the ISRC for each of your tracks when adding the release to your account; this means that we do not require ISRCs to be embedded within your audio.

Hopefully you will have found the above information useful as an introduction to ISRCs; what they are and how they relate to the distribution of your music.

Should you have any questions, please ask by commenting below or by getting in touch on Facebook or Twitter.

We would also recommend reading the IFPI's ISRC handbook, which you can download as a free PDF here.

About EmuBands:
EmuBands is a digital music distribution service allowing artists and record labels to sell music online.